‘Birth is suffering. Decay is suffering. Illness is suffering. Death
is suffering. Association with (samprayogo) objects we hate is
suffering. Separation from objects we love is suffering. Not to obtain
what we desire is suffering. Clinging (upādāna) to the five elements
(p. 109) of existence is suffering. Complete cessation of thirst
(taṇhā) and desires is cessation of suffering. This is the noble truth
of suffering.’
This sermon (called in Ceylon the first Baṇa = Bhāṇa, ‘recitation,’ p.
70) was addressed to monks, and however unfavourably it must compare
with that of Christ (St. Luke iv. 18), addressed not to monks but to
suffering sinners—and however obvious may be the idea that pain must
result from giving way to lust and the desire for life through countless
existences—is of great interest because it embodies the first teaching
of one, who, if not worthy to be called ‘the Light of Asia,’ and
certainly unworthy of comparison with the ‘Light of the World,’ was at
least one of the world’s most successful teachers.
Bear in mind that, as the result of his earliest meditation (pp. 39, 56,
102), the Buddha made ignorance precede lust as the primary cause of
life’s misery.
Of course the real significance of the whole sermon depends on the
interpretation of the word ‘right’ (sammā = samyak) in describing the
eightfold path, and the plain explanation is that ‘right belief’ means
believing in the Buddha and his doctrine; ‘right resolve’ means
abandoning one’s wife and family as the best method of extinguishing the
fires of the passions; right speech is recitation of the Buddha’s
doctrine; right work (Karmānta) is that of a monk; right livelihood is
living by alms as a monk does; right exercise is suppression of the
individual self; right mindfulness (Smṛiti) is keeping in mind the
impurities and impermanence of the body; right mental concentration is
trance-like quietude.
Mark, too, that in describing the misery of life, association with loved
objects is not mentioned as compensating for the pain of connexion with
hateful objects.
The Buddha’s early disciples were not poor men; for the sixth to be
admitted to the Saṅgha was a high-born youth named Yasa. Then this
youth’s father, a rich merchant, became the first lay-disciple by
repeating the _triple_ formula (pp. 40, 78), and his mother and wife
became the first lay-sisters. Next, four high-born friends of Yasa, and
subsequently fifty more became monks. Thus, not long after the first
sermon, Gautama had sixty enrolled monks; all from the upper classes.
In sending forth these sixty monks to proclaim his own gospel of
deliverance, he addressed them thus:—
‘I am delivered from all fetters (p. 127), human and divine. You too, O
monks, are freed from the same fetters. Go forth and wander everywhere,
out of compassion for the world and for the welfare of gods and men. Go
forth, one by one, in different directions. Preach the doctrine
(Dharmam), salutary (kalyāṇa) in its beginning, middle, and end, in its
spirit (artha) and in its letter (vyañjana). Proclaim a life of perfect
restraint, chastity, and celibacy (brahmaćariyam). I will go also to
preach this doctrine’ (Mahā-vagga I. 11. 1).
When his monk-missionaries had departed, Gautama himself followed,
though not till Māra (p. 41) had again tempted him. Quitting Benares he
journeyed back to Uruvelā, near Gayā. There he first converted thirty
rich young men and then one thousand orthodox Brāhmans, led by Kāṡyapa
and his two brothers, who maintained a sacred fire (‘Brāhmanism,’ p.
364). The fire-chamber was haunted by a fiery snake-demon; so Buddha
asked to occupy the room for a night, fought the serpent and confined
him in his own alms-bowl. Next he worked other miracles (said to have
been 3500 in number), such as causing water to recede, fire-wood to
split, fire-vessels to appear at his word. Then Kāṡyapa and his
brothers, convinced of his miraculous powers, were admitted with the
other Brāhmans to the Saṅgha. Thus Buddha gathered round him about a
thousand monks.
To them on a hill Gayāsīsa (Brahma-yoni), near Gayā, he preached his
‘burning’ fire-sermon (Mahā-v° I. 21): ‘Everything, O monks, is burning
(ādittam = ādīptam). The eye is burning; visible things are burning. The
sensation produced by contact with visible things is burning—burning
with the fire of lust (desire), enmity and delusion (rāgagginā dosagginā
mohagginā), with birth, decay (jarayā), death, grief, lamentation, pain,
dejection (domanassehi), and despair (upāyāsehi). The ear is burning,
sounds are burning; the nose is burning, odours are burning; the tongue
is burning, tastes are burning; the body is burning, objects of sense
are burning. The mind is burning, thoughts are burning. All are burning
with the fire of passions and lusts. Observing this, O monks, a wise and
noble disciple becomes weary of (or disgusted with) the eye, weary of
visible things, weary of the ear, weary of sounds, weary of odours,
weary of tastes, weary of the body, weary of the mind. Becoming weary,
he frees himself from passions and lusts. When free, he realizes that
his object is accomplished, that he has lived a life of restraint and
chastity (brahma-ćariyam), that re-birth is ended.’
It is said that this fire-sermon—which is a key to the meaning of
Nirvāṇa—was suggested by the sight of a conflagration. It was Gautama’s
custom to impress ideas on his hearers by pointing to visible objects.
He compares all life to a flame; and the gist of the discourse is the
duty of extinguishing the fire of lusts, and with it the fire of all
existence, and the importance of monkhood and celibacy for the
attainment of this end.
Contrast in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount the words addressed to the
multitude (not to monks), ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God.’
The Buddha and his followers next proceeded to Rāja-gṛiha. Among them
were two, afterwards called ‘chief disciples’ (Agra-ṡrāvakas), Sāriputta
and Moggallāna (or Maudgalyāyana), who died before the Buddha, and
sixteen leaders among the so-called eighty ‘_great_ disciples’
(Mahā-ṡrāvakas); the chief of these being Kāṡyapa (or Mahā-kāṡyapa),
Upāli, and Ānanda (a cousin), besides Anuruddha (another cousin), and
Kātyāyana. Of course among the eighty are reckoned the five original
Benares converts. At a later time two chief female disciples
(Agra-ṡrāvikās) named Khemā and Uppala-vaṇṇā (Utpala-varṇā) were added
(see p. 86). Each leading disciple was afterwards called Sthavira, ‘an
elder,’ or Mahā-sthavira, ‘great elder’ (Pāli Thera, Mahāthera; fem.
Therī). Mark, too, that Bimbi-sāra, king of Magadha, and Prasenajit
(Pasenadi), king of Kosala, were Gautama’s lay-disciples and constant
patrons.
It was not long before the Buddha’s followers were more formally
incorporated into a monastic Order (Saṅgha), and rules of discipline
drawn up (see pp. 61, 72, 73, 83). And doubtless the success of Buddhism
was due to the carrying out of this idea of establishing a brotherhood
offering a haven of rest to all.
About forty-five years elapsed between Gautama’s attainment of
Buddhahood and his death. During that period he continued teaching and
itinerating with his disciples; only going ‘into retreat’ during the
rains. A list of 45 places of residence is given. He seems to have
resided oftenest at Ṡrāvastī (p. 21) in the monastery Jetavana given by
Anātha-piṇḍika; but the whole region between Ṡrāvastī and Rāja-gṛiha (p.
29), for nearly 300 miles, was the scene of his itineration. Favourite
resorts near Rāja-gṛiha were the ‘Vulture-peak’ and Bambu-grove
(Veḷu-vana); but continual itineration was one chief means of
propagating Buddhism.
It is said that his death occurred at Kuṡi-nagara[16] (Kusinārā), a town
about eighty miles east of Kapila-vastu—the place of his birth—when he
was eighty years of age, and probably about the year 420 B.C.[17]
The story is that Gautama died from eating too much pork (or dried
boar’s flesh[18]). As this is somewhat derogatory to his dignity it is
not likely to have been fabricated. A fabrication, too, would scarcely
make him guilty of the inconsistency of saying ‘Kill no living thing,’
and yet setting an example of eating flesh-meat.