January 20, 2025
The Life of Sakyamuni Buddha (5)
By Rev. Shinkai Oikawa
8. Sweet temptations of devils
It is said the place where He sat then was under a big tree called “The Bodhi tree” in Buddhagaya. Bodhi (bodai) means to acquire the wisdom of the Buddha’s enlightenment. This memorable place where Sakyamuni achieved enlightenment (attained Buddhahood) still exists. It did not take Him one night. He achieved it in an instant and He became a Buddha (Enlightened man).
He left home when He was twentynine years old, undertook such asceticism as fasting and stopping breathing, and at last he finally ceased breathing. He ate a bowl of porridge and other food, recovered His strength, and achieved enlightenment under the Bodhi tree at the age of thirty-five. Although the name of the tree was asvattha, it came to be called a Bodhi tree because Sakyamuni became a Buddha under it.
Practicing asceticism and getting enlightened, He suffered very much both physically and mentally. We wonder how He could maintain his physical strength. We suppose that He struggled against temptation to quit day and night. Sometimes He wanted to stop fasting and to eat food, but the next moment He wanted to continue fasting. It was a war against His own desires. This is extremely dreadful.
Many demons appear in old sutras in order to explain this war against desires without explaining them directly. It is written in sutras that demons came up to Him and tempted sweetly, saying, “Stop doing such stupid things. This is more enjoyable. This is more delicious. This is more beautiful.” On some occasions the demons appeared smiling as charming women, on others with many kinds of delicious food. The demons never threatened Him, but were very kind. They never were scary but tender. They tempted tenderly.
Sakyamuni fought against these demons for six years. It was extremely difficult. They never gave up even when Sakyamuni was about to be enlightened. It is their business to make people unhappy. The unhappier people become, the more customers they gain. They will have no customers when Sakyamuni attains enlightenment and makes people all happy. This is their serious problem. All the people go to Sakyamuni and they will have no business.
There is the oldest Buddhist sutra called “Sutta-nipata” that talks about how the demons came near to Him. A demon said, “Hello, you are practicing asceticism very hard. But you look pale. How are you feeling? You are dying soon, aren’t you?” It was absolutely true. Sakyamuni had been practicing fasting and stopping breathing so He was rapidly losing His health.
“You look 99% dead. Your life remains by just 1%,” the demon said. “But life is really good. You must live.” We tend to think it is quite right, don’t we? He continued, “We will be happy if we live on. To live is not bad or hard, but very good. Live on.” What kind of good things are there? He explained, “Live on, worship and make offerings to gods, and they will never fail to take you to the heavens. You don’t need to try hard by yourself.”
“It is very hard for you to stop breathing and undertake fasting, isn’t it? Stop it. Stop it! You’d better live.” It is written in sutras that the demon stood besides Sakyamuni whispering like this. The demon’s temptation continued further. Sakyamuni could not make up His mind whether or not He should stop.
In spite of the demon’s temptation Sakyamuni roused Himself up, saying, “I don’t yield to your sweet temptation. I will keep on asceticism in pursuit of my pure state of mind. I will see it through to the end even if my blood dries up. You demon, I understood you revealed your real intention. Your first army is desire.”
All human beings have their own desires. First of all, we have the desire to live at all cost. Everyone thinks so. What is more, we have desires to eat food, to make love when young, to gain a good social position and to get rich. This is the first weapon of the demons. We are always exposed to the dangerous weapons. So I say the first army is desires. Next come “starvation,” “thirst,” and “sleep.” Human beings cannot live without sleep. So sleep is one of the most important of the demons’ temptations. Furthermore we doubt. We cannot easily believe what someone says. This is doubt. We cannot escape from doubt.
Another one of the demons’ ways is “hypocrisy.” That means pretension to do something good. The demons dangle “honor” and “fortune” before us. We easily give ourselves up to them. Temptation to make a large profit is also his way. Ordinary people like to be praised but to speak ill of others. We feel pleasant if praised, but it is difficult to praise others. We all have such “true nature.” This is the demons’ way, too. After setting out these sweet temptations Sakyamuni declares, “I will never be defeated by these desires.”
Demons came up to Him on the last scene of His enlightenment in order to hinder Him from attaining Buddhahood. In art museums in India there remain many old sculptures showing the scenes of the Buddha’s enlightenment. There are scenes showing the demons’ attacks and temptations of women exposing their big breasts. The demons tried many ways to hinder Him from attaining enlightenment. But Sakyamuni would never move from under the Bodhi tree till His enlightenment. He knew if He moved, He would lose everything. At last He beat the demons. They retreated, saying “We’ve hung around Sakyamuni for seven years, trying to tempt Him in vain. It was impossible to tempt Him. We could not find any chances.” The demons went away from Him getting extremely depressed.
It is said that the demon went away without noticing that he dropped his cherished biwa or Japanese lute. A biwa is a Japanese musical instrument, including Heike biwa and Satsuma biwa. It is called “vina” in the Indian language. It came to Japan from India via China and Korea, and came to be called “biwa.”
Under these circumstances Sakyamuni achieved enlightenment after He was completely relieved from the demons. This concludes today’s lecture. I would like to speak of the content of His enlightenment in the next meeting.
I am going to tell you what kind of powers Sakyamuni gained and what kind of people He saved through His divine powers by preaching around India for forty-five years.
(Trans. by Rev. Kanshu Naito)
(to be continued)