Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t1: Buddha's Daily Life
Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.s1.t1
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Buddha's Daily Life
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From year to year the change from a period of wandering to a period of rest and retirement repeated itself for Buddha and his disciples. In the month of June when, after the dry scorching heat of the Indian summer, clouds come up in towering masses, and the rolling thunders herald the approach of the rain-bearing monsoon, the Indian to-day, as in ages past, prepares himself and his house for the time during which all usual operations are interrupted by the rain: for whole weeks long in many places the pouring torrents confine the inhabitants to their huts, or at any rate to their villages, while communication with neighbours is cut off by rapid, swollen streams, and by inundations. "The birds," says an ancient Buddhist work, "build their nests on the tops of trees: and there they nestle and hide during the damp season." And thus also it was in those days an established practice with the members of monastic orders, undoubtedly not first in Buddha's time, but since ever there was a system of religious itinerancy in India, to suspend itinerant operations during the three rainy months and to spend this time in quiet retirement in the neighbourhood of towns and villages, where sure support was to be found through the charity of believers. To this custom they adhered all the more strongly because they could not, during the rainy season, which, after the scorching heat of summer, calls everywhere into being an infinite variety of vegetable and animal life, travel about, without infringing at every step the commandment which forbids the destruction of even the lowest form of life.
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Buddha also every year for three months “kept vassa (rainy reason),” surrounded by groups of his disciples, who flocked together to pass the rainy reason near their teacher. Kings and wealthy men contended for the honour of entertaining him and his disciples, who were with him, as guests during this season in the hospices and gardens which they had provided for the community.
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The rains being over, the itinerating began: Buddha went from town to town and village to village, always attended by a great concourse of disciples: the texts are wont to speak in one place of three hundred, and in another of five hundred, who followed their master.* In the main streets, through which the religious pilgrims like travelling merchants used to pass, the believers who dwelt near had taken ample care to provide shelter, to which Buddha and his disciples might resort: or, where monks who professed the doctrine dwelt, there was sure to be found lodging for the night in their abodes, and even if no other cover was to be had, there was no want of mango or banyan trees, at the feet of which the band might halt for the night.
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∗ On the occasion of a prophecy of Buddha’s regarding Metteyya, the next Buddha, who will in the far future appear upon the earth, it is said: “He will be the leader of a band of disciples, numbering hundreds of thousands, as I am now the leader of bands of disciples, numbering hundreds.”—*Cakkavattisuttanta*.
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The territory through which these wandering excursions generally extended was the circuit of the "Eastern Land," i.e., chiefly the old kingdoms of Kàsi-Kosala and Magadha, with the neighbouring free states, the territories known to-day as Oudh and Bihar. Contrasted with this were the kingdoms of "Western Hindostan," the ancient seat of Vedic culture and of the exclusive power of a Brahman order strongly opposed to the religious influences of the East, affected, it is true, if tradition rightly inform us, by the itinerant ministrations of Buddha, but still only seldom and superficially. The most important headquarters during these wanderings, at the same time the approximately extreme points, to the north-west and south-east, of the area, in which Buddha's pilgrim-life was passed, are the capital cities of the kings of Kosala and and Magadha, Sâvatthi (now Sahet Mahet on the Rapti) and Râjagaha (now Rajgir, south of Bihar).* In the immediate neighbourhood of these towns the community possessed numerous pleasant gardens, in which structures of various kinds were erected for the requirements of the members. "Not too far from, nor yet too near the town," thus runs the standard description of such a park given in the sacred texts, "well provided with entrances and exits, easily accessible to all people who inquire after it, with not too much of the bustle of life by day, quiet by night, far from commotion and the crowds of men, a place of retirement, a good spot for solitary meditation." Such a garden was the Veluvana ("Bambu-grove"), once a pleasure ground of king Bimbisâra and presented by him to Buddha and the Church: another was the still more renowned Jetavana (at Sâvatthi), a gift made by Buddha's most liberal admirer, the great merchant Anâthapindika. Not alone the sacred texts, but equally also the monumental records, the reliefs of the great Stupa of Bharhut, recently explored, show how highly celebrated this gift of Anâthapindika's was from the earliest days in the Buddhist Church. It is narrated how Anâthapindika was in search of a spot which should be worthy to serve as a place of sojourn for Buddha and his disciples: the garden of the prince Jeta alone appeared to him to unite in itself all requirements, but the prince declined to sell it to him. After protracted negotiations Anâthapindika obtained the garden for as much gold as sufficed to cover the surface of the ground of the whole Jetavana. He gave it to Buddha, whose favourite place of sojourn it thenceforward was. Numberless passages of the sacred texts, in which the subject-matter consists of addresses and sayings of Buddha, begin: "At this time the holy Buddha was sojourning at Sâvatthi, in the Jetavana, the garden of Anâthapindika."
