by Sarah Shaw
14 These attributes include ones that we have already encountered in the stories. The higher knowledges are the psychic powers described in the Samannaphala Sutta (D I 77–85), which include the ability to make a mind-made body, to walk on water, etc., to hear the gods, to see with the clairvoyant eye, and knowledge of the past lives of oneself and others. The last of the six is the knowledge of the destruction of the corruptions (asavas). The ten powers are those that are possessed by the Buddha, described in the Mahasihanada Sutta (M I 68ff), which also involves Sunakkhatta. The four bases of confidence (vessarajja, given in full in M I 71) are the highest knowledge, the recognition of the obstacles, recognition and teaching the way to salvation. Knowledge of the limit of the four kinds of birth is whether a birth is egg-born, viviparous, water-born or spontaneous. The knowledge of the five possible rebirths after death are the ability to discern whether rebirth will be as a hell being, animal, peta (or ghost), human or god.
15 This is fourfold as it involves the traditional four stages of life: as learner, householder, religious practitioner and sannyasin.
16 The word is bahiraka—‘outsider’ and, as it is in the time of a Buddha, hence non-Buddhist.
17 At the time of the Buddha this was community founded by Makkhali Gosala, who is mentioned in the Samannaphala Sutta (D I 53) as one of the six ascetics who do not answer the questions put to them by king Ajatasattu.
18 The text refers to the ‘eights’, probably a reference to the last four days of the month of Megha (February) and the four at the beginning of Phagguna (March), which would be very cold. See CPD II 241–2 and DP I 148.
19 According to the, abhidhamma a sign (nimitta) might arise just before death indicating the nature of the forthcoming rebirth: so a knife might appear to a murderer indicating his future rebirth in a bad destiny or light to someone about to be reborn in a heaven realm. As this story indicates even at this point change is possible.
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The story of the great king of glory
Mahasudassana Jataka (95)
Vol. I, 391–3
The Mahasudassana story, given here, is a simple account of the end of the glorious reign of a universal monarch, who rules by dhamma, not force. Its verse was made famous in the nineteenth century by the great Pali scholar, Thomas Rhys Davids, when he said that it distilled the essence of Buddhist philosophy. 1 The story is told elsewhere in Buddhist texts: the corresponding Mahasudassana Sutta (Dighanikaya) describes, just before the death of the Buddha, the flowering of possibilities of the human realm and the happiness that can be experienced in the worldly life. 2 The idea of a ‘wheel-turning monarch’ may have been mythical but such a destiny, predicted as a possible alternative for the Buddha at his birth, was felt to represent the most glorious kind of lay existence. The emergence of such an ideal was also reflected in the aspirations of King Asoka. 3 The sutta is composed just like a Jataka story, down to the connections made at the end. It is a visionary description of a utopian city and palace, constructed with walls, stairs and pools made of the seven kinds of gems and a populace happy through adhering to the dhamma: a bountiful king produces a spacious, bountiful kingdom around himself. The extended visualization of the sutta also includes description of the monarch’s seven treasures, which are the wheel, the elephant, the horse, the jewel, the woman, the treasurer and the adviser. These treasures can be seen depicted at Amaravati in a scene showing another rebirth where the Bodhisatta is a universal monarch, as Mandhatu (Jataka 258). 4 Two are mentioned in the story here: the woman treasure, an earlier rebirth of Rahulamata, his wife, and the adviser treasure, his son Rahula in an earlier life. The Basket of Conduct (Cariyapitaka) also alludes to the Mahasudassana birth and links it with the perfection of generosity, describing the king as making great donations to his people and constantly searching out and helping those in need of food or water. 5 It is curious that the Jataka is so different in tone from both other versions of the story, perhaps through an assumption that these would be known anyway. It simply evokes the themes of impermanence and acceptance, which are presented in a sober and dignified way.
One feature of the tale is the mention of nibbana here at the end, also in the sutta. One might think there would be no dhamma talks about nibbana in the absence of a Buddha but this does not seem to be the case. 6 Given the parallel in the story from the present, when the Buddha is about to leave the world of men, such a teaching is particularly suitable.
