The Buddha

In the Buddhist temples of Thailand we see people paying respect in front of the Buddha statue by kneeling and touching the floor three times with their hands and head. Those who have just arrived in Thailand may wonder whether this way of paying respect is a form of prayer or whether it has another meaning. Buddhists in Thailand express in this way their confidence in the “Three Gems”: the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. They take their refuge in the “Three Gems”.

The first Gem is the Buddha. When people take their refuge in the Buddha, they say the following words in Pāli: “Buddha saraṇa gacchāmi”, which means, “I go for refuge to the Buddha”. What is the meaning of the word “Buddha”? The Illustrator of Ultimate Meaning (the “Paramatthajotikā”, a commentary to the “Minor Readings”, Khuddaka Nikāya) explains, in the commentary to the “Three Refuges”, the meaning of the word “Buddha”:

…and this is said, “Buddha”: in what sense buddha? He is the discoverer (bujjhitā) of the Truths, thus he is enlightened (buddha). He is the enlightener (bodhetā) of the generation, thus he is enlightened. He is enlightened by omniscience, enlightened by seeing all, enlightened without being led by others…he is quite without defilement, thus he is enlightened; he has travelled by the Path that goes in only one way, thus he is enlightened; he alone discovered the peerless complete enlightenment, thus he is enlightened; …Buddha: this is not a name made by a mother, made by a father…this (name) “Buddha”, which signifies final liberation, is a realistic description of Enlightened Ones, Blessed Ones, together with their obtainment of omniscient knowledge at the root of an enlightenment (tree).

The Buddha is the discoverer of the truth. What is the truth the Buddha discovered all by himself? “He is enlightened by omniscience, enlightened by seeing all...” the commentary to the Paramatthajotikā says. He had developed the wisdom to see and to experience the truth of all things. Everything in life is impermanent and thus it is unsatisfactory. People suffer from old age, sickness and death. In spite of this truth people still cling to the things in and around themselves. Thus they are not able to see reality. The Buddha understood through direct experience that all phenomena which arise fall away immediately. He did not cling to anything at all.

For us it is difficult to experience the truth of impermanence. Nāma and rūpa arise and fall away all the time, but one cannot have direct understanding of impermanence if one’s wisdom is not developed. It is difficult to be aware often of realities when they appear and to realize what they are: only nāma and rūpa, phenomena which are impermanent and not self. The more we realize how difficult it is to see things as they are, the more we understand that the Buddha’s wisdom must have been of the highest degree.

The Buddha taught that everything in life is dukkha. Dukkha literally means pain, misery or suffering. However, the experience of the truth of dukkha is much deeper than a feeling of sorrow or contemplation about suffering. It is the direct understanding of the impermanence of the nāmas and rūpas in our life and the realization that none of these phenomena is true happiness. Some people may think that pondering over this truth is already the experience of the truth of dukkha. However, one does not have the real understanding of the truth if one merely thinks about it. When paññā has been developed to the degree that the arising and falling away of nāma and rūpa are directly understood, one will come to realize the truth of dukkha. Then one will gradually learn to be less attached to nāma and rūpa.

In the Greater Discourse of a Full Moon (Middle Length Sayings III, no. 109) we read that the Buddha, while he was staying near Sāvatthī, in the palace of Migāra’s mother, in the Eastern Monastery, asked the monks:

“What do you think about this, monks? Is material shape permanent or impermanent?”

“Impermanent, revered sir.”

“But is what is impermanent painful or is it pleasant?”

“Painful, revered sir.”

“And is it right to regard that which is impermanent, suffering, liable to change, as, ’This is mine, this am I, this is myself’?”

“No, revered sir.”

The Buddha asked the same question about mental phenomena.

Everything in our life is impermanent. Also what we call happiness is impermanent -it is only a mental phenomenon which arises and then falls away immediately. How can that which arises and falls away as soon as it has arisen be real happiness? Everything in life, even happiness, is therefore dukkha or unsatisfactory. What arises and falls away should not be taken for self; everything is anattā or “non-self”. Impermanence, dukkha and anattā are three aspects of the truth, the truth of all realities within ourselves and around ourselves. It may take us a long time before we can experience things as they really are. The only way to develop direct understanding of the truth is being aware of the nāma and rūpa which appear, such as, for example, seeing, hearing or thinking at this moment.

The Buddha was always mindful and clearly conscious. He did not have ignorance of any reality. When we realize how difficult mindfulness is we deeply respect the great wisdom of the Buddha. The Buddha is called the “Awakened One”, because he is awakened to the truth. We read in the Discourse with Sela (Middle Length Sayings II, no. 92) that the Buddha said to Sela:

“What is to be known is known by me, and to be developed is developed, what is to be got rid of has been got rid of -therefore, brahman, am I awake.”

