Sutta Story_2

So this morning will be another day of storytelling from the discourses of the Buddha and this story comes from some early discourses but it's sort of pieced together.

Some of it comes a little bit later in what are known as the commentaries that also sort of try to provide a bigger context for some of these stories.

And a lot of what inspires this discussion today is some of the work from a secular teacher and also a Buddhist teacher named Steven Batchelor who's done a lot of this piecing together of the early text of the Buddha and of the suttas.

And this story if you haven't gleaned from the poem that I read has to do with the end of the Buddha's life,

The context,

The time of the last year of his life.

And in the stories what we see is that the society around him,

Much of the society that he knew and the people that were close to him were dying.

The societies were beginning to fall apart.

War was happening and kings were being overthrown.

The Buddha's own disciples and senior disciples and close friends were dying during this last year of his life.

And the Buddha was seemingly calm and peaceful,

Died very peacefully under some trees,

The sala trees that Mary Oliver spoke of.

So this contrast between the society falling apart around him and his peacefulness is quite a contrast.

And maybe it has something that's relevant for all of us.

You know,

I would say that almost every generation thinks that the world is falling apart around them,

Right?

So this last year of the Buddha's life when he was about 80,

The king comes to talk to the Buddha and says both of us are 80 years old.

And the Buddha is up in his home country,

Sakya in the foothills of the Himalayas,

In which is now Nepal.

And he was on retreat or he was just living quietly there in his old age.

But nearby was this kingdom where King Pasenade lived and was a benefactor of the Buddha's.

And so they had been friends for 40 years.

So early in the Buddha's teaching career,

They were the same age and kind of struck up this friendship.

And so for these 40 years or so they had seen each other periodically.

And Pasenade was a student and very devoted to the Buddha.

So this king was out and about and wanted to visit the Buddha maybe one last time in their old age.

And he went to see him with a minister who apparently he trusted.

And they rode close to where the Buddha was in the forest.

And the king got off his horse or his elephant,

Whatever he was riding.

And he said to the minister,

I'm going to go there and see the Buddha alone.

So hold the horses or hold the elephants.

And he handed over the minister like all the insignia,

Like all the paraphernalia that represented the power of the king.

So his sword,

Maybe his crown or his turban,

Different things that represented his authority.

And so the minister was a little perturbed by this,

Like what's going on here?

Is there some secret plan that he's not wanting me to be there and hear what they're going to talk about?

So he was suspicious about what was happening.

And so the king goes off into the forest and he sees the Buddha.

And the king gives him almost like a eulogy,

Like he's going to see him for this one last time.

He just speaks,

You know,

Of high praise.

And that's the end of that story.

The sutta ends right there.

So again,

There's sort of like this piecing together of this story of the Buddha's last year.

So in some of the commentaries,

You know,

You see that the Buddha is 80 years old.

And in another discourse called the last days of the Buddha's life,

It's the story of his passing away.

And it's more of like a chronology over many months.

And it begins with the Buddha,

Where he's far from his country,

From his home country,

Where he lived in northern India.

So maybe he's 300 miles away.

I'm not sure but it was far.

And here he was 80 years old.

And he had been in his home country and then over the course of the year,

We don't know exactly when he was miles and miles away,

Far to the south,

Like down by like the Bay of Bengal,

Something like that.

So how did he get there?

And why did he go there?

You know,

The story,

The last days begins with the story of the Buddha now walking back home.

And he came all the way down these 300 miles,

Only to seemingly turn around and go back to his home country.

So,

You know,

Why this quick trip?

So in piecing it together,

One of the ideas is that the minister of the king,

Who took all the king's paraphernalia,

What the commentaries say,

Is that this minister had a resentment of the king and had left and abandoned the king there in the forest while he was talking to the Buddha and left him with a horse and one attendant.

And then the minister went back to the capital and handed the symbols of power to the king's son,

Who basically ousted the king and took over the throne.

So when the king came out of the forest without anything except a horse,

He went down to visit another king at this place where the Buddha ended up going.

And the other king was a relative,

A cousin or something.

