<\/strong>At dawn He received the wisdom to see through the present, past, and future because everything filthy had gone out of Him and He became completely clean and purified, which is called the \u201cextinction of illusion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was the Buddha after all. Only enlightenment does not make the Buddha. I think He had powers to see through to the heart of things. It was just six o\u2019clock in the morning when He understood He had gotten the powers<\/p>\n\n\n\n Night was divided into three parts in the olden times. Each part is four hours, and they are called the first night, midnight, and later night. The first night is from six to ten o\u2019clock. The next four hours is the midnight. The night nearest to dawn is the later night. It was the later night when Sakyamuni became completely enlightened. It was when the day was just dawning. He realized He acquired the power at dawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We interpret \u201cenlightenment\u201d as understanding something. It is not so but it actually means \u201cperfect acquisition of the power.\u201d The power is beyond human powers. We do not call ones who do things that can be done easily by human powers Buddha. He acquired a certain power beyond human powers at the time and became the \u201cBuddha.\u201d Buddha in Indian is a past participle of the word meaning \u201cawaken\u201d and means \u201cawakened\u201d in the morning. But in case of Sakyamuni, Buddha means \u201cto be awakened to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sakyamuni was confined in the darkness. He continued to meditate and practice asceticism for six years saying I cannot understand. He failed asceticism itself, but was awakened to the truth, had His eyes opened fully and found Himself bathed in the light. He could see things that could not have been seen before in a flash under the Bodhi tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He could see His past, future, and present. For instance, He came to understand a doctor\u2019s prescription soon. It is a prescription showing what is best for a person, that is, what is best for happiness of a person. He can understand what medicine He gets and when and how He should give it to the person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not sufficient to cure only the illness. We need many kinds of physical therapy to recover completely from illnesses and medical care can totally give us back good health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mental cases are quite the same. It is a great pleasure for us that Sakyamuni healed a psychological problem on the first attempt. However, the problem cannot be completely cured easily, though the condition may be improved. He taught various people how to completely cure it in as many ways as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n India is a very large country as you know. They had to travel around on foot at the time of Sakyamuni. They walked on the average 10 km a day. This distance to walk in a day is called yojana. Sometimes it took them one month or two to walk in order to reach a destination 300 km or 400 km away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sakyamuni took the five men as his first disciples at the \u201cDeer Park\u201d in Baranasi (Benares). But He forbade them from waiting on Him. He drove them away, saying, \u201cGo anywhere in India quickly to save the people living in need and in trouble as I taught you how to save them.\u201d They were also told to go separately, without going together so that they could go to five separate places. I think Sakyamuni decided to save as many people as possible when he was invited by the King of the Brahma Heaven to preach the enlightenment He attained. And He was sure that He could save the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sakyamuni died at the age of eighty. Before He died He said, \u201cScatter my ashes all over India.\u201d And He added, \u201cMany people who can worship my ashes can be saved. So distribute my ashes to many places where many people can see them.\u201d In a word, all He wished was saving as many people as possible. Later, King Asoka built 84,000 pagodas to scatter His ashes all over India. He did not think of Himself at all but of the people in need. His first disciples went to save the people at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sakyamuni had taken many people as disciples since then. There were many kinds of disciples, some of whom wanted to be taught by Him with sincere adoration, but others wanted to be His disciple in order to live an easy life. Their motivations were never simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were also women who wanted to be His disciples, called \u201cbhiksuni,\u201d Buddhist priestesses. Sakyamuni refused to accept female disciples at first because priests tended to be distracted at the sight of priestesses. It was troublesome, so the Buddha said to the women, \u201cPlease do not join us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, Mahaprajapati, the Buddha\u2019s foster mother, asked Him to take her as His disciple. He declined her offer three times in vain, and took her as His disciple. Thus she became the first Buddhist priestess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Sakyamuni attained enlightenment, there already existed a lot of other trainees and great priests, who had 500 or 1,000 disciples. Sakyamuni occasionally dared to talk to them and took at once as many as 1,500 people as disciples. He had occasionally done such decisive things like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do not quite understand why He went to the wedding ceremony of Ananda, His younger brother or son of King Suddhodana and Mahaprajapati, and forced him to be a priest against his will. I cannot understand why He had done such a horrible thing. He took Ananda away from the wedding ceremony and forced him to become a priest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ananda was unhappy and restless day and night because he was newly married and could not forget his beautiful new wife. He could not concentrate on ascetic practices at all under such conditions. Then Sakyamuni said to him, \u201cAnanda, you look pale and unsettled. Try hard to practice asceticism.