This 5-part series consists of Rev. Dr. Jăbō Prajñā’s lecture notes for a series of talks she is giving on Thursdays at Buddhamouse, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. For a more detailed biography of the Buddha, we recommend Buddha (Penguin Lives Biographies) by Karen Armstrong.

The Buddha met a rich businessman’s son who was wandering at night. He became a disciple, and brought 54 friends. They became Arhats. He sent them out to teach, while the Buddha went to teach King Bimbisara.

The Arhats brought so many converts, the Buddha taught them how to ordain more:

• Shave head
• Put on a saffron rove
• Kneel at the monks’ feet
• Take refuge

Three well-known teachers who involved the deities through fire arrived. The Buddha taught the three poisons by using fire. They converted and brought their 1,000 students.

The Buddha showed up with his 1,000+ disciples at King Bimbisara’s house. Bimbisara fed the Buddha by hand, and poured water over his hands from a golden picture. The King gave him land and his pleasure palace to convert into a monastery.

Sometime later, two Brahman were searching for immortality. One of them, Śāriputra, saw Ashvagit (one of the Buddha’s original five followers) as Ashvagit was out begging and walking in meditation. Ashvagit seemed to have a glow about him. Śāriputra asked him who is teacher was and what he taught. Ashvagit said that the Buddha was his teacher and that he taught the causes of things and the dissolution of things.

Śāriputra told his Brahman companion Maudgalyāyana, and the two of them went to find the Buddha. As they approached, the Buddha recognized that these two had already received direct transmission and would be among his chief disciples. Over time, Śāriputra became known as the foremost in insight and wisdom, and Maudgalyāyana was known as the foremost in supernatural powers.

Later, the Buddha was preparing to teach at Vulture Peak. A man named Pippali yelled from the back of the crowd, asking to take refuge. The Buddha welcomed him and Pippali basked in that blessing. Then the Buddha taught three of four sentences and held up a flower. No one understood what was happening, except, Pippali, who smiled.

This was the first mind-to-mind transmission and the foundation of Zen. The Buddha said, “I possess the true Dharma eye, the marvelous mind of Nirvana, the true form of the formless, the subtle dharma gate that does not rest on words or letters but is a special transmission outside of the scriptures. This I entrust to Mahākāśyapa.” The newly renamed monk went on to become an Arhat and the Buddha’s dharma heir. He was known as foremost in ascetic practices and held the First Buddhist Council three months after the Buddha’s death.

By now, word had gotten back to King Śuddhodana about his son’s achievements, and the King sent word asking the Buddha to visit. It was now seven years since Siddhârtha had left home. Śuddhodana had kids bearing flowers go out to the Buddha first. The kids bowed. The elders, however, did not. So the Buddha performed some miracles to get their respect: he shot water and fire out of his body, and made it rain from a cloudless sky. Now the elders bowed to him, including his own father.

The next day, the Buddha went on his daily begging rounds in his father’s neighborhood. This embarrassed Śuddhodana, who approached the Buddha about it. The Buddha taught his father about impermanence, and after that, the King went out and begged alongside his son. Śuddhodana had a feast at the palace and served the Buddha by hand.

The Buddha asked for Yasodharā. She came to him and prostrated. For the past seven years, she had followed news of him and had done all of the practices he had done.

The Buddha’s son, Rahula, now seven, asked for his inheritance. So the Buddha ordained him. Yasodharā was displeased that she had not been consulted first, and from that time forward, it has taken the consent of both parents to ordain a young monk. For his part, Rahula noted, “It feels good even to stand in your shadow.”

When the Buddha and his followers went on their way, many members of the Śâkya clan went with him, including two of his cousins. Ananda, whose name means “bliss,” would later become his attendant and be known as the foremost in hearing many teachings. Devadatta was jealous of the Buddha and became his enemy. He tried to found a stricter order than the Buddha’s and even tried to kill him.

The Buddha’s barber-turned-disciple Upali became the expert in the Vinaya, or monastic code. He had been born into the lowest caste and was the Buddha’s barber before the latter’s enlightenment. Upali was known as foremost in keeping the precepts and was the one to recite the Vinaya at the First Buddhist Council

The Buddha allowed monks to live in houses. Some, including Devadatta, criticized this policy. The Buddha did state what size the rooms could be when a house was built for a monk.

