1.4 The Most Fortunate One is the teacher of all humans and deities (From Abhisanda Sutta) To Get the Protection of the Order of the Gautama Buddha teacher-of-all-humans-and-deities The Supreme Buddha’s next quality is known as ‘Anuttarō Purisadammasārathī’. Various people in this world involve in training different animals like horses, elephants, and dogs. Some teach humans. The ‘Anuttarō Purisadammasārathī’ name is given to the person who is best among the trainers. Here, training means taming or disciplining. It is the Supreme Buddha who trains others in the proper manner: that is He teaches one as, ‘cultivate your virtue in this manner; cultivate concentration in this manner; cultivate wisdom in this manner; now do this’, and etc. The person who follows the Supreme Buddha’s advices will achieve path-fruition becoming either a stream-winner (Sōtāpanna), once-returner (Sakadāgāmī), non-returner (Anāgāmī), or an Arahant (Arahant). Thus, the Supreme Buddha is the best among the trainers. That is He is ‘Anuttarō Purisadammasārathī’. And it is an amazing thing. Sometimes, we also select people according to their talent in different fields. The Supreme Buddha had an amazing talent to identify talents of different people: At the time of the Supreme Buddha, there were two brothers. They ordained in the Dispensation of the Buddha. The elder brother was very talented in remembering the Dhamma really well, but the second brother was unable to remember even one stanza. So, the elder brother asked his young brother to give up the monkhood and leave, “You can’t remember the Dhamma. You must go back home and start cultivating some plants.” But the younger brother didn’t want to leave the monkhood. At the end, the younger-brother monk went to the temple’s gate and sat there crying. The Supreme Buddha came to him. “Chūla Panthaka, why are you crying?” “Oh dear Sir, my brother asked me to leave the temple.” “Why was that?” “I can’t remember any stanza I read. Therefore, he asked me to leave the monkhood and cultivate a field at home.” “No, that’s not what you should do. Your brother doesn’t own this dispensation.” The Supreme Buddha gently touched the monk’s head and took his hand, “Come with me.” The Supreme Buddha gave this young monk a small piece of cloth. “Dear monk, rub this cloth saying ‘cleaning, cleaning (rajō haranhan)’.” The young monk did as the Buddha told him. He saw that even though his intention was to clean the cloth, it was actually getting dirty gradually, “I rubbed this saying it to clean, but it is actually getting dirty.” His mind was well concentrated on to what happened to the cloth. The Supreme Buddha preached the Dhamma, so that the monk’s mind will be cultivated. In a moment, the young monk became an Arahant. See how his talent of realizing the Dhamma was concealed within him. If it was not the Buddha himself, who else would be able to do such a miracle? How many chances we may have missed and how many talents of us realizing life may have been concealed within us? Who would know how to unveil that talent in us? It was this Chūla Panthaka Thero who became the first among the Bhikkhus who were able to create mental (Manōmaya) bodies. His brother monk didn’t know about it. He thought Chūla Panthaka Thero has gone home by that time. On that same day, all Bhikkhus went to alms-offering invitation. The Supreme Buddha told them that one monk is missing. Nobody knew about Chūla Panthaka Thero. The Supreme Buddha asked someone to go fetch the missing monk from the temple. When he went to the temple, he saw one thousand monks. They were all alike. They were walking, cleaning the ground, and meditating. That person who came to fetch the monk ran back to the house and told the Supreme Buddha, “Dear Sir, there are thousand monks in the temple now.” The Supreme Buddha told him, “Please go back and ask what his name is. Touch the robe of the monk whoever answers first.” So, that person went back to the temple and said, “Who among you is called Chūla Panthaka Thero?” Then all thousand monks came forward saying, “I am… I am… I am…” As soon that person touched the monk who first answered, all other nine hundred ninety nine monks (bodies) disappeared. He said, “Dear Sir, please come to lunch.” Chūla Panthaka Thero answered, “Dear devotee, you go please. I will come later.” The Supreme Buddha had the devotees at home to make a chair for Chūla Panthaka Thero. Then a Bhikkhu appeared from beneath the ground and sat on that chair; it was the Chūla Panthaka Thero. We just talked about a supernatural power of a disciple of the Buddha. Think about how powerful would the Teacher himself would have been with His great supernatural powers. For us, it is a huge deal when someone just created some ash. We would be amazed from that. But, see how fortunate those people who lived in that pleasant past were to see those kinds of miracles. We are not talking about the miracles of the Supreme Buddha, but of a disciple. See how superb the way the Teacher trains them. There is another incident. Once, a group of thirty Bhikkhus came to see the Supreme Buddha after spending some time in a forest. The Buddha thought, “The minds of these thirty monks are well matured now. I shall preach them a sermon, so that they can become Arahants on their seats right now.” Then, the Supreme Buddha preached the Dhamma looking at those monks minds from His divine eye. When that sermon was over, all thirty monks attained the Arahantship. This is the true meaning of taming a person; the Supreme Buddha is therefore known as “Anuttarō Purisadammasāratī”. If the Supreme Buddha was alive now, how many of us may have already become Arahants? We don’t know it. Our fortune is concealed now. If we would become unable to get the benefit of this Dhamma at least up to small amount, who would know if we are going to get another chance in the future or not. The next quality of the Supreme Buddha is known as ‘Sattā Dēvamanussānan’. This means, the Supreme Buddha is the teacher of both deities and humans. Both ‘Sattā’ and ‘Dēvamanussānan’ are old Indian words. You know the world ‘gal’ (carts). At that time in old India, five hundreds, thousands of carts travel at nights, because it was too hot at daytime. One