Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.t1: Further Conversions

Buddha: His Life, his Doctrine, his Order c8.t1

Language: English

Further Conversions

c8.t1.1

The number of believers soon increases. The next convert is Yasa, a scion of a wealthy house at Benares: his parents and his wife likewise hear Buddha’s discourses and become adherents of the faith as a lay-brother and lay-sister. Numerous friends of Yasa, youths of the most prominent houses in Benares and the country roundabout, adopt the monastic life. The company of the faithful soon reaches sixty members. Buddha sends them forth to preach the law throughout the country. In nothing did the secret of the great power of rapid increase, which existed in the young Church, so much lie as in its itinerancy: here anon, there anon, appearing, vanishing, simultaneously at a thousand places. “O disciples,” thus in our authorities run the words with which Buddha sends out his followers, “I am loosed from all bands, divine and human. Ye also, O disciples, are loosed from all bands, divine and human. Go ye out, O disciples, and travel from place to place for the welfare of many people, for the joy of many people, in pity for the world, for the blessing, welfare, and joy of gods and men. Go not in twos to one place. Preach, O disciples, the law, the beginning of which is noble, the middle of which is noble, and the end of which is noble, in spirit and in letter: preach the whole and full, pure path of holiness. There are beings, who are pure from the dust of the earthly, but if they hear not the gospel of the law, they perish: they shall understand the law. But I, O disciples, go to Uruvelâ, to the village of the general, to preach the law.”

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At Uruvelâ there reside Brahman hermits, a thousand in number, who keep alight the sacred fire of sacrifice according the rites of the Vedas, and perform their ablutions in the river Neranjarâ. Three brothers, Brahmans, of the Kassapa family, are the leaders of these ascetics. Buddha comes to one of them and overcomes with miraculous power the terrible serpent-king, who dwelt in Kassapa’s sacrificial chamber. The Brahmans wonder-struck persuade him to spend the winter with them. He stops there, dwelling in the forest near Kassapa’s hermitage, in which he takes his food every day. Miracle after miracle convinces the Brahmans of his greatness: gods come to listen to his discourses; they shine like flaming fire all night long. Kassapa, overcome with wonder, admits the superhuman greatness of his guest, but he cannot bring himself to submit to him. “Thus the Exalted One,” as our old narrative states in this connection, “thought within himself: ‘this simpleton will long continue thinking: “the great Sumana is very powerful and mighty, but he is not holy as I am.” So then, I shall work on this hermit’s heart.’ Therefore the Exalted One spake to the hermit Kassapa of Uruvelâ: ‘Thou art not holy, Kassapa, nor hast thou found the path of holiness: and thou knowest nothing of the way by which thou canst be holy and mayest reach the path of holiness.’ Then the hermit Kassapa, of Uruvelâ, bowed his head to the feet of the Exalted One, and said to the Exalted One: ‘Grant me, O sire, to receive the degrees of initiation, the lower and the higher.’”

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All narratives of conversions in the Buddhist scriptures resemble this narrative more or less. Where any attempt at individuality is made, it turns out clumsy and poor. That earnest, deep feeling, and the impulse of strong emotion was not denied to these minds, is amply proved by the poetry of the Buddhists. But describe they could not, and what they were least capable of understanding was individual life.

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Kassapa’s two brothers and all the bands of hermits round them turn to Buddha and adopt monastic garb. Thus the number of believers is at one stroke raised to a thousand.

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They now wander from Uruvelâ to Râjagaha, the near-lying capital of the Magadha kingdom. The halting-place is in a bambu-thicket outside the town. The young king Bimbisâra hears of Buddha’s arrival, and goes out with a vast following* of citizens and Brahmans to make the acquaintance of the teacher who had acquired sudden fame. When the people saw Buddha and Kassapa together, doubts arose as to which of the two is master and which is the disciple. Kassapa rises from his seat, bows his head to Buddha’s feet and says: “Sire, my master is the Exalted One: I am his pupil. Sire, my master is the Exalted One: I am his pupil.” Buddha preaches before the king and his retinue: Bimbisâra, with a great number of his people, declares himself a lay convert of Buddha’s Church. Thenceforth throughout his long life he became one of the truest friends and patrons of Buddha and his doctrine.