And there had been a war.

They had been at war with each other over 40 years,

But he had come to make peace.

So now King Pasenade had nowhere else to go,

So he went to see his relative,

The other king.

So he made this long trip himself as an old man and he was not in good shape either.

So some of the texts say that he was kind of fat and a little bit lazy,

And so he made this long trip and he came to the capital where this other king,

His cousin,

Was reigning.

And again,

There's this piecing together and it seems that the Buddha knew that his friend,

The king,

Had been ousted by his son and this attendant or by this minister and his son.

And so he headed south.

The Buddha followed maybe to offer support for the king or to intervene or something.

But when he arrived at the capital,

His friend,

The king,

Had died.

So there was not much reason to stay there.

So this explains the Buddha's marching home.

And before he did that,

The reigning king sent his minister to talk to the Buddha and said,

I'm thinking about attacking the neighboring country.

It was not a republic.

It was not run by a king.

And so the minister said,

Do you have any advice for us?

What do you think of this,

Us attacking and conquering this neighboring country?

And the Buddha gave some advice,

Which prevented the war then.

And he advised them not to attack.

But he also unintentionally gave a clue for what the king had to do in order to attack the neighboring country,

Which he ended up doing several years later.

So as the Buddha got up to leave and started heading north for his home country,

He was going across a river.

And again,

The description is that he's walking north and he's described as an old man.

And he's actually describing himself.

And I want to read to you this description that the Buddha gives of himself.

He says,

I am now old,

Worn out,

Venerable,

One who has traversed life's path.

I have reached the term of life,

Which is 80.

Just as an old cart is made to go by being held together by straps,

So that the Buddha,

His body keeps going by being strapped up.

It is only when I meditate deeply,

That this body,

My body knows comfort and is at ease.

So the to tell it that to tell you is the name in which the Buddha was known.

And it means thus,

Means thus.

So here is a person who's 80 in this ancient world.

And he's describing himself as being held together by straps.

So the body is falling apart.

And in other words,

He's in pain.

And only meditation allows him to be free of pain.

So back then they had no medic,

You know,

Pain medication,

He was walking,

This old man is walking in pain,

His close friend,

The king has been observed and died.

The other king is about to conquer a neighboring country.

And then during his long walk north to his home country,

He learns that two of his closest disciples had died.

One had been killed by bandits and the other had just died of old age.

And the Buddha,

He's just walking,

He just keeps walking.

And at some point,

Somebody offers him some food that was spoiled.

And he gets dysentery,

And gets quite sick,

And he's in a lot of pain.

But he's still committed to getting home.

So he's heading home.

And at some point,

He just realizes he's going to die and not reach home.

So he finds these two magnificent trees to lay down underneath.

And he lays there.

And he never gets up again.

He lays there and he spends his last time on earth teaching.

And he carefully asks them,

Do you have any other questions before I die?

And no one asks anything.

And the Buddha finally says his last words.

So unlike the Mary Oliver poem,

He says,

All things are impermanent.

Everything is impermanent.

Practice diligently.

Carry on diligently.

Ongoingly carry on.

And then he dies.

He dies by going into a deep meditation state,

A jhana state.

As deep as possible through meditation.

And then he begins coming out and you know,

It's said that you know,

You go into these states of jhana and this fourth jhana stage is kind of like the most sublime place to be.

Maybe the ideal place to be in which you die.

And his life is passing away.

And this image,

An image that's been described as the,

Of a peaceful dying.

He's at peace with himself,

Surrounded by his disciples.

He is given his last teaching.

And now he's just peacefully going to this last journey in a deep meditation.

He's just a deep peace in the woods under trees.

And all around him,

You know,

Kings are being ousted,

War is about to happen,

People are dying.

And he doesn't reach home.

He's trying to get back home.

And he ends up just resting under trees.

So when we think about that,

How we live and understand in relationship to our own life.

Perhaps what the Buddha said as his last words can apply to us as well.

All things are impermanent.

Practice diligently.

Thank you.

Thank you for your kind attention.