Story from the present
‘Impermanent indeed are conditioned things!’
The Teacher told this story while lying on the bed in which he attained his full enlightenment, the entry into complete nibbana. 7 It concerned a statement that the Exalted One should not be in such an insignificant village. ‘While the Thus-gone has been staying at the Jetavana Grove the elder Sariputta, born in Nala town, has entered complete nibbana in Varaka during the full moon of Kattik and the great Moggallana has entered complete nibbana in the dark fortnight of the same month. 8 So the pair of my chief disciples have now attained to nibbana: I will enter complete nibbana in Kusinara,’ he said. In due course he travelled for alms, went to Kusinara and lay down on a northern couch, never to rise again. And then the venerable Ananda pleaded, ‘Sir, the Exalted One should not enter complete nibbana in this rough, insignificant little village, a jungle village, a village in the back of beyond! The Exalted One should do so in one of the other great cities such as Rajagaha.’ The Teacher replied, ‘Do not say, Ananda, that this is an insignificant village, a jungle village, a village in the back of beyond! I once ruled this town, in the time of the wheel-turning monarch Mahasudassana. At that time it was a great city encircled by a jewelled rampart of twelve leagues.’ Saying this, at the request of the elder, he told the Mahasudassana Sutta.
Story from the past
At that time, when Mahasudassana had descended from the palace of dhamma, Queen Subhadda saw him on a suitable bed, made of the seven kinds of jewels, that had been laid out for him near the khadira forest. 9 He was lying on his right side with the intention of never getting up again. ‘Lord, there are these eighty-four thousand cities, the foremost of which is Kusavati, the royal seat. Set your heart here.’ When she had said this Mahasudassana replied, ‘Do not say this, queen, but advise me rather: give up your desire for this and do not have longing’. ‘Why is this?’ the queen asked. ‘Because today I am to die.’ And then the queen, weeping, wiped her eyes and, with difficulty and in distress, said what he had asked, crying and grieving. And the other eighty-four thousand wives cried and grieved, and not one amongst the ministers and the rest could endure it, and so they all wept too. The Bodhisatta, restraining everyone, said, ‘Enough, to be sure! Do not make this noise.’ Addressing the queen, he said, ‘Do not you cry and grieve, O queen. Even something as little as the fruit of a sesame tree is compounded and not permanent. So all things are impermanent and subject to destruction.’ Saying this, he gave advice to the queen and spoke the following verse:
1. ‘Impermanent indeed are conditioned things!
For they partake in birth and old age.
What arises, ceases;
Happy is the calming of these things.’
Thus Mahasudassana brought his talk to its peak with his teaching of the deathless, the great nibbana, and gave this advice to the people who remained: ‘Be generous, guard your virtue and keep the uposatha.’ He then found his end in a heaven realm.
The Teacher gave this talk and made the connections with the birth: ‘At that time Rahula’s mother was Queen Subhadda; the treasure of the advisor was Rahula, 10 the Buddha’s assembly were the rest of the people and I was Mahasudassana.’
Notes
1 See discussion of the Hibbert Lectures, C. Allen, The Buddha and the Sahibs: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion (London: John Murray, 2002), p. 241. Rhys Davids writes on the relationship between the Jataka and the sutta in his introduction to his translation, Dialogues of the Buddha, 3 vols (London, 1st published 1910; 4
th edn, 1959), II, pp. 192–8.
2 Mahasudassana Sutta, no. 17 (D II 169–98). The sutta is an expansion of a conversation that occurs in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, no. 16 (D II 146–7).
3 On kingship in early Buddhism see Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities, pp. 414–96; Basham, The Wonder That Was India, p. 80ff and H.P. Ray, The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia (Cambridge: CUP, 2003), pp. 133–6. For the application of the ideal of a just kingship in King Asoka’s reign, see the series of essays in A. Seneviratna, King Asoka and Buddhism: Historical and Literary Studies (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1994).
