Good morning. Good morning. Can you hear me in the back? Yes, good. Well, we are in their session, the one-day sitting that is closing our month-long aspects of practice period. And it's been quite wonderful sitting this morning. We have the rest of the day. I should say, for those of you who are not in session, but have been participating in aspects of practice, if you would like to come back for the closing ceremony, which is going to be at 8.45 this evening, you're welcome to do that. It'll be a short ceremony for about 15 minutes or so, and if you've been in aspects, you're welcome to come back for that. Over the course of this month, we've been doing a study of various of the early sutras, the ones from the Pali tradition, from the Pali Canon, which includes what are purported to be the Buddha's words in very often straightforward, simple exposition.

[01:24]

The canon also includes the Vinaya, which is the rules for monks' life. We haven't been studying that, monks and nuns, and then commentary tradition called the Abhidharma. But we've been focusing on pretty key sutras. The sutra literature itself is very large. There are a lot of them. and we haven't had an opportunity to look at many of them, but maybe this is something we can continue. I know that Lori's been studying them most summers you've been doing a group. Some of us find them really encouraging and warm and interesting, and they're the basics of Buddhism. before there was any such thing called Zen or Mahayana or Hinayana or any of the sects, there were these suttas, the words of Buddha.

[02:39]

So what I thought would be appropriate for the last lecture in aspects would be to talk about what would chronologically logically and chronologically be the last Sutta, the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the great discourse on the total unbinding, which is the Buddha's death. As it sits in the Pali Canon, it's It's just somewhere in the mix. I can't quite grasp a principle of order to the canon, but it's not the last one that comes. And it's a relatively long and detailed sutra that tells a quite extended narration from the Buddha's first

[03:47]

the illness that he has where he first sees, oh, I may be dying at the age of 80, through some more travels, his final meal, his final illness, his dying, his funeral, and the scattering of his ashes. And what occurred to me, I've been sort of thinking about this this week and reading the sutra and trying to figure out, there's a number of stories and points along the way that interest me a lot. And this morning what I realized was that I would tell parts of the story, I'm not going to do the whole thing, but tell it and talk about it from the perspective of Ananda.

[04:56]

Now, Ananda was, he's interesting in this story because he was the Buddha's attendant for more than 20 years. He was also the Buddha's first cousin. he plays a kind of archetypal role. He's like the sidekick, you know, so you could see, you know, he's a sidekick in a western or he has elements of Sancho Panza to to Don Quixote or Aaron to Moses, you know. The sidekick is often, this is I think an epic configuration and a very common configuration in stories where the sidekick is he's always there helping the hero and he also

[06:08]

tends to see things that the hero doesn't quite see. He's usually depicted as a little foolish, but with a great heart, and often tends to die first. He gets killed off a little earlier in the story, not in this particular case. But it's really interesting to think about this because here we have a narrative that's 2,500 years old and it kind of fits this model and I'll fill that out a little bit. But it's also interesting in this case because all of the sutras are told from the point of view, they're told by Ananda. So most of the sutras begin, thus I have heard, and the I that's hearing is Ananda.

[07:18]

Shortly after the Buddha's death, within the first year, all of the enlightened disciples convened a great council, and their primary task was to collect the words of Buddha, in spoken form, not in written form, and they invited the guy with the photographic memory, which was Ananda, and true to type they invited him but they had a problem because they were all enlightened arhats theoretically but he wasn't even though he had been the buddha's attendant for for 20 years he was not enlightened and so they couldn't invite him in but he was the one who remembered everything so They had to, I guess, they had to invoke some rapid and high-powered mojo and enlighten him.

