Thursday, 03/20/2025
Articles about Buddha
Buddha’s birthday – the source of compassion and equality
Update: 11/05/2008
Starting from the Buddha’s birthday, an ideological\r\nrevolution was also brought into the world - it was the\r\nappearance of a crown-prince who was not attracted by material luxuries among\r\nimperial palaces. Yes, it was the crown-prince Siddhartha who was early\r\nenlightened before such interminable human incarnations as birth, aging,\r\nillness, and death. At the age of twenty-nine and during a dark night, together\r\nwith his coachman named Chandaka, the crown-prince left the imperial city\r\nbehind and was determined to search for the truth. The next morning, after\r\nseeing that they had left the city far enough, the prince got off the coach,\r\nchanged his prince clothes and ordered the coachman to take them back to the\r\npalace - he just took on a yellow shirt and took in his\r\narms an alms-bowl with decisively turning against the regal life of an imperial\r\nfamily, said good bye to Chandaka and walked on the miserably hard road ahead\r\nof him.
\r\n\r\nAfter spending six years long in deprivations and miseries\r\nwith various methods of cultivation with many different masters, the\r\ncrown-prince was not satisfied with the quest and went on and on. Finally, he\r\nconcluded that those masters were not able to escape from the circle of\r\nignorance. From this conclusion, he no longer relied on any outside master.\r\nInstead, he turned inside himself to look for the truth.
\r\n\r\nThe fight against himself was extremely difficult. With the\r\nbelief that without leading a harsh life, he could never reach his aim, the\r\nprince decided to shut himself in an extremely serious discipline by living in\r\nan ascetic life with putting on his body just a piece of cloth and eating a\r\nlittle quantity of dried seeds and vegetables to the extent that his previously\r\nimpressesive body now became very skinny. But, such an ill-treating way of life\r\ndid not give him any expected results. Finally, he concluded that a luxurious\r\nlife would lead a person down to his lowest level while an ascetic life would\r\nlead him to be in weary in body and mind, which results him in lacking his\r\nwillingness to do great things. From this conclusion, he chose the middle way\r\nof cultivation for himself which had neither extremities that overindulge or\r\nenslave our bodies nor our sensual desires; instead, it gave the balance of our\r\nlife necessities. This middle way in Buddhism is still practised by many\r\nBuddhist practioners up to today.
\r\n\r\nFrom such a discovery, the prince stopped maltreating his\r\nbody by accepting some frugal foods offered by donators. His health state\r\ntherefore became gradually improved without any supernatural need.
\r\n\r\nAfter 49 days and nights of meditation at a foot of a\r\nbodhi-tree, the prince suddenly became enlightened at daybreak when the morning\r\nstar flashed in the sky - he became the Great Enlightened\r\nand said the first words right after his Enlightening, “Through various lives\r\nin turning around the wheel of life, I - Tathagata - did\r\ngo spaciously on and on but could not meet the expected life. I looked for the\r\nworker who built this house. Human life is really sorrowful. Dear the builder!\r\nI have found you, and from now on you will no longer have to build it for me as\r\nall the house-frames as well as its ridge-beams made up by you are now\r\ndestroyed. I have attained without appearance and disappearance, and also\r\ndestroyed all desires.†(After the Dhammapada sutra, the sentences numbered\r\n153-154) and The Sublime Declaration: “I am the finished Buddha, and\r\nliving beings will become future Buddhas.â€
\r\n\r\nThe term living beings here does not only mean\r\nhuman ones but includes all living species created in various forms and places,\r\nfor all living species have their senses - that means\r\nthey all have sufferings, love and fear and wish to live on. His declaration\r\nhas been echoing absolute compassion and equality for all living species. His\r\nwere not just empty words but he did apply them into all his propagation life\r\nof the true Dharma.
\r\n\r\nIn India it rains a lot in summer, therefore insects grow\r\nabundantly thanks to humidity. Accordingly, the Buddha created a season called\r\nVarsa ‘peaceful residing during the summer retreat’ (from the 15th of lunar\r\nApril to the 15th of lunar July) aiming at keeping Buddhist monks and nuns from\r\ngoing outside because this may lead to trampling upon insects.
