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An overview of Buddha's
life brings his teachings much closer. The boy was decidedly no virgin birth, but was the very last opportunity for his mother to have a child, and shortly after he was born, three yogis told his parents this: '~He is truly special. If he is not confronted with the suffering of the world, he will become everything you wish him to be. A strong king, he will conquer the neighboring kingdoms and fulfill all your expectations. If, however, he perceives the suffering inherent in conditioned existence, he will renounce his position and bring enlightening insights into the world." His parents wanted
an heir to their kingdom and no poet, dreamer or philosopher, so they
decided to be very careful.
Since the yogis' prediction,
everything unpleasant had been kept away from the future Buddha. Therefore
he witnessed suffering only late in his life, but then in its main physical
expressions. The next morning he
passed a Yogi in deep meditation, and their minds met. The future Buddha
knew that he had found a true refuge. At his time, there
were no spiritual "turbo chargers" or "fast lanes"
such as contained in the Tibetan teachings of Mahamudra or Maha Ati, the
Chag Chen or Dzog Chen. These most efficient of methods Buddha could only
show after his enlightenment. Nobody in his time possessed a "view"
of life which integrated all aspects of life into the path, like brushing
your teeth, making love, thinking, sleeping or eating, and used them to
recognize one's mind. As "riding the great tiger of immediate experience"
was not possible then, the prince could only choose the much slower path
of renouncing the world. He had to limit the number of daily distractions.
Wanting beyond all
things to realize the nature of mind, there was no time for a leisurely
search, and his next six years were hard. While he stayed in the woods
and clearings of northern India, the young prince perfected even the most
extreme practices given to him. And, as his motivation Sometimes outran
his judgment, he once nearly starved himself to death. He learned
from the finest teachers available at his time and practiced within all
the schools of thought known also today. An unusual spiritual
openness enriched the India of Buddha's times comparable to that of ancient
Greece, the Renaissance and our own "sixties." Even though the
most recent surge left a lot of casualties due to drugs, such frontal
attacks on materialism and authority are noble and of utmost importance.
People in the sixties were idealistic and strove, though often short-sightedly,
for the happiness of all. Blind to emerging ghettos, overpopulation and
other looming dangers to the world, they expressed their idealism on many
levels, trusted in the basic goodness of beings, and avoided becoming
snobs. Whenever dualistic
philosophies are allowed to pervade every aspect of existence, freedom
suffers badly! Where it happened and people allowed a power structure
to disseminate it, the result was burned witches, Communism, Nazism, quotas
or political correctness. Where Buddhism arose,
not only were safeguards against abuse of spiritual power expected, but
the teachings themselves were also severely tested. BUDDHA'S
ENLIGHTENMENT As enlightenment dissolved
the last veils that covered his mind, the perceived separation between
space and energy in and around him disappeared, and he became timeless,
all-knowing awareness. Through every atom of his body he knew everything and was all. Crossing the river from the place where he had reached his goal, the Buddha stayed for three weeks below the now famous tree at Bodhgaya. Then he gave refuge' to several gods and trained his body to handle the intense flow of enlightened energies, but taught no human beings there. His first teaching for humans was given four weeks later at the Deer Park near Sarnath, a village about halfway between Delhi and Calcutta. The neighboring town of Benares is very holy to the Hindus. They burn their dead at the banks of the Ganges and throw the remains into the river. A complete pilgrimage to the site includes such delicacies as bathing in the vast stream and drinking its water. The five truth seekers
who first came to him were not the most attractive of students. Being
grumpy by nature, they had adored him while he practiced extreme austerities
but were now disgusted at his radiant joy and health. Understanding such
states to be "worldly" and thinking mainly of themselves, they
were the very clients to quickly send somewhere else. |