Introduction to Buddhism (pt.7)

In this blog we will continue to explore the life of the Buddha.  The goal of this blog is to examine how the Buddha’s teachings were highly flexible and adaptive to each individual or in Buddhist terms, known as skilful means.  In exploring the stories below we will also unlock other foundational concepts in Buddhism which we will explore throughout this calendar year!

Yasa

After teaching the five Bikkhus the Four Noble Truths and the characteristics of non-self, the Buddha’s next student is Yasa.  Yasa’s encounter with the Buddha in the Deer Park is recorded in the Vinaya (Mahākhandhaka in the Pali canon and the various Vinaya text in the Sanskrit canon) and contains how the Buddha embarks on comforting and teaching Yasa the value and meaning of life.

Yasa was the son of a very wealthy noble.  He owned three mansions and indulged in sensual pleasures without any worry in his life.  One time while staying in the rainy season mansion near the Deer Park, Yasa was enjoying his company with his female attendants.  There was music, dancing and food, much like parties of today. Yasa fell asleep during the party and his attendants realized they didn’t need to entertain him and also fell asleep.  When Yasa awoke he surveyed his surroundings and found to his surprise that all his beautiful female attendants were asleep.  He observed that some were unmoving like corpses, some were sprawled over their instruments, some were drooling or mumbling in their sleep.  He immediately felt repulsed by his indulgence in sensual pleasure and quietly left the mansion towards the Deer Park.  In his departure he uttered “Oh the oppression! Oh the affliction!”

When Yasa saw the Buddha practicing walking meditation in the Deer Park, he approached the Buddha.  The Buddha seeing Yasa stopped and prepared a seat for him.  Yasa uttered to the Buddha, “Oh the oppression! Oh the affliction!” 

The Buddha replied that  “This isn’t oppressive, Yasa, this isn’t afflictive. Come and sit down. I’ll give you a teaching.”

The Buddha presented a series of teachings that gradually moved from one concept to another.  The key teachings the Budhha introduced to Yasa

• Generosity

• Morality

• Path to heaven realm

• Defilement of worldly pleasures

• Gift of Renunciation

• Four Noble Truth

Yasa after hearing the teachings felt great ease. 

Yasa’s parents, seeing their son leave the mansion of pleasure, went seeking for him.  When they saw him  listening attentively to the Buddha, they were surprised and wondered why an ascetic could captivate Yasa’s attention.  So they approached and were worried that Yasa would not return to his previous life of pleasure.  The Buddha asked the parents to sit and listen to what the Buddha told Yasa.  

Yasa’s parents having heard the Buddha’s teachings, realized Yasa found true meaning to life and joy, permitted Yasa to become a monk and accompany the Buddha.  His parents then took refuge in the Three Jewels and became the first lay people in Buddhism.  While Yasa obtained arhatship (enlightenment).

Yasa’s 50 friends heard that he renounced his life of pleasure and became a monk, so they too seeked out who would be so great to convince Yasa to give up his life of sensual pleasures.  The Buddha taught Yasa’s friends the same series of teachings.  The 50 friends after hearing such great teachings also sought to become monks and accompany the Buddha.

The Buddha clearly identified what was causing Yasa unease and showed him a gradual path from practicing generosity to achieving enlightenment and ending suffering through the Four Noble Truths.  The exact details of each of these topics will be more closely explored in our upcoming series.  

English translation of the Yasa’s story in the Vinaya: Go to 7. The account of going forth Retelling of Yasa’s story Both stories come from the Pali canon.  Unfortunately accounts in the Sanskrit (Chinese) canon have not been translated.

The Fire Sermon

The fire sermon is one of the early discourses the Buddha delivered while the Sangha is travelling from Deer Park to the surrounding kingdoms to share his teachings.  At Gayasisa Hill, near Gaya, India resides a thousand fire worshipping ascetics, their leaders are the three Kassapa (Kāśyapa) brothers: Uruvela Kassapa, Nadi Kassapa, and Gaya Kassapa.

Different sutras have different accounts of how the Buddha converted the three brothers and their followers, but all accounts show how the Buddha uses fire as a metaphor for life’s suffering.

When the Sangha reached Gayasisa Hill the Buddha asked the Kassapa brothers if he and his followers could stay the evening.  The Kassapa brothers welcomed the Buddha to stay at the top of their mountain.  This is where the Buddha preached the fire sermon.  He starts by telling the Kassapa brothers, their followers and the Buddha’s sangha:

"Bhikkhus, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning?”

Then the Buddha continues:

"The eye is burning, forms are burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning, also whatever is felt as pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant that arises with eye-contact for its indispensable condition, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion. I say it is burning with birth, aging and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.”

The Buddha continues and in total he described that these elements are burning:

• Internal Senses

• External Senses

• Feelings

• Consciousness

• Contact of senses

Each of these burning elements are due to the fire of:

• greed (attachment)

• hatred (aversion) 

• delusion (ignorance)

Which manifests into our cycle of life and death, pain, sorrow etc.

Finally the Buddha states that when you find estrangement from the burning elements the fire of greed, hatred and delusion will also go away, bringing liberation and wisdom.

Because the Kassapa brothers and their followers are fire worshippers, the use of fire and burning as a metaphor to describe what is causing life’s affliction and how it can be eliminated touched the Kassapa brothers and their followers. They realize an external force cannot grant liberation and happiness, only internal reflection and sustained practice can.

After the Buddha’s fire sermon, the three Kassapa brothers and their thousand followers decide to pursue the Buddha and become ordained monks.  The Buddha now has 1050 followers while he journeyed around India.

There are many translations of the fire sermon in both Pali and Sankrit canon.  Two available ones are Adittapariyaya Sutta: The Fire Sermon and Kd 1: Mahākhandhaka—Bhikkhu Brahmali (go to 12. The account of the wonders at Uruvelā).

Even though each one of these terms in this story may be familiar, what do they mean? Similar to the story of Yasa we will examine each of these terms in Buddhism and more importantly how we can apply these to our daily lives.

Women in Buddhism

One common question that comes up at this point in reading about the life of the Buddha is what about the community of nuns or female practitioners?  The origins of the female Sangha occur at a later time in the Buddha’s story.  The story not only involves Buddhism breaking the old world tradition of patriarchy but also establishes the idea of equality and equanimity. Such an important topic requires its own dedicated blog post to fully discuss and understand the history, significance and the importance of women in Buddhism today.

This blog post does not contain much in depth discussion of Buddhist concept and practice, but it does highlight the Buddha’s ability to change and adapt his style of teaching to the audience and environment he’s in. It also highlights how the Buddha using skilful means, can flex the teachings, some require gradual teachings from simple to complex, some direct teachings, straight to the point and or using stories and metaphors to reach a conclusion. Through future blogs we’ll see how the Buddha and eminent students use similar techniques to present teachings and concepts.  Lastly, all these concepts and terms will be explored in the next series of blogs where we’ll dive deeper into each concept to build a solid foundation of Buddhist knowledge.  With a solid foundation, we can engage in proper practice to further uplift our life and lives of those around us.