In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [224]
Thus those devas and human beings
Who have gone for refuge to the Buddha,
Having assembled, pay homage to him,
The great one free from diffidence.
“Tamed, he is supreme among those who tame;
At peace, he is the sage among those who bring peace;
Freed, he is the chief of those who set free;
Delivered, he is the best of those who deliver.”
Thus indeed they pay homage to him,
The great one free from diffidence.
In this world together with its devas,
There is no one who can rival you.
(AN 4:23; II 23–24 = It 112; 121–23)
NOTES
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1 The exact years of the Buddha’s life are still a matter of conjecture among scholars. Until recently, the most commonly cited figures were 566–486 B.C.E., but in recent years a growing number of Indologists have come to question these figures and the current preference is to place his death closer to 400 B.C.E.
2 See, e.g., MN 22.10 (I 133). Some of the terms are obscure, and the commentators seem to strain to find ways to identify texts that come within their scope.
3 But even as late as the age of the commentators (fifth century C.E.), the Theravāda tradition too called them Āgamas as well as Nikāyas.
4 The Cullavagga’s account of the first council is at Vin II 284–87. The rains retreat (vassāvāsa) is a three-month period coinciding with the Indian rainy season when Buddhist monks must refrain from wandering and remain at fixed residences. The retreat generally lasts from the day after the full-moon day of July until the full-moon day of October.
5 See Nyanaponika and Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha, chapter 4.
6 In the Theravāda tradition, the writing down of the canon occurred in Sri Lanka in the first century B.C.E. At that time the monks, apprehensive that the orally preserved teachings might be lost, collectively inscribed the texts on palm leaves and bound these into volumes, the prototypes of books. Up to this point, while individual texts might have been written down by monks as aids to memory, officially recognized transcriptions of the teaching did not exist. On the writing down of the canon, see Adikaram, Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon , p. 79; and Malalasekera, The Pāli Literature of Ceylon, pp. 44–47. It is possible that in India canonical texts were written down even earlier than in Sri Lanka.
7 See, e.g., Thich Minh Chau, The Chinese Madhyama Āgama and the Pāli Majjhima Nikāya; Choong Mun-keat (Wei-keat), The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism.
8 On the nature of Pāli, see Norman, Pāli Literature, pp. 2–7.
9 See Manné, “Categories of Sutta in the Pāli Nikāyas,” esp. pp. 71–84.
10 The above information is derived from Choong, The Fundamental Teachings of Early Buddhism, pp. 6–7.
CHAPTER I: THE HUMAN CONDITION
1 King Pasenadi was the ruler of the state of Kosala, whose capital was Sāvatthī. Jetavana, the grove of Prince Jeta, was also known as Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park because it was purchased for the Buddha by the wealthy philanthropist, Anāthapiṇḍika. The Nikāyas depict Pasenadi as one of the Buddha’s most devoted lay followers, though they never show him as attaining any stage of realization. An entire chapter of the Saṃyutta Nikāya—the Kosalasaṃyutta (chapter 3)—records his conversations with the Buddha.
2 When speaking of the arahant, the Buddha does not describe his destiny as “aging and death,” but as a mere breaking up and discarding of the body. This is because the arahant, being free from all notions of “I” and “mine,” does not conceive the decay and dissolution of the body as the aging and death of an “I.”
3 Devadūta. According to legend, while the Bodhisatta was still a prince living in the palace, he encountered an old man, a sick man, and a corpse, sights he had never seen before. These encounters shattered his worldly complacency and stirred him to seek a way to liberation from suffering. The commentaries say that these three figures were deities in disguise sent to awaken the Bodhisatta to his mission. Hence old age, illness, and death are called