 |
|
| |
|
Some sections on this site can only be properly viewed using the MOZPALI Font for the insertion of diacritical marks. If you wish to view these items properly, download this font and install it: [ PC: download here] [Mac: download here]
Upaka was the first human being encountered and spoken to by the Buddha after his enlightenment.
It is not discussed in any of the stories concerning this event, but it is my impression that it's importance is in the fact that Upaka was not immediately convinced. In other words, that even if the Buddha needed no further instructing, a lesson for the rest of us in hearing this story is that not even for one who has achieved supreme enlightenment does everything suddenly go according to the ways one would wish.
Upaka, a Naked Ascetic (£j¨vaka) encounters the Buddha between the Bodhi Tree and Gaya, shortly after he has set out to visit the group of five monks staying in Isipatana in the Deer Park after determining that they would be receptive to the teaching.[1] He notices the Buddha's radiant appearance and comments:
Vippasann¤ni kho te ¤vuso indriy¤ni
parisuddho
chaviva¼¼o pariyod¤to
ka³ si tva³ ¤vuso uddissa pabbajito
ko v¤ to
satth¤
kassa v¤ tva³ dhamma³ rocesiti.[2]
§
Resplendent, friend, is your Force-field![3]
Utterly pure the six-hues, utterly
brilliant!
To whom do you go for instruction?
Whose is the teaching you
proclaim?
§
Warren: "Placid, brother, are all your organs of sense; clear and bright is the color of your skin. To follow whom, brother, did you retire from the world? Who is your teacher? and whose doctrine do you approve?"
Horner: "Your reverence, your faculties are quite pure, your complexion is very bright, very clear. On account of whom have you, your reverence, gone forth, or who is your teacher, or whose dhamma do you profess?"
Nanamoli/Bodhi: "Friend, your faculties are clear, the colour of your skin is pure and bright. Under whom have ou gone forth, friend? Who is your teacher? Whose Dhamma do you profess?"
The Buddha responds:
Sabb¤bhibh¬ sabbavid¬'ham-asmi
sabbesu dhammesu
an¬palitto
sabba³jaho ta¼hakkhaye vimutto
saya³ abhi¾¾¤ya
kam-uddiseyya³
Na me ¤cariyo atthi
sadiso me na
vijjati
sadevakasmi³ lokasmi³
na-tthi me paÂipuggalo
Aha³ hi
arah¤ loke
aha³ satth¤ anuttaro
eko'mhi samm¤sambuddho
s¨tibh¬to'smi
nibbuto
Dhammacakka³ pavattetu³ gacch¤mi K¤sina³
pura³
andhabh¬tasmi³ lokasmi³ ¤ha¾cha³ amatadundubhin ti
Yath¤
kho tva³ ¤vuso paÂij¤n¤si arahasi anantajino ti
M¤dis¤ ve jin¤
honti ye patt¤ ¤savakkhaya³
jit¤
me p¤pak¤ dhamm¤
tasm¤'ha³ Upak¤ jino ti
§
Above it all, having seen it all, am I
Beyond it all,
free from thirst I am
Beyond the mire[4]
This higher knowing by me known,
who then,
could I as teacher indicate?
No master have I
For even another
such as I
cannot be found
Among the gods or in the world;
I have no
equal in any man.
The world's aristocrat am I
I the teacher
unsurpassed
I alone the Samma-sam-buddhassa man.
Tranquill,
extinguished.
To set a-roll'n the Dhamma Wheel
I get me off to
Kasi town
beating the drum of deathlessness
in a world gone
blind.
[Upaka] Such be as it may, friend,
this is a claim to
know
the Unending Victory.
[Buddha] Victorious indeed are
those
who've laid waste the asavas
Evicted by me are evil
things
Therefore, am I, Upaka, Victor.
|
|
But Upaka just shook his head and saying: |
§
Warren:
"'All-conquering have I now become, all-knowing;
Untainted by the elements
of being.
I've left all things, am freed through thirst's destruction,
All
wisdom's mine: what teacher should I follow?
"'I have no teacher
anywhere;
My equal nowhere can be found;
In all the world with all its
gods,
No one to rival me exists.
"'The saintship, verily, I've
gained,
I am The Teacher, unsurpassed;
I am The Buddha, sole,
supreme;
Lust's fire is quenched, Nirvana gained.
"'To found the
Doctrine's reign I seek
Benares, chief of K¤si's
towns;
And for this blinded world I'll cause
The drum of deathlessness to
beat.'
"'Which is as much as to say, brother, that you profess to
be a saint, an immeasurable Conqueror.'
"'Yea, were The Conquerors
like to me,
Well rid of all depravity.
I've conquered every evil
trait;
Thus, Upaka, a Conqueror I.'
§
We hear that after this meeting Upaka went to the Va¸kah¤ra country and there, having been attended to by a certain Capa, a hunter's daughter, fell in love with her and married her. Thereafter he made his living selling the meat the hunter killed. This Capa who had aparently admired Upaka as long as he had been an ascetic began to dispise him for having been entrapped by her and endlessly ridiculed him to the end that he left her and making his way to Savatthi, he found the Buddha and entered the order. It was said he became an Anagamin and being reborn in the Aviha Realm reached Arahantship there almost immediately. Capa too, apparently joined the order and became an Arahant.
[1]See: Dhammatalk: Buddha's First Sutta
[2]MN.I: #26: Ariyapariyesana Sutta, pp 170.
[3]If it wern't for "Star Wars", we might here say: "Aura"; in any case what is being spoken of here cannot be either the "faculties" of Nanamoli/Bodhi and Horner, or the Organs of Sense of Warren...how would Upaka, or anyone else for that matter know of such things? What could be known is the feeling of power eminating from such a being, or the perception of his radiance, whether it be the ordinary look of well being we occasionally see about people, or a more supernatural perception of their force field.
[4]Nanamoli/Bodhi, Horner and Warren all have "of all things," but if this is a true repetition of the conversation, the Buddha is responding to the question asking about whose "Dhamma" (teaching) he is following. I suspect these translators want to avoid the difficulty of what probably is the case, which is that at this point there is no such thing as a "Dhamma" of Buddhism. The paticca-samuppada is just "what is," and is beyond the speculative theories of the time, otherwise called "Dhammas." I have avoided the issue because of considerations of style.
References:
Majjhima Nikaya #26: Ariyapariyesana Sutta
Contact:
Privacy
Statement Copyright
Statement Webmaster's
Page
Page Last Updated
Monday, April 14, 2003 7:20
AM
