Ārāḍa and Udraka (I)

Buddhacarita, Chapter Twelve: Ārāḍa and Udraka

The heir of the sugarcane and moonlight lineage arrived at that place of quiet stillness, and paid reverent visit to the great sage and seer Ārāḍa.

Kālāma's own noble descendant, seeing the bodhisattva approach from a distance, called out to him in a loud voice of praise, welcoming him warmly: "You are most welcome here."

They joined their palms in mutual reverence, each asking the other after his own peace and well-being.

Once these courteous greetings were finished, the prince was seated with all due order and ceremony.

The brahmin, beholding the prince's own dignified and composed bearing, felt himself washed over and won by his virtue, as a thirsty man is by a drink of ambrosia.

Raising his hand, he said to the prince: "I have long known of your going forth from home, cutting the very chains of kinship and affection, like an elephant slipping free of its tether — for your profound wisdom and clear insight are enough to let you escape this poisonous fruit entirely.

The wise and excellent kings of ages past set aside their own thrones and handed them to their sons, the way a man discards a garland of flowers once it has withered and grown old — yet you have surpassed even them, refusing the throne of a sacred king while still in the very fullness of your youth.

Observing the depth and firmness of your own resolve, I see that you are a fit vessel for the true Dharma, one certain to ride the very boat of wisdom across the sea of birth and death.

An ordinary teacher first draws a student in and only afterward examines his talent before deciding what to teach him — but I already know your resolve is firm and settled beyond question, and so you need only take up your studies exactly as you wish; I shall hold nothing back from you at all."

The prince, hearing his teaching, answered him with joy: "You have taught me so generously, with an impartial heart free of favor or aversion — I need only receive it with an open mind, and what I wish for will already be as good as attained.

It is like one traveling by night who obtains a torch, or one lost finding a guide, or one crossing the sea who finds a swift boat — I feel exactly the same way now.

Now that you have so graciously granted me your teaching, let me venture to ask what still troubles my own heart: how can the afflictions of birth, old age, sickness, and death possibly be escaped?"

At this, Ārāḍa, hearing what the prince asked, drew on his own scriptures and treatises to give him, in summary, this explanation: "You are a man of keen understanding, foremost among the intelligent — now listen closely as I explain to you the meaning of the arising and cessation of birth and death.

The transformation of a primal nature gives rise to birth, old age, and death — these five things together constitute a sentient being: the nature itself is pure and undefiled, while what undergoes transformation are the five great elements.

Awareness, and sight itself, change according to their objects and their faculties and names; form, sound, scent, taste, and touch — these are called the sense-objects.

The hands, the feet, speech, and the two lower passages — these five are called the faculties of action; the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body — these are called the faculties of awareness.

The faculty of mind holds a double meaning, being both a faculty of action and a faculty of awareness at once; the transformation of this primal nature serves as the cause, and that which knows this cause is called the self.

The seer Kapila, together with his own disciples and followers, cultivated this very essential teaching of mine, and thereby attained liberation.

That very Kapila is now known as Prajāpati; awareness of birth, old age, and death is what is called "seeing."

Whatever runs contrary to this is called "not-seeing" — ignorance, karmic action, and craving desire together are called "the turning wheel."

Should a being remain fixed within these three — a lack of faith, a doubting confusion, and an inability to discriminate correctly without any skillful means — such a being cannot escape this cycle at all.

Deep attachment to sense-objects, entangled with what belongs to the self; a lack of faith, and a perverse and inverted turning of the mind, acting one way and understanding another —

saying "I know," "I am aware," "I go," "I come," "I abide" — all such conceptions of a self as this are called "the self's own turning."

Wavering uncertainty over the various natures of things, unable to grasp with any certainty what is true and what is false — this state of irresolution is what is called "doubt."

Should one say that a given dharma is the self, or that it is mind, or that it is awareness, or action, or one of the various categories, and yet again call it the self —

this failure to discriminate properly is called "confused aggregation"; failing to understand the transformations of the foolish and the wise, and of nature itself, is called "the failure to discriminate."

Bowing in reverence, reciting scriptures, taking life in sacrifice to the gods, purifying oneself with water and fire and the like, and conceiving of liberation through such practices — every such view as this is called "having no skillful means."

The attachment the ignorant hold to mind, speech, awareness, action, and to the objects of sense — this is called simply "attachment."

Regarding every possession as belonging to one's own self — this is called "appropriation."

These eight kinds of delusion together submerge a being deep in birth and death, and the ignorant of this world are bound fast by these five afflicted conditions.

Dullness and great delusion, anger and dread — laziness is called "dullness," and the state of birth-and-death itself is called "delusion."

Craving desire is called "great delusion," for it is precisely this that gives rise to confusion even in great men; harboring resentment is called "anger," and a fearful heart is called "dread."

These foolish and ignorant ordinary beings, attached to the five desires, root themselves in the great suffering of birth and death, circling on through birth in the five destinies.

Turning through birth after birth, [holding to] my own seeing and hearing, my own knowing, my own doing — it is precisely because of clinging to such a notion of self that one is swept along, following the very current of birth and death.

This cause itself has no fixed nature of its own, and so its effect, too, has no fixed nature — and it is said that through right reflection on this, there are four dharmas that lead toward liberation.

Cleverness and ignorant darkness, the manifest and the unmanifest — should one come to know these four dharmas, one is able to escape birth, old age, and death entirely.

Once birth, old age, and death have been exhausted, one attains the inexhaustible state itself — and it is upon this very meaning that every brahmin in this world relies, cultivating the holy life accordingly, and it is this, too, that they teach widely to others."