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∗ The distance between these two capitals is about the same as between London and Edinburgh.
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If it is possible to speak of a home in the homeless, wandering life of Buddha and his disciples, places like the Veluvana and Jetavana may of all others be so called, near the great centres of Indian life and yet untouched by the turmoil of the capitals, once the quiet resting places of rulers and nobles, before the yellow-robed mendicants appeared on the scene, and "the Church in the four quarters, present and absent," succeeded to the possession of the kingly inheritance. In these gardens were the residences of the brethren, houses, halls, cloisters, storerooms, surrounded by lotus-pools, fragrant mango trees, and slender fan-palms that lift their foliage high over all else, and by the deep green foliage of the Nyagrodha tree, whose roots dropping from the air to earth become new stems, and with their cool shady arcades and leafy walks seem to invite to peaceful meditation.*
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These were the surroundings in which Buddha passed a great part of his life, probably the portions of it richest in effective work. Here masses of the population, lay as well as monastic, flocked together to see him and to hear him preach. Hither came pilgrim monks from far countries, who have heard the fame of Buddha’s teaching and, when the rainy season is past, undertake a pilgrimage to see the master face to face. “It is customary,” runs an oft-recurring passage in our texts, “for monks, when they have passed the rainy season, to set out to see the Exalted One. It is the custom of the exalted Buddha to welcome monks who come from afar.” “Is it well with you, monks?” Buddha is accustomed to ask the arrivals. “Are you able to live? Have you passed the rains in peace and unity, and without discord, and have you experienced any want of support?”
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We hear, for instance, of one of the faithful named Sona, in the land of Avanti (Malwa), far from the country in which Buddha lived, whom the fame of the new doctrine had reached, and there arose in him the desire to be received among its professors. Three long years he had to wait until he succeeded in bringing together in this distant land the ten monks, whose presence was indispensable to conferring the orders on a new member. Once, when he was in solitude, there occurred to him the thought: “I have, it is true, heard of the Exalted One, he is so and so, but I have not seen him face to face. I will go to behold him, the exalted, holy, highest Buddha, if my teacher allows me to go.” And his teacher, to whom he expressed his wish, answered him: “Good, Sona, good: go, Sona, to behold him, the exalted, holy, supreme Buddha. Thou shalt see him, Sona, the Exalted One, the bringer of joy, the dispenser of joy, whose organs of life are placid, whose spirit is at rest, the supreme self-subduer and peace-possessor, the hero who has conquered self and watches himself, who holds his desires in check.” And Sona prepares for the journey to Sâvatthi, where Buddha is tarrying in the Jetavana, the garden of Anâthapindika.
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∗ The Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian (in the beginning of the fifth century after Christ) writes regarding the Jetavana (according to Beal’s translation, p. 75): “The clear water of the tanks, the luxuriant groves, and numberless flowers of variegated hues, combine to produce the picture of what is called the Vihâra of Chi-ûn (Jeta).”
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Pilgrims of this class come together where Buddha is sojourning, and the meetings and greetings of the arriving groups with the clerical brothers who live on the spot, the interchange of news, the arrangement of lodging-places for the itinerant monks, then not unfrequently caused those noisy clamours so strange to western ears, which seem to be inseparable from such occasions in the East, and which are most earnestly deprecated more than once in the sacred texts.
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The fame of Buddha’s person also drew together from far and near crowds of such as stood without the narrower circles of the community. “To the ascetic Gotama,” people remarked to one another, “folks are coming, passing through kingdoms and countries, to converse with him.” Often, when he happened to halt near the residences of potentates, kings, princes, and dignitaries, came on waggons or on elephants, to put questions to him or to hear his doctrine. Such a scene is described to us in the opening of the “Sûtra on the fruit of asceticism,” and reappears in pictorial representation among the reliefs at Bharhut. The Sûtra relates how king Ajâtasattu of Magadha in the “Lotus-night,” that is in the full moon of October, the time when the lotus blooms, is sitting in the open-air, surrounded by his nobles on the flat roof of his palace. "Then," as it is recorded in that text, "the king of Magadha, Ajātasattu, the son of the Videha princess, uttered this exclamation: 'fair in sooth is this moonlight night, lovely in sooth is this moonlight night, grand in sooth is this moonlight night, heart-enchanting in sooth is this moonlight night, happy omens in sooth giveth this moonlight night. What Samana or what Brahman shall I go to hear, that my soul may be cheered when I hear him?'" One counsellor names this and another that teacher: but Jīvaka, the king's physician, sits on in silence. "Then the king of Magadha, Ajātasattu, the son of Vedehī, spake to Jīvaka Komārabhacca: 'Why art thou silent, friend Jīvaka?'"—'Sire, in my mango grove he resteth, the exalted, holy, supreme Buddha, with a great band of disciples, with three hundred monks. Of him, the exalted Gotama, there spreadeth through the world lordly praise in these terms: He, the Exalted One, is the holy, supreme Buddha, the wise, the learned, the blessed, who knoweth the universe, the highest, who tameth man like an ox, the teacher of gods and men, the exalted Buddha. Sire, go to hear him, the Exalted One: perchance, if thou hearest him, the Exalted One, thy soul, O sire, may be refreshed'"—and the king orders elephants to be prepared for himself and the queens, and the royal procession moves with burning torches on that moonlight night through the gate of Rājagaha to Jīvaka's mango grove, where Buddha is said to have held with the king the famous discourse "On the fruits of asceticism," at the end of which the king joined the Church as a lay-member.