\u201d Ananda could not listen to Him because he was made a priest against his will. Then the Buddha showed him a divine power \u201cLook, this woman is beautiful, isn\u2019t she?\u201d Sakyamuni said. \u201cYes, she is almost as beautiful as my wife,\u201d said Ananda. \u201cYou think so? Good. Women are beautiful, aren\u2019t they?\u201d \u201cYes, I agree.\u201d And then Sakyamuni suddenly changed the woman into an old one by his supernatural power. He asked, \u201cWhat do you think of this woman?\u201d \u201cYes, she got a little older.\u201d \u201cThe same woman, isn\u2019t she?\u201d And this time He made her much older. \u201cShe is much older, isn\u2019t she?\u201d Next, He tentatively made her extremely older, shabby, grey-haired, toothless, and bent back. Sakyamuni was preaching his teachings in this way, actually showing that even young women could not escape from this reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ananda was embarrassed. But Sakyamuni did not stop here. This woman died, was discarded at the graveyard. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d \u201cOh, she was dead.\u201d He showed that she had rotted away, been crushed out of shape and become only a skeleton. He showed that people were all like this. Ananda was not pleased, but he could not help saying, \u201cI understand.\u201d He had to say, \u201cPeople are like what you showed me, aren\u2019t they? I will agree with you. So I will give up my attachment to my wife.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Sakyamuni completely gave up all relations with His father, mother, wife, and child, I cannot give up my relations with my family. The relations are so strong that I cannot escape from them. Sakyamuni was a prince, or a successor to the throne of the country. He had already abandoned all things including His country, family, and people though He was the great hope of the king and the royal families. It can be said that He made His people quite unhappy in a sense. However, I think that He saved all these people in the end. All religious leaders may be said to have such nature. But I must confess that I cannot do the same things as Sakyamuni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Trans. by Rev. Kanshu Naito)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Rev. Shinkai Oikawa 9. Sakyamuni\u2019s Manhood(continued from (6) [No.169]) At dawn He received the wisdom to see through the present, past, and future because everything filthy had gone out of Him and He became completely clean and purified, which is called the \u201cextinction of illusion.\u201d This was the Buddha after all. Only enlightenment does not make the Buddha. I think He had powers to see through to the heart of things. It was just six o\u2019clock in the morning when He understood He had gotten the powers Night was divided into three parts in the olden times. Each part is four hours, and they are called the first night, midnight, and later night. The first night is from six to ten o\u2019clock. The next four hours is the midnight. The night nearest to dawn is the later night. It was the later night when Sakyamuni became completely enlightened. It was when the day was just dawning. He realized He acquired the power at dawn. We interpret \u201cenlightenment\u201d as understanding something. It is not so but it actually means \u201cperfect acquisition of the power.\u201d The power is beyond human powers. We do not call ones who do things that can be done easily by human powers Buddha. He acquired a certain power beyond human powers at the time and became the \u201cBuddha.\u201d Buddha in Indian is a past participle of the word meaning \u201cawaken\u201d and means \u201cawakened\u201d in the morning. But in case of Sakyamuni, Buddha means \u201cto be awakened to the truth.\u201d Sakyamuni was confined in the darkness. He continued to meditate and practice asceticism for six years saying I cannot understand. He failed asceticism itself, but was awakened to the truth, had His eyes opened fully and found Himself bathed in the light. He could see things that could not have been seen before in a flash under the Bodhi tree. He could see His past, future, and present. For instance, He came to understand a doctor\u2019s prescription soon. It is a prescription showing what is best for a person, that is, what is best for happiness of a person. He can understand what medicine He gets and when and how He should give it to the person. It is not sufficient to cure only the illness. We need many kinds of physical therapy to recover completely from illnesses and medical care can totally give us back good health. The mental cases are quite the same. It is a great pleasure for us that Sakyamuni healed a psychological problem on the first attempt. However, the problem cannot be completely cured easily, though the condition may be improved. He taught various people how to completely cure it in as many ways as possible. (7) Sakyamuni\u2019s Traveling Practice (7) \u2014Traveling as the Savior India is a very large country as you know. They had to travel around on foot at the time of Sakyamuni. They walked on the average 10 km a day. This distance to walk in a day is called yojana. Sometimes it took them one month or two to walk in order to reach a destination 300 km or 400 km away. Sakyamuni took the five men as his first disciples at the \u201cDeer Park\u201d in Baranasi (Benares). But He forbade them from waiting on Him. He drove them away, saying, \u201cGo anywhere in India quickly to save the people living in need and in trouble as I taught you how to save them.