This article was originally published in Daily News on June 24 to mark Poson Poya Day.
During his brief stay on the island, Arahant Mahinda accessed five works of the Pali Canons:
- Cullahatthipadopama Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya I, 3. 7)
- Peta Vatthu
- Vimana Vatthu (Peta Vatthu and Vimana Vatthu are two books of Khuddaka Nikaya (short volume) on celestial and ghostly mansions
- Devaduta Sutta (on Heavenly Messengers - Majjhima Nikaya III 3. 10)
- Balapandita Sutta (on Wise and Fool - Majjhima Nikaya III, 3. 9.)
King Devanampiyatissa and his royal family are recorded to have become the followers of the Buddha’s teachings following these sermons. Some family members had become stream-winners too.
A stream-winner is the one who enters and abides in the first stage of Buddhist sainthood, sotapanna. Entering the stream is a metaphorical reference to attaining the first stage of sainthood. The stream-winner eradicates the first three of ten fetters: belief in an individual self (sakkaya diṭṭhi), doubt or uncertainty, especially about the Buddha’s teachings (vicikiccha) and devotion to rites and rituals (silabbata paramaso). The rest of the ten fetters are sensual desire (kamacchando), ill will (vyapada), lust for material existence and rebirth, (ruparago), lust for immaterial existence and rebirth in a formless realm (aruparago), conceit (mano), restlessness (uddhacca) and ignorance (avijja). Sotapanna, therefore, is the first followed by three stages: sakurdagami (once-returner), anagami (non-returner) and arahant (fully awakened).
The solid establishment of Buddhism in Sri Lanka is a result of Arahant Mahinda’s skilful choice of works from the Pali Canons. His mission in sailing for Sri Lanka was more than just converting another royal clan into Buddhism.
This fact is corroborated, as the arahant did not venture into the conversion right away. His first requirement was inquiring the intellectual capacity of the chief of state with the history’s first recorded famous Intelligence Quotient on trees and relatives.
Simile of the elephant footprint
Culla Hatthipadopama Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya: Sutta 27), a minor discourse on the simile of elephant footprints, is an interesting study. Linguistically, Hatthi, Pada and Opama mean elephant, foot and simile respectively in Pali.
The source is based on a conversation between two Brahmins (non-Buddhists): Pilotika and Janussoni. Pilotika, though not a perfect Buddhist convert, describes his pleasant feelings about Buddhist philosophy and its followers to Janussoni, making the latter get fascinated in a follow-up.
An inquiring-minded Janussoni raises the issue of Buddha’s claim to be an Enlightened Being. Simply put, the learned Brahmin questions the Buddha’s feat of wisdom, to which Pilotika brings out a simile of an elephant.
"… Suppose a wise elephant woodsman were to enter an elephant wood and were to see in the elephant wood a big elephant's footprint, long in extent and broad across. He would conclude: 'Indeed, this is a bi bull elephant.' So too, when I saw four footprints of the recluse Gotama, I came to the conclusion: 'The Blessed One is fully enlightened, the Dhamma is well proclaimed by the Blessed One, the Sangha is practising the good way.'"
(Translated from Pali by Venerable Nanamoli and Bodhi Theras)
The Buddha’s footprints, Pilotika notices, involve the non-Buddhist scholars thinking about raising a particular set of questions and getting armed with rebuttals for obvious answers. Pilotika delightfully explains how he sees the same scholars becoming the Buddha's disciples. Pilotika argues that he can measure Buddha's accomplishment of wisdom by seeing his disciples.
Janussoni could be made satisfied by Pilotika’s explanations, but it reflects the modern-day misunderstanding of Buddhism. This misunderstanding is not confined to the West as most of us assume. It is very much prevalent in our hemisphere as well.
Buddhism is generally understood as the fact that the true Buddhist stays away from basic sins such as slaughter, stealth, non-celibate conduct, false speech and alcohol consumption. The core of the teachings, however, is far deeper.
Comparison of faiths
Arahant Mahinda's choice epitomises what he wanted to represent. The five works handpicked from the Pali Canon indicate the stark gap between an ordinary saint and a Buddhist saint. Interestingly, the works show the path to observe the truth. This can be accomplished only by traversing the darkness towards the radiance. The Buddha’s detailed interpretation of the elephant-footprint simile inspired Janussoni. It was his motivation to become an Enlightened Being.
Just because the footprint was large in length and breadth, it does not help picture the big elephant. There can be dwarf female elephants with feet large in length and breadth. Similarly, there can be other non-Buddhist saints who stay away from the sins; most sins are listed in the sutta. A big elephant can be fathomed only by the inquiring observation of the whole being.
The proper Buddhist saint, therefore, must be understood, or the real accomplishment of wisdom should be understood, by the realisation and the practice of four noble truths, originally taught in Buddhism. The sutta is hard to understand in one step. However, if studied carefully, the sutta helps us develop the idea that the modern-day concept of comparing Buddhism with other religions is not theoretically correct. Every religion has its unique features, and so has Buddhism: four noble truths, for one.