\r\n\r\nFrom his boundless compassion, he invented the rule\r\nforbiding monks and nuns not to chop down or dig trees for fear that these\r\nactivities may kill micro-organisms. The reason for such a rule to be performed\r\nwas simply that during the time the Buddha was still alive in India the sangha\r\njust held their alms-bowls to get daily donations for their living - they\r\nwere not able to plant anything for their food.
\r\n\r\nThe Buddha promulgated the rule called no slaughtering aiming\r\nat preventing people not to kill animals by themselves or to incite others to\r\nkill animals. The main reason for such a rule was that he required everybody to\r\nhighly evaluate the natural living existence of all species.
\r\n\r\nHe also accused all forms of destruction of existence. When\r\nstill alive he was determinedly against any forms of offering sacrifices\r\nperformed by Brahmanism - killing ill-fated animals to offer deities. He also\r\naccused the kings’ pleasures of hunting. And, of course, he opposed all forms\r\nof war and riots, instead. He promoted the non-violence spirit. He said that\r\nhatred cannot be destroyed by itself; only pity can annihilate hatred. If there\r\nis no compassion or pity, hatred will remain piled up from this generation to\r\nanother. Only compassion or pity can annihilate injustices and human sufferings\r\nas well.
\r\n\r\n3/Once the Buddha was preaching to Anathapindika on the\r\nmerits of offering. He said, “You will get great merits when you offer things\r\nto Buddha and the Shangha. But the merits will become greater if you build a\r\nmonastery for them to live in and practise their studies. And you will get much\r\ngreater merits if you turn to or rely on the Triratna known as Buddha, Buddhist\r\nDharma and Shangha and keep the five Buddhist precepts. More merits to you if\r\nyou can keep your pitiful heart although in just a moment. And the greatest\r\nmerit to you when you are able to deeply observe the impermanence of all\r\nbeings.†(In the fourth Angutara Nikaya, pages 264-265).
\r\n\r\nFrom the above-mentioned sutra paragraph, we can clearly see\r\nthat The World Honored One extremely paid attention to cultivate our pitiful\r\nheart. Truly, the merit for keeping such a heart is greater than that for the\r\nbuilding of a monastery for a shangha. If we can practise as shown in the\r\nCompassion sutra by saying prayers to the Buddha during all of our activities\r\nand have pity to all human beings then the merits we can get will be much\r\ngreater than anything else. And the basic level of pity heart is found in our\r\nhigh evaluation of our thoughts and activities - that is, to saveguard and not\r\nto harm any existence for the fact that any living creature does want to live\r\non and not to destroy its life. Even grass and trees, waterways and atmosphere,\r\nall need to be protected because they have their mutual interaction. Therefore,\r\nprotecting living environment means protecting existence.
\r\n\r\nTrue enough, the Buddha’s compassion and equality always\r\npervade all species and all forms living on the earth whether big or small,\r\nnear or far, visible or invisible, and whether already born or to be born - as\r\nsaid by Him in the baskkhet of the sutra named COMPASSION in the Pali language:
\r\n\r\n“Let’s pray for all human beings and species be able to live\r\nin peace and happiness with good-natured and unoccupied innermost feelings.
\r\n\r\nLet’s pray for all living creatures on earth live\r\npeacefully - including all feeble and strong, high and\r\nlow, gigantic and small, visible and invisible, close to and far from us,\r\nalready and not yet born species.
\r\n\r\nLet’s pray for neither of the above-mentioned species kill\r\nthem reciprocally, nor disregard others’ life, or hope their counterparts be\r\nsuffered or miserasble due to the hatred among them.â€
\r\n\r\n4/The Buddha’s pity was boundless and vast. He treated\r\neveybody equally, without any discrimination, whether they were his relatives\r\nor not, whether they were his friends or enemies. He behaved in the same way\r\nfor all social ranks - from kings to imperial concubines,\r\nor from those who carry manure to young shepherds. Even the murderer named\r\nAngulimala or the prostitute named Ambapali was re-educated by him to the\r\nextent that they both became as good-virtue people as his great disciples.