[08:37]

And he became an arhat just before he walked in the door, which saved a lot of trouble. So these stories are told from Ananda's point of view in a broad way. So I thought I would go into this and thinking about that, what came to me is that some of the points that are emphasized are some of the points that were Ananda's reflection on really difficult teachings for him to understand. And I would say that given Ananda's sympathetic role, he kind of stands in for us. These are points that we have trouble understanding. One more thing about Ananda is that he's also the person who

[09:41]

argued, badgered, convinced the Buddha to create the women's order of nuns. The Buddha was not... It's a whole other discussion which we've had and will continue to have. Buddha was dubious about it and Ananda was insistent based on his understanding that they were equally capable of enlightenment and liberation and that was the case that he made and finally won with Buddha and so to this day in many traditions where there are nuns traditions women do have an annual ceremony that celebrates Ananda and his his action, his sympathetic, empathetic heart on their behalf as being an ally.

[10:46]

So, the first thing that happens is during this rainy season in the neighborhood of Vasali, when the Blessed One had entered upon the rainy season, there arose in him a severe illness and sharp and deadly pains came upon him. And the Blessed One endured them mindfully, clearly comprehending and unperturbed." And so this is a kind of intimation of mortality. And he says, then it occurred to the Blessed One, it would not be fitting if I came to my final passing away without addressing those who attended on me, without taking leave of the community of monks, then let me suppress this illness by strength of will, resolve to maintain the life process and live on." And so it came about that the Blessed One's illness was allayed.

[11:51]

So this is a time when the Buddha was was wandering from village to village and I don't think there were there wasn't the large community of monks with him. But Ananda is here and you know he's worried about the Buddha's health because he was his attendant, and he says to the Buddha, fortunate it is for me, O Lord, to see the Blessed One at ease again. Fortunate it is for me, O Lord, to see the Blessed One recovered. For truly, Lord, when I saw the Blessed One's sickness, it was as though my own body became weak as a creeper. Everything around became dim to me and my senses failed me. Still Lord, I had some little comfort in the thought that the blessed one would not come to his final passing away until he is given last instructions respecting the community of bhikkhus."

[12:56]

At this, the Buddha appears to get a bit annoyed. He says to Ananda, What more does the community of bhikkhus expect from me, Ananda? I have set forth the Dharma without making any distinction of esoteric or exoteric doctrine. There is nothing with regard to the teachings that the Tathāgata holds to the last with the closed fist of a teacher who keeps something back. But he's sympathetic. He's also sympathetic to himself. He says, Now I am frail, Ananda, old-aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. Even as an old cart, Ananda, is held together with much difficulty, so the body of the Tathāgata is kept going only with supports. It is, Ananda, only when the Tathagata, disregarding external objects, with the cessation of certain feelings, attains to and abides in the signless concentration of mind, that his body is more comfortable.

[14:11]

These practices are what we've been studying in our class on the Satipatthana Sutra, this how to regard objects, how to regard feelings, how to regard the body, how to regard the mind. These are the foundations of mindfulness and the Buddha repeats this several times. But then he says something that is quite wonderful and resonant in the Buddhist tradition and in other traditions as well. So after having said that to Ananda, he says, therefore, Ananda, be a light unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge. With the Dharma as your light, the Dharma as your refuge, seek no other refuge.

[15:14]

And this is These are also words that we find in various forms in Psalm 119. It says, Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light for my path. It's also echoed in the Gospels and in Revelation, but in those cases the word is Well, I'm sure that theologians could argue about this. It's the word. It's not the contemplation of oneself. It's using the teachings as a light. But as Master Yunmin in the Zen tradition says, everyone has their own light.

[16:20]

Each of us has this light within us. And as Dogen says in Fukanza Zengi, take the backward step and shine your light inward to illuminate yourself. All of these are embedded in the words that the Buddha says to Ananda. This is the source But it's not a doctrinal source, it's an experiential source. It's what the Buddha felt for himself, what the Buddha understood when he awakened and he said, now I am enlightened together with all beings, that all of us have this light within ourselves as we sit here today. the task is to encounter this light, to see it in ourselves and thereby to recognize it in each other.

[17:29]

So this is a telling point in the story. Then the Buddha makes a suggestion. He gives this teaching and then he says to Ananda, whosoever Ananda has developed, practiced, employed, strengthened, maintained, scrutinized, and brought to perfection the four constituents of psychic power could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world period or until the end of it. The Tathagata Ananda has done so. Therefore the Tathagata could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world period or until the end of it. So what he's saying was, I don't necessarily have to die.