4 J II 310–14.
5 Translated in I.B. Horner, Basket of Conduct, pp. 4–5 (Cp I. 4).
6 As a golden peacock, for instance, the Bodhisatta teaches a king about nibbana in Jataka 159 (J II 38).
7 The death of the Buddha is traditionally termed the full enlightenment, or parinibbana, as at this point he relinquishes the body that has sustained the last vestiges of his kamma. This has been translated as ‘complete nibbana’ to distinguish it from the momentary experience of nibbana attained at enlightenment.
8 For death of Sariputta and Moggallana, see Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker, Bhikkhu Bodhi ed., Great Disciples of the Buddha, their lives, their works, their legacy (Boston and Kandy: Wisdom, 2003), pp. 47–54 and p. 100.
9 I have followed a Sinhalese manuscript (Cv) for this. See SED 438 (tamala).
10 Rahula, the Buddha’s son in his last lifetime, is here the last of the seven ‘treasures’ of the universal monarch, the adviser (see D II 177).
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The story of more than a thousand
Parosahassa Jataka (99)
Vol. I, 405–7
In Jataka stories the aspect of wisdom (panna) is often explored in a pragmatic way that presents it as a highly developed canniness or common sense. When the Bodhisatta is applying what is called wisdom, he is often making what we would regard as a careful assessment of the situation when others are not. In this case it is Sariputta who is exhibiting this important quality. In his last life Sariputta is the Buddha’s chief disciple and is foremost amongst his followers in the excellence of his wisdom (mahapanna). 1 In the Pali canon his name at the beginning of a talk is usually a key that there will be some precise analysis of the subject in question, explained in great detail. 2 In art he is often shown on the right of the Buddha while the other chief disciple, Moggallana, whose expertise is in calm meditation (samatha), is on the left. In this story his wisdom lies in simply paying attention to what the Bodhisatta actually said. The joke is in the use of the word nothing. The Sphere of Nothingness is, in the Buddhist tradition, one of the highest formless meditations, the seventh jhana.
Story from the present
‘Over a thousand meeting fools together’
While staying at the Jetavana Grove the Teacher told a story about a question asked by fools. The incident will be told in the Sarabhanga Jataka (522). 3 Now, one time the monks met together in the dhamma hall. They sat down and discussed the excellence of Sariputta. ‘Friend! Sariputta, the general of the teaching, explains the meaning of a pithy remark by the Buddha,’ one said to another. The Teacher came in and asked them what they had been discussing while they had been together and they told him. ‘It is not just now, bhikkhus, that Sariputta explains in detail something I have said. He used to do it before too.’ And he narrated this story of long ago.
Story from the past
Once upon a time in Varanasi, in the reign of Brahmadatta, the Bodhisatta was born into a Brahmin family in the north-west. He learned all kinds of craft at Taxila and, abandoning sense pleasures, went forth as a holy man and lived in the Himalayan regions practising the five knowledges and the eight attainments. He had a following of five hundred ascetics. His elder pupil took a half of the group of holy men at the time of the rains and went to the places where men lived to obtain salt and pickles. Then the time for death came for the Bodhisatta and his pupils asked him about his level of attainment: 4‘What excellence have you obtained?’ ‘It was nothing,’ 5he said and was reborn in the realm of the Gods of Streaming Radiance. 6For, Bodhisattas, even though they may have attained to the highest state, are never reborn in a formless sphere heaven because they do not go beyond the realm of form. 7The pupils thought that their teacher had not achieved any attainment and did not pay their respects at his cremation. The elder disciple returned and asked, ‘Where is our teacher?’ He was told he was dead. ‘Did you ask him about his attainment?’ ‘We certainly did,’ they replied. ‘And what did he say?’ ‘He said he had obtained nothing! So we did not pay any respects to him,’ they answered. ‘You do not understand what he meant by this,’ the elder pupil said. ‘Our teacher had attained to the Sphere of Nothingness.’ Although he explained this to them repeatedly they still did not have confidence in him. The Bodhisatta, knowing what had happened, said, ‘Blind fools! They do not have confidence in my chief disciple. I’ll make this matter clear to them.’ So he came down from the Brahma realm and, through his great powers, positioned himself in the sky, with his feet over the top of the monastery and, explaining the power of his wisdom, he recited this verse:
1. ‘Over a thousand fools might, meeting together, grieve for a century;
It is better to have just one man with wisdom, who understands the meaning of what has been said.’