\r\n\r\nThe story about the murderer named Angulimala in the Pali\r\nclassic has eloquently illustrated the Buddha’s infinite compassion and his\r\ntransformation of an atrocious murderer as well as the latter’s\r\ncompassion afterwards which was stronger than any of his previous heartless\r\nkarma.
\r\n\r\nAngulimala was an infamous murderer. His name was formed\r\nfrom the reality that he wore a string around his neck, consisting of the right\r\nfingers of those who were his victims (anguli means fingers, and mala means string).\r\nThe royal-court soldiers rummaged for him and the public were so afraid that\r\nthey did not dare go out of their house.
\r\n\r\nOne morning, the World Honored One was walking into the\r\ncitadel, holding the alms-bowl and heard the footsteps behind him. He knew that\r\nAngulimala was running after him, but the Buddha still kept calm steps of walk.\r\nAngulimala was calling loudly, “Hey! Mendicant monk, stop walking.†But the\r\nBuddha walked on at the same cadence and in a tranquil manner. Agulimala ran\r\nmore quickly, and in a moment caught up with the former and scolded noisly, “I\r\nordered you to stop walking, why didn’t you obey me?†The World Honored One\r\nkept walking and said with a calm voice, “Hey, Agulimala! I myself have stopped\r\nsince a long time; it’s you who have not stopped yet.†Angulimala did not understand\r\nthe Buddha’s words. He then asked again, “What did you mean?†The Buddha\r\nreplied, “I mean that I have stopped killing living beings. I have also given\r\nup violence and massacred all species. Instead, I have stayed in compassion for\r\nall species, endurance and wisdom from thinking and observating. But you\r\nhaven’t given up slaughtering and cruelly mal-treating others and you haven’t\r\nstayed in compassion as well as endurance to sentimental species. You,\r\ntherefore, have not stopped yet.†The composed manners as well as the Buddha’s\r\nanswer astonished Angulimala. As a result, the latter suddenly left his sharp\r\nknife down, feeling remorse. The Buddha then held a ceremony for having\r\nAngulimala’s hair cut right on the spot. From then on, his religious name was Ahimsaka,\r\nwho began to cultivate himself very diligently and became one of the Buddha’s\r\ngreat disciples and later reached enlightenment.
\r\n\r\n5/In Brahman’s society, class distinction was very strict,\r\nso strict that a touch of the low class to the high-class body would make the\r\nlow-class condemned the guilt of being hand cut off. This showed that a\r\ncomplete viewpoint of equality like that of the Buddha’s - not only between\r\npersons but also between living creatures - was considered a great revolution.\r\nEven now, in this 21st century, in many countries in the world, people still\r\nhave to fight for equality between males and females, between people of\r\ndifferent skin colors, etc., the Buddha did strongly proclaim, “There is no\r\ndifference between salty tear-drops and red blood-drops.†How noble was such a\r\nproclamation from the Great Enlightened One!
\r\n\r\nThrough the long road of more than two thousand and five\r\nhundred years of Buddhism, not a drop of human blood has been shed because of\r\nthe propagation of this religious Dharma. The Buddha has then been the first\r\nand greatest missionary on the earth forever. His compassion and equality ideas\r\nhave been like fresh currents of water flowing around everywhere and bringing\r\npeace and joy to living beings. He could have been the first head of a religion\r\nthat went as far as to the battlefield to prevent wars. He annihilated the\r\nconflict between Sakya and Koliya clans who were on the point of assaulting on\r\neach other because of the dispute over the sovereignty of the waters of Rohini\r\nriver. He also sucessfully convinced King Ajatasanu to give up the attack on\r\nVaiji clan.
\r\n\r\nOver two thousand and five hundred years have passed, and\r\nalthough many things have changed, or blue seas have been turned into mulberry\r\nfields. But the source of compassion and equality taking root from the source\r\nof carefree idea has been flowing up to now, aiming at enlightening the masses\r\nwho have been sunk in sufferings, hostility and ignorance.
\r\n\r\nTranslated into English by layman Hoang Huan
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