January 20, 2025

The Life of Sakyamuni Buddha (6）

By Rev. Shinkai Oikawa

9. Sakyamuni’s Manhood

(1) From Asceticism to Buddhahood

Today I am going to tell you that Sakyamuni finally became enlightened and attained Buddhahood after He left His castle and practiced asceticism very hard, but I am afraid I cannot speak convincingly of it to you.

　I brought a book for my lecture today. I am going to speak according to what a great scholar says about the Buddha. I am very sorry to say that today’s lecture can make you a little sleepy because it is about “enlightenment.”

　Last time I spoke of Him leaving His home at the Kapila Castle at the age of twenty-nine. Why did He leave home? It is clearly because He did not want to be the king. Being the king meant He could lead a pleasant and comfortable life and have many pleasures in a way, but He could not avoid a great responsibility of governing a country. He must be always thinking of the people’s safety. Presumably Sakyamuni thought He was ineligible as a king in this respect.

　His only son Rahula was born when He was a twenty-nine-year-old prince named Siddhartha. He was so happy to have a son because He thought that He would be able to leave home at last. He had to have a successor in any case. And He had a son. He fulfilled His responsibilities. Thus He thought it would be permissible for Him to leave home because His son would succeed Him as the crown prince of the country. He made up His mind and left home with great joy.

　Sakyamuni practiced asceticism quite hard for six years after that. An ascetic is called a bhiksu, which means a Buddhist monk who practices asceticism begging for food and feeding himself as if he were a beggar. He did not lead a happy life by making money, buying and eating anything he liked. He did not make any money at all.Sakyamuni lived for six years begging for alms by which He fed Himself as a bhiksu.

　Sakyamuni practiced many kinds of hard asceticism like having one meal a day, stopping breathing, burning Himself in the sunshine on hot days and keeping awake all night.

　eping awake all night. One-hundred-day asceticism is held in the “Great Rigorous Ascetic Exercise Hall” by Nichiren Shu every winter. This is the asceticism practiced for one hundred days without a break from November 1 to February 10. This is very hard asceticism. So the priests may return with great pride.

　Sakyamuni’s asceticism was much harder. He continued to practice it without a rest for six years. Six years are about two thousand and two hundred days. So it can be said Sakyamuni practiced one-hundred-day asceticism twenty-two times ceaselessly. His body really fell to pieces. What was the result? Could He attain spiritual enlightenment? This is the most important point. Unfortunately He failed to do so, as I told you before.

　Sakyamuni’s mind did not reach the state of spiritual enlightenment. Therefore He stopped practicing asceticism. The five priests who accompanied Him thought He was “hopeless” or “degenerated” because the Indian people in those days were certain that they would never fail to attain enlightenment if they practiced asceticism. Thus they thought it was no use following Him and went away, leaving Him all alone.

(2) Bathing in the River Nairanjana

　Then Sakyamuni went into a village, was given milk porridge by a young girl, Sujata, and felt relieved. In a word He had normal food. After recovering His strength He bathed in the nearby clear river called Nairanjana, washed away the dirt of hard asceticism and thought about what to do next. He had left His father, mother and a newly born baby, and become a priest. Since He had left home in order to get enlightened, He could not fail to achieve it. What could He do then?

　It is getting more difficult for me to speak beyond this point. What I am going to speak of is my imagination. I think we don’t really understand what the truth is without actually experiencing it. I don’t understand what I cannot experience myself no matter what a great person states. But a book written by my professor explains something as if he understands it perfectly without actually experiencing it. It makes me wonder whether or not my teacher really understands it. I think he is a wonderful master, but I still doubt that he truly understands it.

　What I want to tell you is that religion is not a study but a practical experience. Personal experiences must appeal directly to our bodies not just to our heads. We must learn by body. This is religion. So Sakyamuni practiced asceticism by treating Himself cruelly in vain.

　He contemplated, “What shall I do now?” He washed Himself clean and had a bowl of porridge and felt relieved. He recovered His strength quickly, because He had strong life force. He must have felt completely exhausted in the river. When He contemplated with His eyes closed “what to do next,” He may have remembered His childhood. I can say this from my own experience. I lived in this temple (the Honryuji Temple) for fifty years. I was here when I was a mischievous boy. When I came here today after a long absence, I remembered the time when I was given over completely to enjoying myself. I can clearly remember some details of my boyhood. I suppose Sakyamuni did the same.

　When He was a little child, Sakyamuni lived in the Kapila Castle from which the Himalaya Mountains could be seen in the northern part of India. He remembered the good days when He lived a peaceful life.

　Sakyamuni was under a big tree enjoying the cool air, while peasants were plowing fields over there with their oxen. Then a worm was plowed out of the earth, a little bird came to peck at it and flew away in the sky carrying the little worm in its mouth. And then a big bird flew to attack the little bird and flew away with it in its mouth. He seemed to me to have remembered watching a sequence of the scenes.

　Then Sakyamuni realized the need of thinking about the structure of the world accurately. What is the structure of the world? Aren’t we human beings making the world after all? As far as the world, society, and life are concerned, each of us is making them up. “What are human beings then?” He could not get relieved without solving this problem. The Buddha seems to have contemplated in this way. In other words it was people-watching. Although each of us human beings is not the same, it is most important to watch ourselves. It is so difficult for us to understand others that we watch ourselves carefully again. How are our bodies working? How are our feelings changing? The Buddha seems to have come to think, “I will watch it once more carefully. I may manage to understand it.”

　We usually are busy living in this world, aren’t we? It is because circumstances around us never stop changing like a revolving lantern. We seem to have time to think of ourselves, but actually not.

　When we happen to get sick, we hurriedly consult a doctor or think seriously of our own health. But we usually do not take care of ourselves while in good health. We do not come to realize how valuable our bodies are.

　The Buddha recovered His health by having a bowl of porridge, but Sakyamuni then must have thought that He could not solve problems in the world unless He thought of human beings first of all. Sakyamuni never ceased to think of human bodies and minds, especially those of His own, while practicing meditation. I think He made up His mind to bring the problem of “What is a human being?” to a conclusion.

(Trans. by Rev. Kanshu Naito)

(to be continued)

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