[18:32]

Which, irrespective of what we think, it's a powerful thing to say. And he's telling this to Ananda. And then the next line says, but the venerable Ananda was unable to grasp the plain suggestion, the significant prompting given by the Blessed One. He did not beseech the Blessed One, may the Blessed One remain, O Lord, may the happy one remain throughout the world period for the welfare and happiness of the multitude out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, well-being and happiness of gods and men. This is what he doesn't say. This is what the Buddha is like giving him, you know, he's giving him his prompt and he doesn't get it. And the Buddha does this three times.

[19:34]

when for a second and a third time the Blessed One repeated his words, the Venerable Ananda remained silent. You'd think, you know, if he's repeating it, you might say, why are you saying this? What's the point here? But he doesn't say, and finally Buddha says, go now, Ananda, and do as seems fit to you. And then the Buddha, so the Buddha makes up his mind and he says he's going to pass away within the coming months and he goes to, he continues his wandering And then he renounces his will to live.

[20:44]

And there came a tremendous earthquake, dreadful and astonishing, and thunder rolled across the heavens. And the Blessed One beheld it with understanding and made this solemn utterance. This is the message that gets repeated again and again. What causes life, unbounded or confined, his process of becoming, this the sage renounces. with inward calm and joy, he breaks, as though a coat of mail, his own life's cause." So, he begins this teaching that all things come together and fall apart. So then, Ananda comes and realizes what's happened, and he says to the blessed one, may the blessed one remain, O Lord, may the happy one remain throughout the world period for the welfare and benefit and so on and so forth.

[21:50]

And the blessed one answered, enough, Ananda, do not entreat the Tathagata, for the time is past, Ananda, for such entreating. And Ananda asks three times. And Ananda said, This, O Lord, I have heard and learned from the Blessed One Himself. Whosoever Ananda has developed, practiced, employed, strengthened, maintained, and so on and so forth, therefore the Tathagata could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world period or end of it. And then Buddha said, And did you believe it, Ananda? Yes, O Lord, I did. Then Ananda, the fault is yours. Herein have you failed, inasmuch as you were unable to grasp the plain suggestion, the significant prompting given by the Tathāgata, and you did not entreat the Tathāgata to remain.

[22:51]

For if you had done so, Ananda, twice the Tathāgata might have declined, but the third time he would have consented." typical formulation and if any of you ask your teacher for something you will find that she or he may refuse you twice but the third time you better be careful about asking the third time because you may get it whether you want it or not so Ananda misses the boat and then he then the Buddha repeats this teaching. Yet, Ananda, have I not taught from the very beginning that with all that is dear and beloved there must be change, separation, and severance. Of that which is born, come into being, come into being is compounded and subject to decay.

[23:56]

So, again, he's repeating this message. And then he outlines the teachings which I won't go into. And then he gathers all the monks, and this is on the very next page only, like a paragraph later. He says, then the Blessed One, he gathers all the monks and said, so because I exhort you, all compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness. The time of the Tathagatas Parinirvana is near. Three months hence, the Tathagata will utterly pass away. So this is already, he's gathered the monks, but this is three months before he's going to die, but he, you know, he begins hammering home this message. And what I would suggest is, in a way, this is repeated because the Buddha needed to repeat it, but I think that it's also repeated

[25:01]

because this is the hardest thing for us to understand. It's the hardest thing to see those we love become ill, fade away. It's the hardest thing to see our own capacities and capabilities ebb or change, to see that life is at once very fragile, that it can come and go quickly, and that it's also tough. The toughness, I think, is what the Buddha is pointing to as the Dharma. That the Dharma is like this unbreakable thread.

[26:04]

You can't cut it with the sharpest knife or with a diamond. It continues even though the things of the world come together and fall apart. But this is very hard for Ananda. So there's a sense in which he's speaking to himself and in speaking to himself he's speaking to all of us. So then the Buddha has his last meal, and I won't go into a lot of detail, but this is three months later, and he goes to the house of Kunda, the metal worker, who is going to make a meal for all the monks. And the verse says, and Kunda, the metal worker, after the night had passed, had choice food, hard and soft, prepared in His abode, together with a quantity of sukhara-madhava, and announced it to the Blessed One, saying, It is time, O Lord, the meal is ready.