This 5-part series consists of Rev. Dr. Jăbō Prajñā’s lecture notes for a series of talks she is giving on Thursdays at Buddhamouse, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. For a more detailed biography of the Buddha, we recommend Buddha (Penguin Lives Biographies) by Karen Armstrong.

Siddhârtha begged and slept under trees. Until some of King Bimbisara’s men recognized him as King Śuddhodana’s son. They took him to Bimbisara, who told him to go home. Siddhârtha said he couldn’t; he was seeking. Bimbisara was so impressed, he offered to let Siddhârtha take over his kingdom. Siddhârtha still said no, but that he would come back and teach once he found the answer to his question.

Siddhârtha’s first teacher was Ananda Coloma. Siddhârtha learned so fast that Ananda Coloma asked him to be his lineage holder. Siddhârtha said no, he was still searching.

His second teacher was the yoga teacher Udrapa Rajapudra. Siddhârtha stayed longer this time, mastering the teachings. Again he was asked to be the lineage holder, and again he said no.

Siddhârtha tried several other teachers and eventually decided that teachers don’t have the answer, and to try asceticism with five old friends: Kaundinya, Bhadrika, Vashpa, Mahanaman, and Ashvagit. They competed with each other to push one another.

As Siddhârtha got stricter, he grew weaker. He was nearly washed away in a river while bathing. He remembered sitting under a rose-apple tree on the first day of planting as a child; his father was there, he’d felt a connection to the earth, and had experienced deep meditation, peace, and happiness.

He realized that the middle was is the path. He’d lived at both extremes and neither had worked. Meditation was the route! His friends saw this as slacking and, vowing never to speak to him again, left him.

He decided to eat something. A village woman named Sujātā, wearing a dark blue dress, saw his fall in the river. She offered him rice milk, the closest thing to mother’s milk. He accepted it, and the feminine, back into this life.

Siddhârtha started eating again and felt rested. After recovering in the home of Sujātā and her husband, he decided to meditate until he got his answer. After the heat of the day was passed, he crossed the river. There he met a grass cutter and asked for a bunch of grass to make a seat. With that, he sat under the bodhi tree, vowing not to get up until he reached enlightenment or died.

Mara appeared and said, “That’s my seat.” Siddhârtha replied that it was not Mara’s seat, but his own. Mara countered, “By what right?”

Siddhârtha answered, “By my work as a Bodhisattva.”

“Who’s your witness?” Mara asked.

Siddhârtha said, “The earth.” He reached down and touched the earth, and the earth goddess reached up and touched her fingertips to his. Then she came up from the ground and shook the world in an earthquake.

Siddhârtha continued to sit in meditation, so Mara sent his daughters. This represents the sexual desire in the future Buddha’s mind. He neither grasped after them nor pushed them away; he just sat. Mara asked for help from the god of love. The god pulled out his bow made of humming bees and shot the arrow of desire at Siddhârtha’s heart. But it fell short.

Mara sent his warriors after Siddhârtha, but still he continued to sit.

During the First Watch of the night, Siddhârtha saw suffering arising. The watcher in his mind opened and he saw the interconnectedness of all things, the 12-Link Chain of Dependent Origination.

During the Second Watch, the night went silent. He saw the universe as a mirror, and beings being born and passing away according to their karma. He saw causality. Siddhârtha relinquished the watcher and his mind opened. He turned his mind inward to look at his question.

“When this is present, that comes to be. From the arising of this, that arises. When this is absent, that does not come to be.”

Siddhârtha asked “Who is it that senses?” But then he realized there is a better question: “With what as a condition does sensation occur?” Instead of asking, “Who is it that is reborn?” ask, “With what as a condition does birth occur?”

During the Third Watch of the night, Siddhârtha realized that there was a way out of suffering. He understood how dependent arising can be a cause of liberation.

During the Fourth Watch, he realized that the way out was what came to be called the Noble 8-Fold Path.

At dawn, seeing all of his past rebirths, Siddhârtha saw the last traces of ignorance. As the first star of the morning came out, he saw the underlying truth of reality, the way things are; and through that realization, he was liberated.

Now known as the Buddha, the Awakened One, he thought his approach was too alien to teach. He wandered for six weeks before the deva Samapati asked him to teach in order to save others. The Buddha had been waiting for someone to ask him to teach.

The Buddha went to the Deer Park at Sarnath, a hangout for yogis and seekers. Seven weeks after his enlightenment, he ran into this five friends and taught them the Four Noble Truths and the 8-Fold Path.