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The pictures, which the sacred texts give us of meetings and scenes like these, are very numerous: no doubt, the concourse which moved round Buddha's person is faithfully reflected in them. If Buddha comes to the free towns, we hear of his meetings with the noble families who exercise rule there: at Kusinârâ the Mallas, the ruling family of that town, go out to meet him and issue an edict: "whosoever goeth not to meet the Exalted One is liable to a penalty of five hundred pieces." From the gayest of the Indian free towns, the dissolute and wealthy Vesâlî, the distinguished youths of the Licchavi house drive out to Buddha with their splendid teams, some in white garments with white trimmings, and others in yellow, black, or red. Buddha says to his disciples, when he sees the Licchavi youths coming in the distance: "who ever, my disciples, among you hath not seen the divine host of the thirty-three gods, let him gaze on the host of the Licchavis, let him behold the host of the Licchavis, let him view the host of the Licchavis." And besides the noble youth of Vesâlî, there comes driving with not less pomp, to see Buddha, another celebrity of the town, the courtesan Ambapâlî. She invites Buddha and his disciples to dine in her mango grove, and when they assemble there and dinner is over, she makes a gift of the grove to Buddha and the Church.
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To complete the picture of the society which existed round Buddha, the class of dialecticians and theological disputants of all shades already flourishing prosperously in India at this period, must not be allowed to pass unnoticed: the distinguished Brahman, endowed by the king with the revenues of a village, who comes conducted by a great following, the young Brahmanical scholar, who is sent forth by his teacher, to bring him tidings of the much-spoken-of Gotama, and who is eager to win his spurs in a logical dispute with the renowned adversary, countless sophistic hair-splitters, persons of religious as well as worldly standing, who have heard that the Samana Gotama is staying in the neighbourhood, and who prepare to lay traps for him with two-edged questions and to entangle him in contradiction, whatever be the answer he may give.
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A frequent end of these dialogues is of course that the vanquished opponents or the partisans of Buddha invite him and his disciples to dine on the following day: “Sire, may it please the Exalted One and his disciples to dine with me to-morrow.” And Buddha permits his consent to be inferred from his silence. On the following day about noon, when dinner is ready, the host sends word to Buddha: “Sire, it is time, the dinner is ready;” and Buddha takes his overcoat and alms-bowl and goes with his disciples into the town or village to the residence of his host. After dinner at which well-to-do hosts offer, except meat dishes, the best which the not-very-luxurious cooks of those days could provide, and at which the host himself and his family serve the guests, when the customary hand washing is over, the host takes his place with his family at Buddha’s side, and Buddha addresses to them a word of spiritual admonition and instruction.
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If the day be not filled by an invitation, Buddha, according to monastic usages, undertakes his circuit of the village or town in quest of alms. He, as well as his disciples, rises early, when the light of dawn appears in the sky, and spends the early moments in spiritual exercises or in converse with his disciples, and then he proceeds with his companions towards the town. In the days when his reputation stood at its highest point, and his name was named throughout India among the foremost names, one might day by day see that man before whom kings bowed themselves, walking about, alms-bowl in hand, through streets and alleys, from house to house, and without uttering any request, with downcast look, stand silently waiting until a morsel of food was thrown into his bowl.
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When he had returned from his begging excursion and had eaten his repast, there followed, as the Indian climate demanded, a time, if not of sleep, at any rate of peaceful retirement. Resting in a quiet chamber, or better still in the cool shades of dense foliage, he passed the sultry, close hours of the afternoon in solitary contemplation, until the evening came on and drew him once more from holy silence to the bustling concourse of friend and foe.