who goes first determines the path by the stars in the sky. In that way, he can go forward correctly. That person who leads all other carts was called ‘Shāstru’. If he was not present, they can’t get out from desert. There were many talented people who know how to determine the path by looking at the starts in the sky. One of those people led all the carts in their right path. It was in fact the chief of the carts who does that, and he was known as ‘Satthu’ (teacher). The Supreme Buddha also teaches us the path to free us from the desert known as ‘Samsara’. The Buddha is our Shāstru (teacher) because He shows us the path to free from the Samsara. So, the Supreme Buddha is the Teacher for both deities and humans. Therefore, we need to remember that a Supreme Buddha is born to this world in order to free both deities and humans from suffering (of Samsara) and not just the humans. This leads us to understand the fact that both deities and humans can follow the Noble Eightfold Path. It is the ones who don’t know about this tell that, ‘there’s no meaning getting a birth in a divine world (a false-view).’ If someone asks why do they say that? Their answer is that, ‘there’s too much pleasure in divine worlds, and one cannot accumulate merits in those worlds (another false-view).’ It is like they always accumulate merits in here as humans. They don’t know these things well and just say something that pops into their minds. All deities of all divine worlds from Chātummahārājika divine world to Akanhithā Brahma world can attain path-fruition by following the Noble Eightfold Path. Even right now, there is a countless number of deities in these worlds who have attained path-fruitions. In the Dhammachakka Sutta, it is said that deities from twenty two divine worlds came to listen to the Dhamma preached by the Supreme Buddha and attained path-fruitions. Deities can still attain path-fruition. But, that opportunity is very rare in the human world today. It is also difficult to find ones who preach the untainted Dhamma today. Also, some even try to prevent another preaching that Dhamma. Therefore, there are lots of obstacles in the human world today to practice the Dhamma. The main reason for such difficulty is that there aren’t many people/disciples who have Sammā Ditthi and who believe in good and evil deeds. Such people don’t have the opportunity to get a life in a divine world. Only the ones who cultivate merits well will get births in divine worlds. You might think that it is easy to get a birth in a divine world. But it isn’t. It is also difficult to get a birth in the human world. Both these are difficult things to achieve. Beings who are born in human world or in a divine world have the chance to realize this Dhamma and free themselves from the Samsara. Someone may still think that, ‘but there’s too much pleasure in divine worlds.’ But, that’s not the way how you should think. There are pleasures in human world too. Like humans get deceived by this pleasure in human world, some deities also get deceived by the pleasures they have in those divine worlds. When the Supreme Buddha’s Dhamma is preached in the human world, wise people who listen it will realize it. (It is the wise person who realize this Dhamma and not the one who suffers more.) Similarly, deities who are wise will realize the Dhamma when it is preached to them. This is why the Supreme Buddha is known as the ‘teacher of both deities and humans.’ The Dhamma discourses preached by the Supreme Buddha to deities can be found in the first part of the Sanyukta Nikāya very beautifully. ‘Sakkpañña Sutta’ consists of the Dhamma preached to the deity Sakkra (chief of deities). The Sakkra came to the Supreme Buddha, listened to the Dhamma, and took refuge of the Triple Gem. The Sakkra passed away at that very moment and reborn as the Sakkra again in an instant. The deity Sakkra then told the Supreme Buddha, “Since I took refuge of the Lord Buddha, I was reborn as the Sakkra again after I passed away.” This means that he was dead while talking to the Lord Buddha and reborn at the same place in the next second (deities are born in the way called Ōpapātika, which means in an instant but not in a womb of a mother). The King Bimbisāra died and was born as the ‘Janavasabha’ divine being. He came to see the Supreme Buddha after his birth in the divine world. Baron Anāthapinhdika has also been born as a divine being now. There is another wonderful incident: a sister of devotee Vishākhā got a birth in the divine world called ‘Paranimmita Vasavattī’ as a result of her being happy seeing the great Pūrvārāma temple offering. One day, the Arahant Moggallāna asked that deity the reason for her to get a divine birth in that divine world. Then she answered, “Oh dear Sir, Vishākhā was a sister of mine. She offered a temple to the Supreme Buddha and His disciple monks. I was very happy about it. I partook that great act. I didn’t get the chance to do another meritorious act. I got this birth in this divine world as a result of that merit.” See how remarkable the way the merits come with us. This shows that it is the people who accumulated great merits live in divine worlds now. The Supreme Buddha has even preached about the lifespans of deities in these divine worlds. As I remember, four hundred years of the human world is only a day in the Thutisa divine world. This means, it is only about six or seven days to that world since the passing away of the Supreme Buddha. If we think wisely, we can see that one could be able to free himself from the Samsara within few lifetimes (three or four) after he meets the Dispensation of the Supreme Buddha. That is how noble this chance that some of us are losing because of our stupidity. If we are to get the best out of this opportunity by pleasing our minds about the Supreme Buddha, we will follow the path that the Buddha unveiled to us, no matter what others say. That is the (most) important matter. So, we talked about another great quality of the Supreme Buddha. That is, He is the Teacher of both deities and humans (Satthā Dēvamanussānan). - To be continued… By Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 13:47:15 +0000
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