Refuge was the first Buddhist ceremony. The Buddha’s friend Condinya, a Brahman, was the first of the Buddha’s followers and the first to take ordination. “Live the holy life in order to completely end suffering.” His other four friends joined soon after and became the nucleus of the sangha. All of them attained Arhatship.

This 5-part series consists of Rev. Dr. Jăbō Prajñā’s lecture notes for a series of talks she is giving on Thursdays at Buddhamouse, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. For a more detailed biography of the Buddha, we recommend Buddha (Penguin Lives Biographies) by Karen Armstrong.

Siddhârtha Gotama had been a Bodhisattva in previous lives.

As Sumedha, he met the Buddha Dîpa.nkara. Sumedha wanted to bring a flower offering, but all the vendors had sold out. He asked a woman to give him hers, but she refused. Seeing him as a holy man on a good path, she said she would give him half of her flowers if he married her. Sumedha had taken monks’ vows, so was not free to marry. He offered to marry him in his next life. They negotiated that he would be together in every future life until they were both liberated, and she gave him half of her flowers – so she could still make her own offering.

Sumedha threw himself in the mud for Dîpa.nkara to walk over. Dîpa.nkara prophesied that Sumedha would become a Buddha.

Born into Tushita Heaven as T’Shang Ke-two. There for thousands of years. A sound came indicating that a Buddha was about to be born. The gods asked him to be that Buddha, so he want to a grove and died.

His mother’s dream: a white elephant with 6 tusks entered her body from her side; she became pregnant.

Brahman’s prophesy: baby would become either a universal monarch (great king), or a Buddha.

King Śuddhodana was the father. He may have been an elected leader. The townspeople were called “sanghas.”

Names:

• Śâkyamuni:
•      Muni: “wise one”
•      Sâkya: tribe’s name
• Gotama: family name
• Siddhârtha: given name 

563 BC to 483 BC

Foothills of Nepal

Mother went to a grove that she had loved as a young woman to give birth on the full moon. She walked, gave birth standing, holding on to a tree.

Tree: the first symbol associated with the Buddha.

Baby came out of her armpit in some stories.

There was an earthquake, then Siddhârtha took 7 steps in each of the 4 directions. He said, “I am leader and guide of the world and this is my last birth.”

When he was 5 days old, there was a party and naming.

When he was 7 days old, his mother, Maya, died.

Prajâpatî, his aunt, became his step-mother.

Śuddhodana didn’t want Siddhârtha to renounce the world, so he kept him from seeing any suffering. Classic parental mistake of over-protection. Siddhârtha grew up surrounded by luxury and comfort.

At 16, he married his cousin Yasodharā, also 16. They shared the same birthday, and had known one another since the was Sumedha.

Over the next 12 years, he started wondering about the nature of reality.

Normally, the road was cleaned when he went out. However, he took a spontaneous trop with his charioteer, Chandaka, and saw an old man. Siddhârtha got scared and wanted to go home.

On his next outing, he saw a sick person leaning on other, howling in pain. Home again.

Next outing: funeral with corpse being carried. Went home, but had seen too much to return to the state of innocence.

He felt betrayed by his father. Shocked by seeing things all at once instead of gradually.

Next outing, he saw a saddhu/sage, and the seed was planted.

Siddhârtha was dissatisfied with palace life after his outings. His father took him to a farm to talk. It backfired: Siddhârtha saw the suffering of the slaves, oxen, and insects. Siddhârtha freed the slaves and detached the oxen from the plows.

Yasodharā had a son, Rahula. After a party, people were passed out drunk and drooling, the flowers were faded, the dishes dirty. Siddhârtha decided to leave that night. Yasodharā woke up and told Siddhârtha she’d had a dream he was leaving. He told her, “Wherever I go, you can go, too.”

Siddhârtha asked Chandaka to muffle the feet of the horse and come for him. It was a full moon. Chandaka brought Siddhârtha’s favorite horse, Kanthaka. Siddhârtha looked back at the palace from the last hill. The demon Mara appeared and said, “Go back, and I’ll make you the universal monarch in seven days.” Not now, but soon. Then, then, then…

Mara is within the Buddha, his shadow self.

Siddhârtha said, “Mara, I know you. What I need is not there.
At dawn, they came to a river. Siddhârtha asked Chandaka to cut off his hair. He traded clothes with a hunter and gave his jewelry to Chandaka. They he sent Chandaka away with his horse.

Siddhârtha’s question: What is the cause of suffering?