[27:12]

This is the great mystery, is what is this Sukara Madapa? I don't want to get too hung up on it. Sometimes it's translated as soft pork, which I think literally is what it translates as. Sometimes it's seen as mushrooms or truffles or something, but whatever it was, what the Buddha said with the other food, hard and soft, you may serve the community of beakers. Whatever kunda is left of the Sukara Mandava, bury that in a pit. For I do not see in all this world, with its gods, Maras and Brahmas, among the host of aesthetics and Brahmans, gods and men, anyone who could eat it and entirely digest it, except the Tathagata alone. Well, one might pause and say it didn't seem that he could actually digest it very well himself since it seemed to have provoked his death but anyway they took it out and they buried it in a pit and soon after the blessed one had eaten the meal provided by kunda the metal worker a dire sickness fell upon him even dysentery and he suffered sharp and deadly pains but the blessed one endured them mindfully clearly comprehending and unperturbed

[28:43]

So then... Where's this place here? Oh, right. Then the Buddha finds a place to lie down and they make a bed for him and he's taken care of. And they begin to prepare for his funeral. And Ananda can't stand it. He goes away and weeps. And the Buddha calls him back saying, you know, I need you here.

[29:49]

I need you to help me. But this is in Ananda's nature. And they have a last dialogue. So Ananda goes away and then Venerable Ananda, going into a nearby building, stood leaning against the door jamb, weeping. This is a very wonderful particular detail. Here I am, still in training, with work left to do, and the total unbinding of my teacher is about to occur, the teacher who has such love for me. Then the Blessed One said to the monks, monks, where's Ananda? Lord, venerable Ananda, having gone into that building, stands leaning against the doorjamb, weeping.

[30:51]

Then the Blessed One told a certain monk, Come, monk, in my name call Ananda, saying, The teacher calls you, my friend. And he went to the Blessed One, and on arrival, having bowed down to him, sat to one side. As he was sitting there, the Blessed One said to him, Enough, Ananda. Don't grieve. Don't lament. Haven't I already taught you the state of growing indifferent with regard to all things dear and appealing, the state of becoming separate, the state of becoming otherwise? What else is there to expect? It is impossible that one could forbid anything born, existent, fabricated, and subject to disintegration from disintegrating." And then he predicts that Ananda will become enlightened, which is nice, but it doesn't really make Ananda happy, particularly.

[31:56]

So the last thing I want to... Ananda makes mistakes. The last mistake, we were talking about it I think last week, he gets to ask a lot of questions of the Buddha as he was dying, and one of the questions he asks, he asks, what about the precepts? What about the Vinaya, all these rules that have been accumulating, there are sometimes 227 of them, And the Buddha says, after I am gone, the Sangha, if it wants, may abolish the lesser and minor training rules. Unfortunately, he neglects to ask what they are. Which are the minor ones and which are the major ones? And so when it came to the council, and they recounted this, they couldn't figure it out, so they decided they would keep them all.

[33:04]

And they still have them all. Anyhow, then the Buddha is dying. And again, these are the last words. The Blessed One addressed the monks Now then monks, I exhort you, all fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful. Other translations, those were the last words. Other translations say all fabrications are subject to decay. Practice diligently. Keep practicing. and then they prepare for his funeral. But I found today a wonderful, since I was thinking about Ananda and I started digging around, so there's a text that's called the Taragata, which is the

[34:16]

songs or verses of the Thera, the elder monks. There's also the Theragatha, which is the verses of the elder nuns, the Bhikkhuni. But in the Theragatha, there's this wonderful verse. These are Ananda's words after the Buddha passed away. in his grief. All the directions are obscure. The teachings are not clear to me. With our benevolent friend gone, it seems as if all is darkness. For one whose friend has passed away, one whose teacher is gone for good, there is no friend that can compare with mindfulness of the body.

