Awakened One (eBook)

Introduction Thestory of a human life grips us very directly because it is a case history ofthe condition we all share. Since beginningless time people have listened tostories of what others have done, feeling for the pattern in life these storiesmight reveal, exploring for their own possibilities, their own boundaries. Wewant to know where life can go, what can be made of it, how far its scope canextend. Are there barriers? Are there hidden treasures? Though we may appearsettled, we are always testing, testing at our edges and limits or retreatingfrom having done so. Convention, ordinary life, provides an artificialdefinition and an artificial safe haven. But the walls of convention are thin.If we pass through them, what is the real reach and range of existence thatlies beyond? Inthe context of this basic questioning, the life of the Buddha is an immenselandmark. The Buddha was a prince, and he left the palace. He stepped out ofthe pattern that he had grown into and set out on a journey of discovery fromwhich he never returned. He might have been discouraged and beaten and fallenback on the easy life, or he might have followed a sidetrack into insanity. Butinstead he completed his journey. The Buddha fully explored the true reach andrange of reality. He set out to conquer death, and he actually did so. This iswhat makes him a hero for us, an exemplar. That is why his life story isparticularly gripping. Firsthe discovered that there is no safety. The basic weather ofexistence—,impermanence—,beats mercilessly upon whatever we try to erectagainst it. No stuff of dreams, no cocoon of convention, can withstand change,aging, and death. So the prince reluctantly renounced clinging to the illusionof security and sought the reality beyond it. Relentlessly, with unflaggingcourage and devotion, he followed the path pointed out by intelligence. Theresult? A prince completely awoke from all dreams and became a buddha, anawakened one. Amantra enshrined in TheHeart Sutra, akey Buddhist text, runs, Gategate para gate parasam gate bodhi svaha.'Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone completely beyond, awake, so be it.'That limns the first part of the Buddha's story. Therest of the story is the down-to-earth pageantry of wisdom and compassion. The'Thus-Gone One,' the Tathagata, as the Buddha is called, clearly seesthe totality of existence and beyond existence. He sees the parameters of allthat is and how they are constituted, how the whole thing works and does notreally work. Does he come back to those he left behind who are still earnestlyslumbering, passionately caught up in dreams, and find a way to open and cleartheir eyes? At first, knowing the difficulty, the Tathagata decides to remainsilent (a tendency he constantly reverted to ever after). But waking andsleeping—,the Buddha and confused beings—,are inseparably bound together, partof the same magic. This truth is acted out in our story by a god who appearsand entreats the Buddha to teach. He arouses the Tathagata's fathomlesscompassion, and from there unfold forty-five years of communicating, ofteaching the Dharma. The Dharma is the wisdom of total vision, which can beboiled down to knowing in specific circumstances what should be cultivated andwhat should be refrained from. The Buddha's forty-five years of teachingrequired a mountainous labor of patience and care, not to mention anincalculable amount of walking. And it did an incalculable amount of good, aswe shall see. Thereexists a large and complex body of material on the Buddha's life. It ispreserved in writing in ancient texts of various Buddhist traditions and...