\u201d They were also told to go separately, without going together so that they could go to five separate places. I think Sakyamuni decided to save as many people as possible when he was invited by the King of the Brahma Heaven to preach the enlightenment He attained. And He was sure that He could save the people. Sakyamuni died at the age of eighty. Before He died He said, \u201cScatter my ashes all over India.\u201d And He added, \u201cMany people who can worship my ashes can be saved. So distribute my ashes to many places where many people can see them.\u201d In a word, all He wished was saving as many people as possible. Later, King Asoka built 84,000 pagodas to scatter His ashes all over India. He did not think of Himself at all but of the people in need. His first disciples went to save the people at once. Sakyamuni had taken many people as disciples since then. There were many kinds of disciples, some of whom wanted to be taught by Him with sincere adoration, but others wanted to be His disciple in order to live an easy life. Their motivations were never simple. There were also women who wanted to be His disciples, called \u201cbhiksuni,\u201d Buddhist priestesses. Sakyamuni refused to accept female disciples at first because priests tended to be distracted at the sight of priestesses. It was troublesome, so the Buddha said to the women, \u201cPlease do not join us.\u201d Finally, Mahaprajapati, the Buddha\u2019s foster mother, asked Him to take her as His disciple. He declined her offer three times in vain, and took her as His disciple. Thus she became the first Buddhist priestess. When Sakyamuni attained enlightenment, there already existed a lot of other trainees and great priests, who had 500 or 1,000 disciples. Sakyamuni occasionally dared to talk to them and took at once as many as 1,500 people as disciples. He had occasionally done such decisive things like this. I do not quite understand why He went to the wedding ceremony of Ananda, His younger brother or son of King Suddhodana and Mahaprajapati, and forced him to be a priest against his will. I cannot understand why He had done such a horrible thing. He took Ananda away from the wedding ceremony and forced him to become a priest. Ananda was unhappy and restless day and night because he was newly married and could not forget his beautiful new wife. He could not concentrate on ascetic practices at all under such conditions. Then Sakyamuni said to him, \u201cAnanda, you look pale and unsettled. Try hard to practice asceticism.\u201d Ananda could not listen to Him because he was made a priest against his will. Then the Buddha showed him a divine power \u201cLook, this woman is beautiful, isn\u2019t she?\u201d Sakyamuni said. \u201cYes, she is almost as beautiful as my wife,\u201d said Ananda. \u201cYou think so? Good. Women are beautiful, aren\u2019t they?\u201d \u201cYes, I agree.\u201d And then Sakyamuni suddenly changed the woman into an old one by his supernatural power. He asked, \u201cWhat do you think of this woman?\u201d \u201cYes, she got a little older.\u201d \u201cThe same woman, isn\u2019t she?\u201d And this time He made her much older. \u201cShe is much older, isn\u2019t she?\u201d Next, He tentatively made her extremely older, shabby, grey-haired, toothless, and bent back. Sakyamuni was preaching his teachings in this way, actually showing that even young women could not escape from this reality. Ananda was embarrassed. But Sakyamuni did not stop here. This woman died, was discarded at the graveyard. \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d \u201cOh, she was dead.\u201d He showed that she had rotted away, been crushed out of shape and become only a skeleton. He showed that people were all like this. Ananda was not pleased, but he could not help saying, \u201cI understand.\u201d He had to say, \u201cPeople are like what you showed me, aren\u2019t they? I will agree with you. So I will give up my attachment to my wife.\u201d Although Sakyamuni completely gave up all relations with His father, mother, wife, and child, I cannot give up my relations with my family. The relations are so strong that I cannot escape from them. Sakyamuni was a prince, or a successor to the throne of the country. He had already abandoned all things including His country, family, and people though He was the great hope of the king and the royal families. It can be said that He made His people quite unhappy in a sense. However, I think that He saved all these people in the end. All religious leaders may be said to have such nature. But I must confess that I cannot do the same things as Sakyamuni. (Trans. by Rev. Kanshu Naito)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":860,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions\/860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nichiren.or.jp\/english\/article\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/01\/Sakyamuni-meditating-under-the-Bodhi-tree-2-1000x1000.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
(7) Sakyamuni\u2019s Traveling Practice (7) \u2014Traveling as the Savior<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n