[35:20]

The old ones have all passed away. I do not fit in with the new. And so today I muse alone like a bird who has gone to roost. Now there are people who say that the Pali teachings are dry as dust. I would read them this verse. Let me read this again, okay? All the directions are obscure. The teachings are not clear to me. With our benevolent friend gone, it seems as if all is darkness. For one whose friend has passed away, one whose teacher is gone for good, there is no friend that can compare with mindfulness of the body. The old ones have all passed away. I do not fit in with the new, And so today I muse alone, Like a bird who has gone to roost.

[36:34]

These are the words of ananda in his grief, before his attainment of arhatship, and yet they are the words of someone who is truly, truly human. One who knows his own body, who knows his own feeling, and whose path is deeply encouraging. It's one that I think we can respond to and understand as we live, as we sit, as we practice. And in that sense, in his open-hearted sense, he is really true.

[37:53]

disciple of the Buddha. So I think I will end there and perhaps you have a comment or a question or a thought. Yeah. I didn't understand about not compared to the mindfulness of the body. For one whose friend has passed away, one whose teacher is gone for good, there is no friend that can compare with mindfulness of the body. This is his refuge. What he's saying is, my teacher is gone, I'm feeling this grief, but I have the practice. The core practice that Buddha is repeating throughout, this is like 20 pages of stuff he's repeating he's talking about mindfulness as the heart of the practice and the place where mindfulness begins which we've been studying over the month is it begins with mindfulness of the body and the body of course is the very thing that is coming together and falling apart so this is if we observe ourselves

[39:15]

we can see this process in motion breath by breath. That's what we're doing here today, breath by breath. You feel, you breathe in, you come alive. You breathe out, you die a little, but then you come alive again. So it's mindfulness of the body. That is a friend and comfort to him. So thank you for that elucidating question. Yeah? In a story that's otherwise and poignant. There's two spots that seem to be these really heavy guilt trips that stick out. In Bananda, what's the intention either of the Buddha or of the recorders or framers of the sutra in pointing out serving the tainted pork or mushrooms.

[40:28]

What's the point of identifying him and also very clearly illustrating that this was... that the Buddha's death was his fault? No, it doesn't say that. Actually I didn't read you this section, which if I can find it quickly, I will, because there's a whole long exposition on. Sorry, I mean, I may not find it because I don't want to. Oh, yeah. This is. He says, then the blessed one spoke to venerable Nanda, saying, it may come to pass, Ananda, that someone will cause remorse to Kunda, the metal worker, saying, it is no gain to you, friend Kunda, but a loss that it was from you the Tathagata took his last alms meal and then came to his end.

[41:31]

He says, the remorse of Kunda should be dispelled after this manner. It is a gain to you, friend Kunda, a blessing that the Tathagata you and came to Zen. 4. Face to face with the Blessed One, I have heard and learned. There are two offerings of food which are of equal fruition, of equal outcome, exceeding in grandeur the fruition and result of any other offerings of food. Which two? The one partaken by the Tathagata before becoming fully enlightened in unsurpassed supreme enlightenment. This is when milkmaid gave him some food. This is in his life. And the one partaken by the Tathāgata before passing into the state of Nibbāna, in which no element of clinging remains. By his deed, the worthy kunda has accumulated merit, which makes for long life, beauty, well-being, glory, heavenly rebirth and sovereignty. So

[42:34]

Basically, he's saying to me, he's saying, Kunda was playing his role unbeknownst to him. That there was no fault attached to it. And that the Buddha quite knowingly took that food because he had already exercised his decision to pass away. So, this may not be strictly logical. except perhaps in a mythological framework. As to Ananda, I think there was a teaching. The Buddha would continue to teach him basically to say, please pay attention to what's being said to you. You missed an opportunity, but it's okay that he missed the opportunity. I don't know what the real word is. They use fault is what's used in this translation and I'm not clear on it.