Although the message seems simple and clear, it is hard to convince it to a run-of-the-mill. It is this background that led, or forced, arahant Mahinda to inquire about the intellectual capacity of King Devanampiyatissa to get the message.
Many scholars, especially Westerners, entertain the theory that Buddhism encourages only the saintly life. Arahant Mahinda gives the lie to this famous misconception with his subsequent sermons of Peta Vatthu, Vimana Vatthu, Devaduta Sutta and Balapandita Sutta, which mostly discuss the way a Buddhist should behave as a layperson. For instance, Peta Vatthu illustrates the fate of evil-doers and Vimana Vatthu focuses on what the virtuous can await.
Heavenly messengers
Devaduta Sutta talks of five heavenly messengers we see in our life, but continuously and unknowingly pass over.
The five heavenly messengers are termed in the following manner:
1. A toddler standing and lying with difficulty.
2. An old woman or man decayed and bent like the framework of a roof.
3. A sick woman or man, immersed in their own urine and excreta, raised by others and conducted by others.
4. An offender taken hold by the king and given various kinds of torture caned and whipped.
5. A dead woman or man after one day, two days or three days, bloated and turned blue.
Balapandita Sutta teaches how human beings suffer through their follies, thus encouraging good deeds.
The primary reason for arahant Mahinda’s arrival in Lanka is the third council which took place during Emperor Asoka’s regime under the guidance of Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera. It was a hard task for the emperor to set the background to the third council, but reached the expected fruition. Arahant Mahinda’s emissary role is a result of the third council of Buddhism held during Emperor Asoka’s period.
Third Council
The council remains significant and weighty since it paved way for the establishment of the teachings in nine different countries. The result: Arahant Mahinda set foot in Lanka, one of the countries then known as Thambapanni, to establish Buddhism.
The background for the third council was manifested 218 years after the Buddha’s demise, during Emperor Asoka’s regime. Despite his notoriety for military offensives, Asoka became a saint-like monarch following the encounter with a novice monk. The emperor soon became interested in the teachings.
He directed a large portion of state funds to the welfare of Buddhism, earning the wrath of powerless brahmins. The brahmins had issues with the upbringing of Buddhism, and they had been scheming for the downfall of Buddhism.
One strategy was entering the monk order and living as they desire. This was infiltration, one can say. This strategy proved effective as people became embarrassed and disappointed over the behaviour of some monks. They did not care to assume it was a brahmin strategy to put Buddhism into shame.
By this time, it dawned upon the emperor that the Uposatha ceremony, or prescribed purification of monks, had not been performed for seven years. He was interested in continuing the much-acclaimed spiritual practice. A monk must confess any discipline breach to another monk according to the prescribed purification procedure. The emperor sent courtiers to let the monk order be informed about his wish.
However, a positive response from the genuine monks was hard to obtain. They objected as the order was impure with heretic monks. Courtiers could not see the spiritual grounds of the objection, and they mistook the objection as acting against the royal decree. Offended courtiers started massacring the monks, but were brought to halt by the emperor's brother who was also a monk.
Asoka was disturbed to learn this and inquired Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera if he was responsible for what his subordinates had done. Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera had a diplomatic approach. He made use of the situation to enlighten the emperor further on the Buddha’s teachings. The Venerable Thera pointed out that Buddhism is a philosophy that sorts things out through analysis.
Asoka then assigned himself the time-consuming task of interviewing every monk to identify their genuine position. A monk failing to provide a satisfactory explanation would be disrobed with a proper layperson's job as an alternative.
At least 60,000 people are said to have been disrobed in the purging process. The path for the third council was thus cleared in the 17th year of Emperor Asoka’s period.
Later additions
Pali sources maintain that Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera compiled a book titled Katavatthupakarana of 23 chapters as a rebuttal to heretical views held by different sects. The council had been executed for nine months with Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera as the chair of the assembly of 1000 arahants.
Many historians, however, question the third council. Lankan chronicles and Samantapasadika glossary do mention the third council, but many other sources do not have references to such an event during the period. Ironically Asoka's inscriptions do not refer to the event either!
Asoka’s claim of having united the monk order and disrobed the heretics remains scribed in his inscriptions.
It is clear, as mentioned earlier, Asoka's two precautions were followed by the major event of the third council. When it comes to the shouldering of the event, it is Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera who deserves the honour, though the emperor must have provided financial and other material sponsorship.
The absence of the mention may well be accredited to the emperor’s respect towards Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera for shouldering the event.
Following this major event, the emperor worked on extending his foreign relations by spreading Dhamma in the neighbouring countries. He was lucky to be equipped with enough human resources to accomplish his mission. Asoka’s mission of sending Buddhist representatives to nine countries is a breakthrough event second only to Venerable Moggaliputtatissa Thera’s compilation of Katavatthupakarana and steering the third council.