c8.t1.6

Tradition informs us that on that occasion at Râjagaha Buddha also gained as disciples those two men, Sâriputta and Moggallâna, who came later on to be honoured as the first in rank after their master in the circles of the Church. These two young men, bound to each other by close ties of friendship, sons of a Brahman family, were at that time residing at Râjagaha as pupils of Sanjaya, one of the itinerant medicants and teachers so numerous in that age. In their common pursuit of spiritual possessions, they had, as is related, given each other this promise, that he who would first obtain the deliverance from death, should tell the other. One day Sâriputta saw one of Buddha's disciples, Assaji, walking the streets of Râjagaha to collect alms, peaceful and dignified, with downcast look. "When he saw him," our narrative* here informs us, "he thought: 'truly this is one of those monks who are already sanctified in this world, or have attained the path of purity. I shall go up to this monk and I shall ask him: "Friend, in whose name hast thou renounced the world? and who is thy master? and whose doctrine dost thou recognize?"' But then Sâriputta, the mendicant, reflected: 'Now is not the time to ask this monk. He is going from house to house and is collecting alms. I shall approach this monk, as one approaches a person from whom he desires something.' But when the venerable Assaji had collected alms at Râjagaha, he took the contributions he had received and turned back. Thereupon the mendicant, Sâriputta, approached the venerable Assaji: arrived near him, he saluted the venerable Assaji. After he had exchanged words of friendly salutation with him, he placed himself near him. Standing near him, the mendicant, Sâriputta, addressed the venerable Assaji, saying: ‘Thy visage, friend, is luminous, thy colour is pure and clear. In whose name, friend, hast thou renounced the world? and who is thy master? and whose doctrine dost thou recognize?’ ‘It is the great Samana, my friend, the Sakya’s son, who comes from the Sakya’s house and has renounced the world. In his name, the Exalted One’s, I have renounced the world, and he, the Exalted One, is my master, and his law, the Exalted One’s, I recognize.’ ‘And what, friend, does thy master say, and what does he teach?’ ‘Friend, I am but a novice; it is not long since I left the world; I have only recently conformed to this doctrine and this order. I cannot expound the doctrine to thee in its fulness, but I can tell thee its spirit briefly.’ Then the mendicant, Sâriputta, said to the venerable Assaji: ‘Be it so, friend. Tell me little or much, but tell me its spirit: I have a longing to know the spirit only: what great care canst thou have for the letter?’ Then the venerable Assaji addressed to the mendicant, Sâriputta, this statement of the doctrine:

c8.t1.7

∗ The text says that “twelve myriads of Brahmans and citizens of Magadha” surrounded the king. These extravagantly high figures differ far too widely from the statements regarding the number of disciples accompanying Buddha (a few hundreds, at most thousands), for us to be in a position to draw conclusions from them with any certainty whatever as to the excessive character of the latter, in themselves very credible, numbers.

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∗ The passage which I here translate is one of those which king Asoka, in the Bairât inscription (circ. 260 B.C.), commanded the monks and nuns, the lay-brothers and lay-sisters, intently to hear and learn. The text is there described as "the question of Upatissa," but Upatissa is a name of Sâriputta.

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“‘Existences which flow from a cause, their cause the Perfect One teaches, and how they end: this is the doctrine of the great Samana.’”*

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∗ This sentence has become in later ages the briefly-expressed confession of faith of Buddhism; it is to be met inscribed on numerous monuments. Undoubtedly it refers to the doctrine of the concatenation of causes and effects, on which doctrine tradition, as we have seen (p. 114) represents Buddha’s thoughts as being fixed, when he sits under the sacred tree of the Buddhahood. The painful destiny of the world works itself out in the chain of operations, which flow from ignorance; the doctrine of Buddha tells us what these existences are, dependent one on another, springing from ignorance, and how they come to an end, i.e., how the suffering of the world is removed.

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And when the mendicant Sâriputta heard this statement of the doctrine, he obtained the clear, undimmed vision of the truth, and he perceived: "Whatever is subject to the law of beginning, all that is also subject to the law of decay." (And he said to Assaji :) "If the doctrine be nothing else but this, thou hast at any rate attained the condition in which there is no suffering. That which hath not been seen by many myriads of bygone ages, hath in these days come near unto us."

c8.t1.12

Sâriputta now goes to his friend, Moggallâna. "Thy visage, friend," says Moggallâna, "is luminous, thy colour is pure and clear. Hast thou found the deliverance from death?" "Yes, friend, I have found the deliverance from death!" And he tells him of his meeting with Assaji, and on Moggallâna also "the clear, undimmed light of truth" dawns. Sanjaya, their instructor, in vain begs them to remain with him. They go with great crowds of ascetics into the wood where Buddha is resting : but a hot stream of blood bursts from Sanjaya's mouth. Buddha sees the two coming : he announces to those around him that those are now approaching who should be the foremost and noblest among his disciples. And the two of them receive the initiation from Buddha himself.

c8.t1.13

"At this time," continues our narrative, "many distinguished and noble youths of the Magadha territory joined themselves to Buddha, to lead a pure life. On this the populace became displeased, murmured, and were angry, saying: 'The ascetic Gotama is come to bring childlessness: the ascetic Gotama is come to bring widowhood: the ascetic Gotama is come to bring subversion of families. Already hath he turned the thousand hermits into his disciples, and he hath made the two hundred and fifty mendicant followers of Sanjaya his disciples, and now these many distinguished and noble youths of the Magadha kingdom are betaking themselves to the ascetic Gotama to lead a religious life.’ And whenever the people saw any of the disciples they taunted them with these words :

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‘The great monk came in his travels to the capital of Magadha, seated on a hill.
He has converted all Sanjaya’s followers, whom will he draw after him to-day ?’

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“The disciples then learned how the populace was displeased, murmured, and was angry : and the disciples told the Exalted One. ‘This excitement, O disciples,’ said the Exalted One, ‘will not last long. Seven days will it last : after seven days will it vanish. But ye, my disciples, if they taunt you with the saying :

Linked texts (1)

Bairāṭ edict (ed. Bühler 1877) — Prakrit