[43:38]

But you don't hear in the subsequent story, it's like they have this moment and Ananda is not beating himself up about having made this mistake. He wasn't listening, because his mind was obscured by his own feelings. And the teaching is, listen carefully, pay attention, use all of your senses, don't be obscured by your own feelings. So, you know, we can't quite interpret this according to our modern language or modern psychology, but that's my understanding of what you're saying. Yeah. I guess this would be a whole huge discussion, but the implication that he is committing suicide, and in so many traditions this is such a mind-bothering and difficult thing to do for the people around you.

[44:52]

And I certainly understand it mythologically through this, but in another way, it just raises so many questions that I don't expect that anyone could just answer. Is this a real discussion sometimes between Buddhists and St. Ludus, and do they talk about this a lot? Which this are we talking about? The idea of suicide? Yes. In a sense, he does, and I totally understand in the context of this, why he decides to gently let go of his life in the way that he did? Yeah, I don't, I don't, that's not a, that's not a traditional interpretation. I have to think about that. I think it is a long discussion, but I think he was, what he was doing was, and he always said, you know, I don't have the power to change causes and conditions. and this was a cause and condition.

[45:53]

Did you have a comment on that, Laura? Well, I wouldn't, I mean, we don't want to sort of take the part that we like and say the other part was written later or something. However, I sort of don't buy it. It feels to me, what I, again, the story I make up is, they needed him to have miraculous powers. They couldn't, like, he needed to have been able to live forever. He needed to be able to know that he was going to be quiet. Maybe they heard about Jesus and they realized, oh, our teacher could also have done. He could roll away the stone or whatever. I feel that it's something like that. It's like needing him to have these miraculous powers to justify his teaching. So again, I'm sort of washing away a bunch of stuff with that, which is maybe not an okay thing to do, but that's my gut feeling. But he always taught not clinging to those powers.

[46:54]

Well, I don't think he had necessarily. I'm saying he couldn't live forever. He couldn't know that he was about to be poisoned. Later on, they said, well, if he was everything he said he was, he would have been able to know that the poison was in that food. And so, that's where I go. They needed him to have those powers, so they wrote that little part in. But the other discussion is a longer one. Ken? Yeah, kind of in the same vein. I've always taken that story as perhaps he simply was at a meal and inadvertently he had some bad food and he's poisoned. and dies. And I think that afterwards, in various ways, people come up with these stories such that, in part, it can be a sort of faking kind of, you know, like Laurie was saying,

[48:11]

creative thing. Let's say that you are convinced that the Buddha was detached and disinterested and so that, but you also have something else and so you make up a thing that will resolve these contradictions. In other words, there's the miraculous aspect, but there's also a kind of ethical as you say, if theoretically he didn't have any clinging, then, you know, why does this? And then, if he could have done this, and then you have to have this story that Ananda could have asked him, and he refused, because otherwise it would be contradictory. So, you have to come up with this thing, just like Jesus needs Judas to betray him, or something like this.

[49:20]

Otherwise, you can't figure out, well, Jesus should have known, and yes, he did know, but he had to do this. The core teaching that's repeated over and over again is all compounded things come apart. That's the true lesson. We're going to have to end. One more. I was just going to say, my resonance, going really broadly metaphorical, is we cannot refuse the dish. I just think of it as death. not a particular thing. We might want to, but at a certain point, we cannot refuse the dish. Right. That's right. That goes for orioke. Although I think it's going to be tastier and not dangerous. There's a Thai. We had the mushrooms for breakfast, right? And they were delicious. How's everybody feeling?

[50:23]

So far so good. That was what I was going to say. There's a Thai monk doctor who has, who's a medical doctor who analyzed the Buddha's death and says it was looking, there's a lot of detail about his illness. It's like, and when it came on, it was not food poisoning. You know, it was, it was a mesenteric hemorrhage. So in other words, there was a weakness, he was coming apart. And a meal, a meal, provoked this. Because if they look at all the symptoms and everything, and it's just like, the onset was very quick, which would not be the case with food poisoning. So yeah, I think it's an ex post facto construction, but all constructed things like this story come apart. Thank you and let's enjoy the rest of the day.

[51:23]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