The Buddha had, by his enlightenment, attained the greatest purity. He had completely eradicated all defilements. The Buddha attained enlightenment during his life in this world. He taught others to develop in their daily lives the wisdom which can completely eradicate defilements and all latent tendencies. The more we know about our own defilements, including the more subtle defilements, and the more we see how deeply rooted the clinging to the concept of self is, the more will we realize the high degree of the Buddha’s purity.

The Buddha was full of compassion for everybody. The fact that the Buddha was free from defilements did not mean that he wanted to dissociate himself from the world. On the contrary, he wanted to help all beings who still had defilements to find the Path leading to true understanding. People are inclined to think that Buddhism makes people neglectful of their duties towards others and that it makes them self-centred. This is not so. Buddhism enables one more fully to perform one’s duties and to serve other people in a more unselfish way.

The Buddha attained enlightenment for the happiness of the world. In the Gradual Sayings (Book of the Ones, Ch XIII) we read that the Buddha said to the monks:

Monks, there is one person whose birth into the world is for the welfare of many folk, for the happiness of many folk; who is born out of compassion for the world, for the profit, welfare and happiness of devas and mankind. Who is that one person? It is a Tathāgata(15) who is arahat, a fully Enlightened One. This, monks, is that one person.

The more one understands the Buddha’s teachings, the more one is impressed by his compassion for everybody. The Buddha knew what it meant to be free from all sorrow. Therefore he helped other beings to attain this freedom as well. One can help people by kindness, by generosity, and in many other ways. The most precious thing one can give others is to show them the way to true peace. The Buddha proved his great compassion to people by teaching them Dhamma.

When Buddhists pay respect to the Buddha statue they do not pray to a Buddha in heaven, since the Buddha passed away completely. Buddhists pay respect to the Buddha statue because they think with deep reverence and gratefulness of the Buddha’s virtues: of his wisdom, his purity and his compassion. When we speak of virtues we think of good qualities in someone’s character. There are many degrees of good qualities however. When the wisdom of him who follows the eightfold Path is developed to such an extent that he can attain enlightenment, then his way of life will have become purer and his compassion for others deeper. Wisdom is not only theoretical knowledge of the truth, but realizing the truth in one’s life as well. The virtues of the Buddha were developed to such degree that he not only attained enlightenment without the help of a teacher, but was also able to teach the truth to others, so that by following the right Path they could attain enlightenment.

There were other Buddhas before the Buddha Gotama. All Buddhas find the truth by themselves, without being led by others. However, there are two different kinds of Buddhas: the “Sammāsambuddha”, that is, a “Universal Buddha” or “Perfectly Enlightened One”(16), and the “Pacceka Buddha” or “Silent Buddha”. The Sammāsambuddha has found the truth and is able to teach others as well the way to enlightenment. The Pacceka Buddha has not accumulated virtues to the same extent as the Sammā­sambuddha and thus he is not as qualified in teaching others as the Sammāsambuddha. The Buddha Gotama was a Sammā­sambuddha. There cannot be more than one Sammāsambuddha in a Buddha era; neither can there be in that era Pacceka Buddhas. The Buddha era in which we are living will be terminated when the Buddha’s teachings have disappeared completely. The Buddha foretold that the further one is away from the time he lived, the more his teaching will be misinterpreted and corrupted. His teachings will disappear completely and then there will be a next Buddha, and so the next Buddha era. The next Buddha will discover the truth again and he will teach other beings the way to enlightenment.

Buddhists take their refuge in the Buddha. What does the word “refuge” mean? The Paramatthajotikā commentary speaks about the meaning of the word “refuge”:

…When people have gone for refuge, then by that very going for refuge it combats, dispels, carries off, and stops their fear, anguish, suffering, (risk of) unhappy destination (on rebirth), and defilement…The going for refuge is the arising of cognizance with confidence therein and giving preponderance thereto, from which defilement is eliminated and eradicated, and which occurs in the mode of taking that as the highest value...

Going for refuge to the Buddha does not mean that the Buddha can eradicate people’s defilements. We read in the Mahā-Parinibbāna-sutta (Dialogues of the Buddha II, no. 73) that, before his passing away, the Buddha said to Ānanda:

Now I am frail, Ānanda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year and my life is spent…Therefore, Ānanda, be an island to yourself, a refuge to yourself, seeking no external refuge; with Dhamma as your island, Dhamma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.

The Buddha then explained that one takes one’s refuge in the Dhamma by developing the “four Applications of Mindfulness”, that is, being mindful of nāma and rūpa in order to develop right understanding of them. This is the eightfold Path which leads to enlightenment. One can depend only on oneself in following this Path, not on anyone else.

The Buddha said that the Dhamma and the Vinaya would be his successor. Today the Buddha is no longer with us, but we take our refuge in the Buddha when we have confidence in his teachings and we consider it the most important thing in life to practise what he taught.