So the Great Being, standing in the sky, taught the dhamma and having woken the gathering of ascetics up he returned to the Brahma sphere. And the ascetics, at the end of their lives, were reborn in heaven realms too.
The Teacher gave this talk about the teaching and made the connection with the story:
‘At that time Sariputta was the elder disciple, and I was the great Mahabrahma’.
Notes
1 A I 23.
2 Other arahats simply emerge from a meditation state. Sariputta describes in exhaustive detail all the factors that are present in it. See Anupada Sutta, no. 111(M III 25).
3 The story from the present in this Jataka describes the terrible death of Moggallana at the hands of thieves; the one from the past also includes accounts of where people have been reborn after death.
4 It is not customary for monks to speak of their own attainments in meditation, except when reporting on them to a teacher. According to literary custom the moment of death is a time when such attainments may be made known to one’s followers if they ask.
5 N’atthi kinci. This is not the best translation, but the nearest in English to get the sense of apparent deprecation.
6 This is the highest of the three heavens in which one may be reborn after the attainment of the second jhana, which is characterized by joy, happiness and one-pointedness.
7 A rebirth in a formless realm based on Nothingness is 60,000 aeons, which is of an even longer period of time than in the form-sphere heaven, the highest of which lasts 16,000 aeons. The Realm of Streaming Radiance, with a lifespan of eight aeons, would not be considered too long for the Bodhisatta to be away from the round of samsara.
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The story of the draining bucket 1
Udancani Jataka (106)
Vol. I, 416–7
This is one of a number of stories in which young, impassioned monks are dissuaded from returning to unsuitable girls by the Bodhisatta, perhaps an indication that some tales were intended as entertainment and even consolation for a monastic audience. 2 The story is one of sixteen Jatakas carved onto the earliest components of the railing at Bodh Gaya, probably in the first century BCE. There is certainly an element of misogyny in some Jataka stories, which, in common with folk tales from many areas of the world, seem to act as safety valves of various kinds. This one is surely intended to be humorous, however, and need not be taken as social comment or a serious reflection on the status of women: this would be to dismiss a strain in literature that has produced such extravagantly comic characters as the Wife of Bath or, recently, Hilda Rumpole! 3
&nb
sp; Story from the present
‘A happy life was mine!’
While staying in the Jetavana Grove the Teacher told a story about desire for a coarse girl. The subject will be explained in Culla Narada Kassapa Jataka in the thirteenth book. 4Then the Teacher asked that monk, ‘Is it true bhikkhu, as they say, that you are yearning?’ ‘It is true,’ he replied. ‘And where has your heart been ensnared?’ ‘For the sake of a certain coarse girl.’ ‘She is bringing you harm, bhikkhu. For, once before, you arrived at the destruction of your virtue because of her. Wavering, with a wandering mind, you found happiness only through wise men.’ When he had said this he narrated a story about long ago.
Story from the past
Once upon a time in Varanasi, when Brahmadatta was king, events happened which will be related in the Culla Narada Kassapa Jataka. But this time the Bodhisatta brought fruit in the evening and, opening the door to the leaf hut, said this to his son, the younger ascetic, ‘Dear one, on other days you brought wood and water and food and made a fire. But today you have not made one. Why do you lie, sad-faced and pining?’ ‘O father, when you were away gathering various fruits a certain woman came here. She wanted me and was pleased to go with me. But I would not go until you released me. So I got her to sit down at a certain spot and returned. And now I am going to go.’ The Bodhisatta realized that it was not possible to turn him back and replied, ‘Go then, son. She will lead you away [417] and when she wishes to eat fish and meat or ghee, or salt or rice and suchlike she’ll say to you, “Fetch this and that,” and she will tire you out. Then remember our group and run away and come right back here.’ So he went off in the ways of men. And when she had got him to go to her house, sure enough she did say, ‘Bring me meat, bring me fish!’ and got him to bring every single thing she wanted. ‘This lady oppresses and treats me as if I were her servant or slave,’ he thought. So he ran away and went back to his father and greeted him, saying this verse: