The theme of this class is playing and recording to get them mad. So let's, since there's a reasonable number of us, let's introduce ourselves. Let's just say, maybe just by saying our names, rather than introduction. And as you speak during the latter part of each class, maybe you could say your name again and speak. And maybe by the end, we'll know each other's names. So my name is David Weinberg. I'm going to be working with Ann Kennedy to lead this class. And this is Ann Kennedy. I am. Greenwald. I'm Francesca Junko. Nancy McClelland.

[01:01]

Oliver Joy. Brian Behe. Liz Young. Ed Herzog. Jean Brown. Jean Brown. Jean Brown. Richard Weir. Richard Weir. Alice Wilson. [...] Well, I gather you all have a copy of the materials for tonight's class anyway. At the end of the class, you're going to get another set of materials to take with you to read for next time. Most of what you've got on the way in here tonight is outline and supplementary materials for our discussion tonight.

[02:02]

And I'm happy to say that Ann is going to teach most of tonight, so I get to listen and participate as you do. So once we've worked out what we need to work out before you... Well, a couple of other things. The first sheet on the handout just outlines the way the classes will go for the next four weeks. And David will be working, will be teaching the one on, especially the third and the fourth classes on the Four Dimensional Trees. And it would be helpful if you have this book. Many, many people have this book, and it's around. So David, I think you'd like for us to read chapters 2 through 5 by the third class. By the third class. Not by the second class, but by the third class.

[03:04]

This isn't written down anywhere. It's not written down anywhere. That's why I'm telling you. And then you can buy it in the bookstore. You can, what the Buddha taught, you can buy it at the book table on Saturday. Chapter 2 through 5. Actually we could also buy it tonight. We know how to do it with money in our hands. Okay. I think... We're going to have about a five-minute break, perhaps two-thirds of the way through the class.

[04:11]

Which chapters are we going to have to read again? 2, 3, and 5. 2, 3, 4, 5. 2, 3, 4, 5. Oh, 2, 3, 4, 5. Oh, 2, 3, 4, 5. These are the chapters on the Four Noble Truths, which shouldn't be a complete surprise. So if you would please read that. This is a very straight ahead. classical rendition of this important doctrine. So it's a good place for us to launch our third and fourth classes from now on. So tonight we're going to focus on Life of the Buddha. And how many of you have heard the stories? There are lots of stories about this. So many of us are familiar with them. There's a bibliography here. It's certainly not complete.

[05:17]

But as I was reading for it and for the class, there are just so many different versions of all the stories and all the details are a little different from story to story. But that's the way it is with folklore and legend. If you have any questions about that, you can ask later about the bibliography. Anyway, the outline, there's an outline underneath that and a map. And this map is a map of the place names at the time of the Buddha. And so you can kind of refer to that we go through some of this material. During the time of the Buddha, approximately 500 BC, in India, on the Ganges plain, monarchies, small monarchies and cities were developing.

[06:31]

The old Indian religion was a Vedic religion. based on the Vedas, which are ancient Indian texts and their scriptures and spells and rituals and a priestly past had really all the power. And so during this time period, there were challenges to the priestly authority. And asceticism, the wandering ascetics were actually supported and respected. And Most of those were following the Upanishads, and maybe you've heard the kind of formula, Atman is Brahman. Brahman is the absolute, and Atman is this, well, it means actually soul, or the divine within the individual. And so a lot of these yogic practices and ascetic practices were efforts to realize that divine or the imperishable within

[07:35]

to try to do away with the limited and the condition and become one with Brahman. The stories about the Buddha's life were all recorded a hundred years or more after his death and so of course they're really embellished. They're in the Sutras and Vinaya and They're a mixture of historical fact, legend, popular culture from three generations. And, you know, I put this, I think you have this, an overview of Buddhist scriptures. And rather than putting the source, if somebody really wanted me to do this, I could do it. But instead of citing a source for every single story, I said that many of these stories of the life of Buddha are from these particular scriptures, and I listed them here.

[08:40]

These are the Pali Canon, so you can follow that, just for your reference. As I said, I'm going to read a story tonight, and the details in the story are really different from stories from the same story and other sources. So the details just vary a lot. And you know, Buddha is, I don't know of another religious leader who has stories of his lifetime before his lifetime, the Jataka story. I think they're so wonderful. And David, David mentioned one before class of the Buddha as a human being, giving his body to feed a mother lion. And there's a story of a deer and a turtle and a magpie helping each other out, escaping from a hunter. But, I mean, some of these are actually canonical stories, but the 550 Jataka stories are not yet.

[09:47]

What's the Pali Canon? Well, the Pali Canon are like the original stories that were written. They're not stories, but scriptures. that were accepted as Buddhist teachings in the original language. The thing that actually... The Vinaya were the monastic codes and then there are all these Nikayas which are like discourses and dialogues and teachings and mixed in mixed in with these kind of fanciful stories about Buddha's life. And then, the Abhidharma is the third, which we're not going to get into in this class. It's very academic. But do you see, does that answer your question?

[10:53]

Paul, right, I'm sorry, that's the name of the language. Of course. 500 years after he died, every time they wrote something down, they wrote it in Pali. Was that co-existent with Sanskrit? My understanding is that the Pali canon was translated into Sanskrit. But I think maybe the Sanskrit was more common. Sanskrit was the formal language of the court language. Yeah. I agree on that. Something like that. Something like that. Yeah. Like Hebrew and Aramaic. You know, like, the language that we go to high school here in Nashville.

[12:04]

Or Latin. Latin, yeah. Latin, yeah. I don't know. Italian. English, right there. Latin. Latin and Italian. Yeah, right. I mean, I've heard that comparison made to try to explain to people like us what Pali and Sanskrit are. There are similarities among the two languages, but also a lot of difference. In the context of Buddhism, Sanskrit itself is a complicated matter because most Buddhism is not written in Sanskrit. Sanskrit is written in Sanskrit. Buddhist Sanskrit, which is yet another way of the language. So that itself is probably a whole complicated discussion, which I know I'm not competent to do either. But we can say it's very complicated. And indeed, marvel at that.

[13:06]

OK, well, just mentioning these Jataka stories, I think that Sankara Shikha was discussing the stories of what is the value of the fanciful stories of Buddha's past lifetimes. And some of the reasons or some of the interesting things about the stories is that they teach karma and rebirth. Yeah, of course, the Buddha did teach that it's not particularly helpful to get involved in discussions about past lifetimes and all of that. But at the same time, it's kind of interesting because the stories do teach karma and rebirth and that all forms of life have an urge to enlightenment and that this urge to enlightenment manifests through acts of kindness. And also that Buddha did claim to recall past life, past existences.

[14:08]

We have this whole collection of stories. Usually, when you find these stories now, they're usually children's stories. Did you see, how many people saw the movie? It's not a good movie. I'm not recommending it. Okay? But it's an interesting movie. The Little Buddha? Did you see that movie? In the movie, at the beginning of the movie, this llama is reading a story about a goat. and a king and the goat. The goat's about to be killed. And the goat says, oh, you know, the goat cries. It says, oh, you know, I feel so sorry for you because I killed the goat one time. Look, I've had all these lifetimes like this. So the stories, I think the stories do teach elements of compassion. that are part of Buddhism.

[15:13]

Okay, life of Buddha, early life. He was born into the Sakya clan, a warrior clan, in what is now southern Nepal. They used a Brahmin clan named Gautama, which means descendant of the sage Gautama, and nobody really knows why they used that name. And it's interesting, in India now, The red stars are places where Buddha was born, enlightened, and died. The red stars, the blue stars, are important teaching sites. And if you visit India, well, if you visit Nepal and southern Nepal, you can go to the Leuveni. Leuveni? Yes, probably. And Andreas went to Leuveni as well. His father, Suddhodana was a king of a small, small monarchy and his mother was Queen Maya.

[16:19]

And, you know, one of the stories is that Queen Maya had a dream and she dreamed that a fantastic white elephant circled her body and entered her body. Sometimes they also say that there was a pink lotus that entered her body as well before the white elephant. But, you know, The dream was considered, of course, very auspicious. And she, as was traditional at the time, left her husband's home and went to her mother's home to have the child, when it was time for her to have the child. And I'm sure, you know, the stories are that she stopped in Lumbini Grove and gave birth standing up. Sometimes, Sometimes the story is that the child is born from her side. And like other leaders, like Jesus or other religious leaders or other heroes, we often have these magical birth stories, which are very beautiful in their way, pointing out the special quality of the person being born.

[17:32]

I'm wondering how you're going to handle that. I liked it. But think of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. And one of the references on here is Joseph Campbell. And if you read Hero with a Thousand Faces, you can just go to the index and look up Buddha. And this pattern, of course, the heroic pattern is also repeated in the life of Buddha. So, Buddha was born in the fourth month in the Indian calendar, April and May, between April and May the fourth month. Our date is 1524 B.C. And there's a great monument that we could go see there. I really, I encourage some of us who might be interested in doing that to make a pilgrimage to some of these sites.

[18:37]

When the child was born, his father called this fortune teller or astrologer, a Sita, to come and see the child and the fortune teller examined the child and cried and of course the father was quite concerned. Some people say, they're two different things. Some stories say that Asita prophesied that the child would either be a great king or a great spiritual leader. But others say that King Asita looked at this child and realized that he was going to be a liberating spiritual teacher. And that his tears were that he would not be alive to see the child or to hear the child teach. And then... You know these fortune tellers, I think even now in Indian culture when babies are born, they still have fortune tellers, astrologers, sadhus come and make predictions.

[19:52]

And there was another, not all the accounts of this, but there was another prophecy by a teacher or a fortune teller named Cardona. And in that prophecy, it was stated that the child would see four signs of a kind of spiritual king, that he would see an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a monk. And of course, his father wanted him to be a king, wanted him to expand the kingdom. get greater power for the family, so of course he structured everything in the child's life to be perfect. And so that he would never see any of these examples of human suffering. Of course, backtracking a little bit, I guess this outline is not quite in perfect order. His mother died, some stories say 7 days, some days say 7, 8, 9 days after his birth.

[20:58]

And the mother's sister, Pajapati, becomes the stepmother. And Pajapati will later become the first woman allowed into the sangha. After that, she will go there. And there's a story that is in a lot of accounts that I'd like to read, part of this rose apple tree story of the Buddha's first meditation experience. If you all were in class or at lecture on Saturday, Mel was reading this book. It has lots of life of Buddha and some Thich Nhat Hanh kinds of teachings mixed in. So, when Siddhartha reached school age, he studied literature, writing, music, and athletics with the other princes of the Sakya dynasty. Among his schoolmates were his cousins, Devadatta, who, by the way, is sort of a Judas figure in the whole story, but that's another story.

[22:03]

In Kambila and the son of a palace dignitary, a boy named Kaludaya, naturally intelligent, Siddhartha mastered his lessons quickly. His teacher, Vishnumitra, found the young Devadatta a sharp student, but never in his teaching career had he taught a student more impressive than Siddhartha. One day, when he was nine years old, the Harper and his schoolmates were allowed to attend the ritual first plowing of the fields. Though Tommy, herself, rested Harper right down to the finest of his own feet. Attired in his royal best, King Sudoanna presided over the ceremony. High-ranking holy men and brahmins paraded in robes and headdresses of every color imaginable. The ceremony was held next to the finest fields in the kingdom. not far from the palace itself. Flags and banners waved from every gate and along every roadside. Colorful displays of food and drink were laid out on altars crowded along the roads.

[23:07]

Minstrels and musicians strolled among the throngs of people, adding mirth and merriment to the bustling festivities. Holy men chanted with utmost solemnity as Siddhartha's father and all the dignitaries of the court stood facing the unfolding ritual. Siddhartha stood back stood towards the back with his friends at his side. The boys were excited because they had been told that when the rituals were over, everyone would enjoy a feast spread out on the grassy meadow. Siddhartha did not often go to picnics, and he was delighted. But the holy men's chanting went on and on for what seemed like forever, and the young boys were restless. Unable to endure anymore, they wandered off. They went into the direction of the music and dancing. The hot sun blazed, and the performers' costumes grew wet with perspiration. Beads of sweat shone on the dancing girl's forehead. And running about the scenes of entertainment, Sid Hartha, too, grew hot, and he left his friends to seek the shade of the rose apple tree alongside the road.

[24:13]

Beneath the cool branches, Sid Hartha felt pleasantly refreshed. At that moment, the Tommy appeared, and spotting her son, she said, I've been looking all over for you. Where have you been? You should return now for the conclusion of the ceremony. It would please your father. Mother, the ceremony is too long. Why must the holy men chant so long? They are reciting the Vedas, my child. The scriptures have a profound meaning, handed down by the Creator himself to the Brahmins countless generations ago. You will study them soon. Why doesn't Father recite the scriptures instead of having the Brahmins do it? Only those born into the Brahmana class are permitted to recite the scriptures, my child. Even kings who wield great power must depend on the services of the Brahmins for priestly duties. Siddhartha thought over Gautami's words. After a long pause, he joined his palms and entreated her, Please, Mother, ask Father if I may stay here.

[25:15]

I feel so happy sitting beneath this rosehub of trees. giving in good-naturedly to her child, but Tommy smiled and nodded. She striped his hair and then returned down the path. At last the Brahmins concluded their prayers. King Sudhana stepped down into the fields, and together with two military officers, began to plow the first row of the season, as cheers resounded from the crowd. Then the farmers followed the king's example and began to plow their fields. Hearing the people's cheers, Siddhartha ran to the edge of the field. He watched a water buffalo straining to pull a heavy plow, followed by a robust farmer whose skin was bronze from long work in the sand. The farmer's left hand steadied the plow, while his right hand wielded a whip to urge the buffalo on. Sun glazed and the man's sweat poured in streams from his body. The rich earth was divided into two neat burrows. As the plow turned the earth, Siddhartha noticed that the bodies of worms and other small creatures were being cut as well.

[26:20]

As the worms writhed upon the ground, they were spotted by birds who flew down and grabbed them in their beak. Then Siddhartha saw a large bird swoop down and grasp a small bird in its talons. Utterly absorbed in these events, standing beneath the burning sun, Siddhartha too became drenched in sweat. He ran back to the shade of the rose apple tree. He had just witnessed so many things strange and unknown to him. He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to reflect on all he had seen. Composed and erect, he sat for a long time, oblivious to all the singing, dancing, and picnicking taking place around him. Siddhartha continued to sit, absorbed by the images of the field and the many creatures. And I might add, it's not in this one, but in some versions, He sat there for at least a few hours, and the story is that the sun didn't move from the sky so that the shade, he could remain in the shade of the tree, so that the shade didn't leave.

[27:30]

Though Tommy was moved with tears, seeing how beautiful St. Harper looked like a small silk statue, but King Sudoana was seized with sudden apprehension. If St. Harper could sit so solemnly at such a young age, Might not the holy man in Sita's prophecy come true? Too disturbed to remain for the picnic, the king returned alone to the palace and Julia's carriage. And this part seems really to take on time for me. Some poor country children passed by the tree, speaking and laughing happily. But Tani motioned them to be quiet. She pointed to Siddhartha sitting beneath the rose apple tree. Curious, the children stared at him. Suddenly, Siddhartha opened his eyes Seeing the queen, he smiled. Mother, he said, reciting the scriptures says nothing to help the worms and lures. Siddhartha stood up and ran to Gautama and clasped her hand. He then noticed the children observing him. They were about his own age, but their clothes were tattered, their faces soiled, and their arms and legs hideously thin.

[28:33]

Aware of his princely attire, Siddhartha felt embarrassed, and yet he wanted very much to play with them. He smiled and hesitantly waved, and one voice smiled back. That was all the encouragement Siddhartha needed. He asked for permission to invite the children to the picnic feast. At first, his mother hesitated, but then she nodded in acceptance. I think that that story... Where does that story go? Well, this particular, this thing, this very thing that I read, Tic-Nac-Hon. But Tic-Nac-Hon didn't make up that story. There's a lot of detail in that story. Right. To make, to take the picture. Right. I thought the author probably put in there.

[29:34]

I think Tic-Nac-Hon put in a lot of detail. But I think that the story, the parts of the story, that are actually, and if you want me to find which one of these things it's actually in, I'll do it. Actually, it's in the back of the book. Do you want me to tell you? I can. But, you know, I think, Paul, I think that the elements of the story about the tree and the part that he left out about the sun stopping so that the child could go into the shade, and about the harvest ritual and cutting the ground and having the little animals being damaged and suffering. So that the child had an experience of compassion and then an experience of this first experience of kind of a concentrated state and absorption. I think those elements, I don't know about the elements of the ritual and coming by and being included by

[30:36]

that really sounds like Tlingit. And it's wonderful. I don't mean to say it's not wonderful, but... It's nice. Yeah, it's nice. Let's see. It is actually... Oh, I can't say these things. Okay. Acharyabhuta Sutta. Mahapadana Sutta. Malacca Sutra, and then some Chinese sources. But the Chinese sources came from these. So sure, it's a retelling. Like all of the things in the bibliography, all of them are retelling these stories that are principally in those materials. Did anybody have a comment or question about that?

[31:40]

Other than the slurs? Nothing, Andrea? Not like the story. I have a couple of questions I think that are pretty nice. I like the story, but there's a couple of things that are on the brink. Oh, I'm sorry, that has nothing to do with the story. I'm sorry. When I mentioned his stepmother, I just sort of skipped way past his enlightenment. That stepmother, that Sangha, Sangha's not in the story.

[32:43]

I'm sorry. The Sangha, does it mean family? No, Sangha, Sangha means, at first it meant the community of monks and nuns. And now it extends, well, extends to all people. Well, technically, all people who have taken refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. And in another sense, Sangha is everything that lives. So, it has many levels of meaning. But as far as the life of the Buddha goes, his original followers, and especially the people who ordained with him, were the Sangha. But now we talk about Sangha, we talk about Sangha's, you know, Somebody asked me about someone today and said, is he in the sangha? Meaning, is he a member of Bhagavad-Gita? So, I mean, sangha can mean that, but mostly, it means the people who are traveling.

[33:44]

Okay, so that was it. I'm sorry. Oh, no, no, it was fine. I didn't know. I sort of thought maybe Sangha were the word that came out of Buddhism. Well, you know, I think that these ascetics walking, traveling around in groups together, I mean, after the renunciation, which we'll get to in a second. So the ascetics, they travel around the world? Right, right. Some of these key terms, by the way, like sangha and so on, are defined quite nicely in brief paragraphs. I expect we have one here in this library, an encyclopedia of Buddhist terms. And there's one encyclopedia that has books on Buddhists, Hindu, and Taoist.

[34:50]

terms, so you can see them. Sometimes you see a term, how it was used in Hinduism, and how it was adapted for Buddhist purposes. So if you have a question like that, sometimes you can go to one of those books and get a very nice description. But if Sangha is a Buddhist term, didn't Buddhism come from this Buddha, this Siddhartha? So it wouldn't have been a term that would have been used in Hinduism, would it? Well, I'm so sorry. I don't think I read the term sangha in the story. I think I made a mistake by mentioning that Siddhartha's stepmother becomes ordained and it's much later. And I just skipped ahead and said kind of an aside. But Saga, I mean, is it an Egyptian? It could be an Egyptian. I don't mean to take us off on a different direction, but some of the stuff like Polly Cannon, I've read this book and it says something according to Polly Cannon.

[35:58]

I just bought it, and I bought it as a person. That's why I'm suggesting that you look at a book like this, because it can answer those questions very quickly and efficiently. Saga. So, literally, crowd or host, the Buddhist community. In a narrower sense, the Sangha consists of monks and nuns and novices. A wider sense of Sangha includes lay followers. And in an even wider sense, the Sangha includes everyone. But Sangha is one of the three precious ones. The way of life of its members is determined by rules established in the Vinaya. And the Vinaya is just the monastic rule that developed over time as more and more Muslim, I guess, became followers of Buddha and joined the Saga and had organized communities. Gautami. Okay. You want to take this one?

[37:03]

You want to ask why it says Gautami instead of... Gautami instead of Pancakara. Just... It's just the name of his book, but it's his stepmother that he's talking about. You know, like I tried to emphasize, there really are a lot of different details in the stories, but the basic stories are the same. But of course his mother, his birth mother was no longer there when he was 9 years old. Okay, you know, Following this outline, of course, when his father sees his son in this concentrated state, he becomes really concerned that in fact he might become a holy man instead of a king. And so he arranges, as I mentioned, arranges everything perfectly for this son. And he has an arranged marriage to Yasogara, who is actually a cousin.

[38:05]

underneath has this sense that something isn't quite right, but has a perfect life, and sees no suffering. And the story is that he went on an outing with this charioteer named Chana, and on this outing did see, you know, an old person, a sick person, a dead person, and you know, some stories say that he left the walls of the palace and saw these people's sights for the first time. And, but, you know, it's just as likely that maybe he had seen these things, but it hadn't really connected before. But he realized, you know, that kings, kings would become old and sick and die. And then the month is an inspiration. So the story of the renunciation, of course, is that he leaves just after the birth of his son, Rahula.

[39:12]

Interestingly enough, the child's name is Fetter. This child is the Fetter, this is what's going to hold me here. But, he looks at his wife, he looks at his child, and he leaves in the night, and joins a group of ascetics, and practices yoga, and fasting, an extreme mortification of the body for six years. And I didn't really realize it was in a jungle, jungle-y kind of area, but I suppose it is. Is Bihar jungle-y? No, not now. It was much more forest-y than Bihar is. It's concrete. It's desolate. It's just dust-full. We haven't done all the trees over the past 2,000 years. Why are we climbing all the trees? Well, the Golden Naga. The Golden Naga? They still live there.

[40:21]

So, he worked, his main teacher's name was Alara Kalama, the principal teacher, and you know, did a lot of meditation and did a lot of fasting and in the end it just didn't quite work. You know the stories or the interpretations of course say that all the yoga practices were completely beneficial for his later practice but you know he just couldn't reach what he wanted to reach through asceticism and so I guess in Milk Office, there's a picture or a statue of this bony, [...] bony figure. And that's his stake before a young girl comes with a bowl of rice porridge or rice milk or some food like that, rice milk, and offers it to him.

[41:23]

And when he takes it, of course, the ascetics, he's I think he's just completely left the path and we're very disappointed in him. But I think that for our practice it's really important. He realizes a middle way. He realizes that he can't find what he wants to find through asceticism any more than he can find it through sensory extravagance. You know, we don't really know. It says, well, immediately he sat under the Bodhi tree and decided, you know, he would sit there until he became enlightened. But the time period, who knows what the time period really was. You look like you know. But... I mean, the area that you go to, Bodh Gaya, the place where you got the rice milk is just across the river from the Bodhi tree.

[42:25]

Well, right, right, right. But the idea is... How long did he really have to build himself up before he was able to practice with any kind of physical strength? And then a young water buffalo that gave him the story is gave him pushigrass. And I brought some pushigrass. Gave him pushigrass to sit on. Yeah, and this, this actually is, I think, of course, the Kushi grass of the Buddha Sama was freshly cut and soft. And this is kind of dry and soft. But it is, and a little bit soft. It is from India. And I'm not, I have some at home and some of it was brought from India to Indiana for a Kala Chakra initiation.

[43:25]

But some of it I brought back from India. from a different initiation, the Dalai Lama. And it's really, this is, I guess, what it was. And if you could pass around, if you want to take a little bit home, it was blessed by the Dalai Lama for part of his ritual, for part of the empowerment. And actually the way it's used now, is you have a shorter one and a longer one, and you put the longer one lengthwise under your mattress and then shorter one under your pillow, and to see what your dreams might be. I'm afraid I didn't have any dreams. A story I heard about this grass is that it has this sort of auspicious connection. It's a comfortable thing to sit on as matting. But when you gather this grass,

[44:27]

You have to be very, very careful. You have to know exactly what you're doing. Because if you just grab it and try to pull it out, it'll slice your hand. It'll cut you. So it has this interesting other side. It has to be like snakes. It has to be handled properly in order to avoid danger. So he decides to follow the middle way, not go to extremes, recognizes that we're human beings with bodies and That's what we use for enlightenment, instead of 12 o'clock in the morning. Yes, it's cold, so we have this warm.

[45:31]

30, maybe? 30. He's looking for 20, 29. No, I think he's 35, because I think he's 29 when he goes home. And so six years, six years of austerity. Do you, if, do you think you might want to take a break at 8, almost 8, maybe? Do you think if we're going to have a break, this might be a time when two of us have fun? I think Charlie says yes. All right. Let's take a five minute break. Tomorrow. Oh my goodness. It's wet. Like a doctor. I skied about this. What? [...] I skied about this.

[46:32]

What? I skied about this. [...] What? The thing that I would just like to mention is that it would be great if you picked up a schedule by the bulletin board outside and came for Zazen at 5.40 in the afternoon or 5.40 in the morning. It's really very... 9.20 on Saturday? Yeah. 9.20 or Zazen instruction at 9.20. Yeah, actually Zazen is at 9.20. Yeah, that's right. Well, the story is that the Buddha sat down in the tree and said that he wasn't going to get up until he reached enlightenment.

[47:50]

The stories are that Mara comes with horses and demons and armies and all kinds of chaos that he endures. David and many other people interpret that as, you know, in our meditation practice we encounter all kinds of dark side, darkness, shadow side stuff, and maybe just sort of psychic disorganization. It's unpleasant, terrifying. Is there anyone who has had that experience? So again, the Buddhist practice is kind of a model or an archetype for all of our practice. That was the best part of it. You like that? Yeah, I like it. Do you know what that movie reminded me of? It reminded me of a junior high school play.

[48:50]

That's what that movie seemed like to me. However, I mention it because this is the amazing thing about the movie. In my honors class for 10th grade, we read Sidhartha Bhagavad Gita. And I showed them that movie. And you know what? They really loved it. Amazing. Can I ask a sound question? Did the Buddha know he sat under the Bodhi tree, not enlightened, waiting to be enlightened? He knew that he was going to be? I think he had faith that he was going to be in life. Sure. That he was going to be. Nobody else. Does anybody else have faith in him? Many people have faith in him. How do you know what he was thinking? Well, he's the proof of it. Yeah, it's just like, who does he think he is?

[49:52]

Well, that's not what Sojan said. What did Sojan say? Sojan said, And, okay, so does the habit. And that is, so does the pain. Right? I'm out of time. But there's some of this that, you know, I mean, I don't know, I didn't know anything about Buddhism. I grew up south of Memphis. We don't know about Buddhism. So anyway, but he said that in his lecture on Saturday, even, or sometime, He said that there were a lot of Buddhas, and he also said that the Buddhas who came before. So why is this guy the Buddha when there were Buddhas before? I guess this isn't part of the class, but... Well, no, that is an important question. It's a very good point. What Sochi was talking about is that eons and eons before Shakyamuni Buddha.

[50:57]

This historical person is this historical... Right. And the one, you know, if you go and pick up books about them on the shelves in here, we're talking about that person. who lived approximately, who died approximately 483 BC, Chinese say 368, you know, but approximately 400 years before Christ, okay? That physical nirmanakaya buddha, physical body person, that's who we're talking about. Those other buddhas, those other buddhas are that supposedly endless buddhas in eons of time that we can't even measure that there were buddhas in other... But this buddha is sort of for our time period to teach us. There's the other thing that Roth said, all sentient beings are buddhas.

[51:59]

I mean, there's also that sense of it. But the term Buddhism, the phrase Buddha, did it just come about with this one that we're talking about here? Christianity came up, I don't think Christianity was Christianity before Jesus Christ came up, right? I mean, was there Christianity before that? So what I'm wondering, was there Buddhism before this guy? If there is, we don't know about it. But like Charlie said, the word Buddha means awakened, the awakened one. What is it in Indian form? It's Pali. Right, back to Pali again. Got it. OK, thanks. You answered it. Thank you. It wasn't Siddhartha. You know, Siddhartha is the name of a religion, right? When we study the Four Noble Truths, we'll hear the Buddha describe what it is that he came to understand under the Bodhi Tree.

[53:21]

That is, something about the content of his awakening and what he says at that time, which you'll see later when you read it, is that he had not heard of that teaching from anyone else before. So that the content of his awakening expressed as a teaching is not a teaching he had ever heard from anyone else before. And you have to complicate things a little bit more. There is, in our Bodhisattva ceremony, we say homage to the Buddha, because Buddha is before Buddha, remember? But those are not historical Buddhas in the sense that we are historical people right now. It's something you just have to... I can imagine the beginningless time. So there's both of those things.

[54:29]

So he had realizations. He sat down, overcame Mara's temptations, had realizations with each watch of the night and enlightenment with the morning star. And I think, you know, who is going to witness this? Who's going to verify your enlightenment? Who's going to, what is it, authorize? or verify your realization. And that we have so many figures and paintings of Buddha touching the ground, this mudra touching the ground and saying, the earth is my witness. So that's what that mudra is. His first teaching was in Deer Park, near Benares, the first turning of the wheel. And he talks about the middle way and the Four Noble Truths David's going to talk much more about that. But the content of this realization. What does it mean, the first? The first training in the goodwill means the first time he teaches the dharma.

[55:37]

Dharma means his teaching. But also, there's another meaning of dharma, which is sort of all the positive things, but just the teaching of the Buddha. and establishes the Sangha. He returns to his family, and the story goes that his son ordains as a monk, and that his father receives teachings. And one of the stories is that his father actually attains enlightenment and dies very, very soon after that. A little later, his stepmother asks to be ordained as a monk. and is subject for whole class. But we won't even, you know, eventually Ananda, the Buddha's close disciple, kind of convinces him to ordain his stepmother, that yes indeed, and Buddha never said anything different from, yes, women are just as able as men to attain enlightenment.

[56:48]

And after coaxing ordained women, In the last six months, you know, of his life, he taught in 14 places, the first of which was Vulture Peak. And just quickly, very quickly, in this book that David recommended, called Buddha, by Kieran Armstrong, there's really a significant part of the book that talks about political intrigue, divisions in the saga, backbiting, all of this, which you really don't read much about in many traditional Buddhist stories. And I read it and I was so amazed that the same kind of chaos that we experience sometimes, or unsettledness in sagas, might have been happening there in the original saga as well. So I guess, you know, there's so much detail in this and I'm almost done, but certainly you could go back and if you have any questions later on in later classes, do ask.

[57:57]

I find his death very, very important, interesting. I'm very much drawn to that. And Kusinagar, oh my goodness, did you go? Have you been there, Kusinagar? Paul, you did go. I mean this, he was in Vasali, and he went to, basically he ate bad mushrooms, that's the story, bad mushrooms, some people say bad meat or pork, but he knew he was going to die, and he went to this place, Kusinagar or Kusinara, and His disciples say, why are you down here? Why do you stay in this place? It's really this nowhere place. And it's kind of interesting, because on the map, I could find all these places on the map. But I even got a colleague at my school to try to help me find this place, because she'd heard of it.

[59:05]

But it's not on the map. It really is sort of a backwater place. But that's, he said, you know, this is a good place, it's been a good place in the past. And I think, we have time to do this, and I would really like for us to just read his last words. to the monks. Can I ask you a question? Yes. So how long was he teaching after the Enlightenment? I got a feeling it was numerous years. Oh, it was? No, no, I'm sorry. It's just really a long time. Yeah. Like he died when he was, I think, 80, right? So what year are you saying? 485? Well, 483 B.C. is my number, 386. That means that he was 45, given the date of his birth. 368 is another number that's there. Basically, he was 80 years old when he died. So maybe he taught for 45 years.

[60:06]

The last words of the Buddha? You know, actually, Actually, maybe we don't really need to read this. I'll just say something about it, because we're running out of time, and we should have some time for questions or comments. But, I think it's important that he says, What I have taught and laid down, Ananda, is doctrine, dhamma, and discipline, Vinaya. This will be your teacher when I am gone. And, in the next, sort of second paragraph, in the next section, I think it's really interesting that he says that the Sangha, the community, the order, in parentheses, should wish it and not to let them when I am gone abolish the lesser and minor precepts. And then, here's this interesting little thing about Chana. Chana was his charioteer, the one who took him with the chariot ride outside the palace when he saw the four signs, four sites.

[61:16]

The highest penalty should be imposed upon the bhikkhu Chana. But sir, what is the highest penalty? Let the bhikkhu try to say what he likes, and none of the bhikkhus should neither speak to him, nor advise him, nor exhort him." And if you read the footnote, it's as though he was trying to exhibit a lot of pride and willfulness, especially because he had this special relationship with the Buddha. But anyway, that got worked out, and it got lifted. But in his last speech, that's a pretty strong thing for him to say, I think. I think it's interesting. The most important thing is that he asked three times. He asked the bhikkhus three times. Do not reproach yourself afterwards with the thought our teacher was face to face with us. We could not ask the Blessed One when we were face to face with him. Is there any doubt? Is there any perplexity that you have? And no one asked any questions. No one said anything.

[62:19]

And he even said to the bhikkhus, If you feel uncomfortable asking because you think it might bother me, ask, tell a friend. I want your friend to ask. But no one, no one asked any more questions. Benny says that his bhikkhus, Ananda has faith, but he knows for sure that all of the bhikkhus, 500 bhikkhus, the lowest in spiritual attainment is a stream-enterer, not liable to fall into lower states. And then, just before he dies, he says, Then the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus, saying, Then bhikkhus, I address you now, transient or conditioned things, try to accomplish your aim with diligence. And you read that statement, and every single book has a different translation. But the basic idea, impermanent, are all impermanent things.

[63:22]

Strive on in mindfulness. That's the last word. So, do you want to answer questions? You know, one thing David mentioned that he has done in his classes, you might want to say something about that. If you're inspired by anything in these Life of the Buddha imagery, and want to write a poem about it and share it with us at a later class, that would be great. Any of the other things David's going to bring up? Actually, I did that in the classroom. Somebody else reads it for you? Yeah, we had to do poems and I didn't want to read them. The last thing she said to me was, don't ask people to do it. No, it's a nice thing to do. But it's completely optional. You know, it is. It's optional. OK, well, I'm wondering if, you know, during the time of the Buddha, I mean, how, how widespread or influential was he?

[64:30]

I mean, he, you know, he set up a, you know, fairly, you know, strong system. Well, I, I... Yeah, it's really interesting. I mean, I'm sure you had your own answer. Look where he was in all of India. But... Well, it wasn't easy to get around in those days. But you know what I've read? But I, but I have read that actually all these challenges to the sort of traditional religious authorities in India, some of the things I've read have stated that really the Buddha's teaching and the Buddha's followers were among the really strongest challenges to the religious authorities. I think it was, I think it really was a big It made a pretty big impression. It made a big impression, yeah. It kind of went underground for a while, right? After he died, it wasn't until Ahsoka... Well, he was a guy who wasn't very long though, so... When did I say he made his first...

[65:43]

What did you say? What did you write? I wrote down here something. Well, in some of my notes, I have the Shogun's handwriting. Right. It's on the first page. Lumbini. 316. Monument erected by his Shogun in 316 stands today. That's the one. What's really interesting to me is a movement like that. First of all, it must start simply as a movement. It's not a religion that doesn't have an army. It doesn't have much infrastructure. It seems that the Buddha got pretty big donations and people gave him land and so on, and buildings in which to teach and so on. But it was more a movement. And so that it would proceed, you know, for a while, a couple hundred years, and survive that.

[66:50]

He died, you know. He had, apparently, had enlightened successors. But when you read about his death, it's not, you don't get the feeling that his successors were sort of people, you know, just waiting in the wings. ready to take over, to walk in his shoes. They were quite, some of them were quite accomplished people. But his death, of course he was going to die. He was an old man by any standard. But it lasted. It lasted at all. It was amazing. And then, as you say, it was, what is it, 100 years before Ashoka. takes up Buddhism and you get this real powerful connection between a king, a powerful regional king and the religion.

[67:57]

You can imagine a movement then getting some real horsepower going that would allow it to survive a long time. But what he started must have had some kind of very powerful something there that was very strong over the last couple hundred years at some level. Well, wasn't that called a personality? I mean, that was one of the smart things he did was to emphasize on himself. And like David said, he did have lots of donors, and lots of monks, and monasteries, and taught mostly in cities. So, although his first, traditionally his first Disciples were what? The ascetics. We've been disciplined. We start with the five ascetic friends. Who sort of write down these teachings? I don't know exactly who did it.

[69:00]

I can't answer that question. But I know it began happening about a hundred years after his death. I have 400 years too, except I read another source somewhere. And Ananda's supposed to be, they say, himself as this perfect oral memory, instead of one sitting on a hill and forgetting it.

[70:04]

Instead of that. So, you know, maybe it's like Walt Disney taught the other guys how to draw. I'm just sort of thinking in terms of Christiane tracing the roots back. It's kind of a philosophical thing. So I'm thinking maybe I'm going to talk a little bit about that. I think there's still Shakya people in Nepal. I think there's still a group of people, like a clan, a Balshaki clan.

[71:11]

I think she was talking about what I'm saying. Yeah, just a lot of human beings, direct descendants, the family lineage. Not necessarily Buddhism, but this guy. It turned out to be the Buddha. Is that lineage? We don't know. We don't know as much as you do. It's either Buddha or something. You don't have to be sure. Yeah, I pick it. It's 9 to 5.

[71:59]

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