January 20, 2025
The Life of Sakyamuni Buddha (4)
By Rev. Shinkai Oikawa
7. Sakyamuni’s practices 7. —meditation and asceticism
And then Sakyamuni went to teachers in order to begin His ascetic life. Where were the teachers then? They were where they could live comfortably, that is, in the capital city of a big state. The capital city of Kosala, the nearby state, was Sravasti. Although there were many teachers there, it was too close to Kapilavastu, just 60 km away. Since He was afraid that the king might seek and catch Him, He went to another city, Benares (also Varanasi) about 600 km away. He did not stay there either because He heard rumors that there were many untrustworthy teachers there.
According to the rumors that the most faithful teachers were in Rajagrha 600 km away. He went there and began the practices under the guidance of two teachers. There was the following episode at the time. When Sakyamuni was begging for alms in Rajagrha, King Bimbisara was watching Him from a distance. The king ordered his retainers to follow around that respectful priest who was begging. Sakyamuni went up a hill called Vepra and took a rest. The king hurried up to Him and asked, “Who are you?” Sakyamuni answered, “I was born as a prince of a state at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains 600 km away and came as a priest seeking after the truth.” The king said, “I understand. I was attracted by your personal appearance, looks and graceful figure. Would you reign over my kingdom with me?”
Sakyamuni declined this offer. “I did not come here for such a purpose. I abandoned my state, parents, wife, and son before I came here to seek after the truth. I determined to study hard with teachers in order to achieve spiritual enlightenment,” He said. King Bimbisara understood what He meant and gave up his hope. He said, “Yes, I know your intentions. I want you to come and show me the way as soon as you become spiritually enlightened and become a Buddha.” Then both departed.
This is the first meeting of the respectful king named Bimbisara of a large kingdom called Magadha and Sakyamuni. The two great men were to have good relations with each other from then. I think that Sakyamuni was so excellent and attractive that the great king respected Him at a glance from a distance.
Sakyamuni studied “meditative concentration” or “dhyana” under the two teachers in Rajagrha. He trained Himself in such practices as He sat, calmed down and contemplated deeply. Although He did almost the same practice as Zen priests’ “Zazen,” that is, meditation with one’s legs crisscrossed, He was dissatisfied.
Zazen makes us very peaceful in mind, but we cannot continue Zazen for long. We must come out of the meditation, because we will die if we do not stop it. Whenever we eat and go to the toilet, we come out of the meditation. It is inevitable that we return to ordinary human beings if we come out of the state of mind. Although while in meditation we are in a good state of mind, while out of meditation we want to eat deep-fried pork cutlets at a restaurant and to drink sake or beer at a bar offering skewered chicken when walking down the street. We easily return to the state of ordinary humans.
So Sakyamuni seems to have thought that Zazen was not true achievement of spiritual enlightenment. He said good-bye and left the two teachers. He thought He needed no teacher and had to practice alone.
He started asceticism by Himself then. This is to inflict pain upon oneself to the limit. The reason why He did this was He thought human beings had minds and bodies, and that minds could not resist becoming impure. Men cannot see a charming woman without being roused unconsciously. We tend to be drawn unknowingly to an eel restaurant when passing by. Our mind will easily become unstable. This is caused by our body. Therefore He thought our mind would not be influenced by our body if we inflicted much pain upon it and weakened physical powers. He practiced asceticism for this purpose. This was a great experiment. He continued this asceticism for six years.
There are many ways of asceticism. One of them is fasting, not eating any thing. Trying to eat less and less, or trying not to eat anything for a week or 10 days. We get utterly exhausted this way. Can we feel purged of stress after fasting? No, not at all. Sakyamuni says it is of no use. This is His conclusion after many experiences
What He did next was to stop breathing. This is also unbearable. Nevertheless, He tried it because He wanted to inflict as much physical pain as possible upon Himself. I suppose He became faint, became painful and unconscious as if He were dead. What is more, as He thought He must not open His mouth, He closed it completely so that He could not breathe at all. What happened then? It is said that air came in from His ears. We think it is quite incredible. Ears let in only sound, don’t they? But it is written thus in the old books. Since air came in through His ears, His ears were also closed. The old books say that air inside His body went around here and there looking for an exit. We do not know whether this was true or not. It is said so. At any rate He inflicted much pain upon His body,stopping breathing.
He had been doing this for six years. As a result, it is said that the skin on His stomach stuck to the skin on His back. Of course it is impossible. It may be said that it was as terrible as this. There is a statue named the “Fasting Siddhartha” in Lahore Museum in Pakistan. When I visited the museum, its door was closed. I said to the guard, “As I came from Japan, could you allow me to see the statue?” The guard said to me, “No. It is Friday, the day for fasting. I cannot allow you to see the “Fasting Siddhartha” in the middle of the fasting time.” To my regret I was obliged to give up without seeing the statue.
As this statue, the “Fasting Siddhartha,” is very famous, we can see it in many books. All His veins appear. His eyes are sunken as if they were caves. We cannot discriminate between His arms and bones on the statue. These were experiments to see whether it were possible or not to make His mind vivid and pure by fasting, stop breathing and inflicting pain upon His body thoroughly. He stopped the experiments after six years of practice because He could not succeed in gaining the desired goal.
What did He do next? He ate food. It is very simple. We cannot live without eating. After He left the place of asceticism, He went to the famous River Nairanjana and washed Himself after six years of asceticism. He was given a bowl of porridge by a young girl called Sujahta and recovered His strength. He went into a wood of Buddhagaya (old name: Gaya) after recovery, and decided to sit in meditation and never to stand up till He achieved spiritual enlightenment.
(Trans. by Rev. Kanshu Naito)
(to be continued)