Idea

Copyright © 2023 Tomás Morales y Duran. All rights reserved

The future Buddha began with an erroneous hypothesis, that pleasure is only obtained through pain. And he will be the first but not the only mistake in the noble search for him.

Not for nothing, one of the conditions to be a Buddha is the desire to learn, and you learn how you can.

A typical mistake that real search engines make is to think that the problem may already be solved and the easiest solution is to find who solved it. This inevitably ends up leading to a stupid waste of energy and time. Whoever finds the Truth is discouraged from sharing it, while those who preach the truth are the ones who sell lies.

He sought out Āḷāra the Kālāma and later Uddaka Rāmaputta with whom he learned to enter and remain respectively in two spaces (āyatanas): in the dimension of nowhere and in the dimension of the absence of clinging factors to existence. And as we have seen, they are useless out of context. Understanding that neither of these two states was what he was looking for, he walked away.

Then, wandering stage by stage through the lands of Magadha, he reached Senanigama near Uruvelā, a temporary settlement. There he came to a lovely tract of land with a fine grove of trees and a clear-flowing river with a delightful ford, and a nearby village for maintenance. And he came up with:

"Of course! it is a lovely tract of land, and the woodland is fine, and the river flows clear with a delightful ford, and there is a village nearby for keep. Yes of course! This serves perfectly for the training of a young man committed to the effort ».

So, he sat there, thinking, “Of course! This place serves to train me.

In addition to the desire to learn, a bodhisatta must find the right place. Gnosis depends on the presence of devas and they are not everywhere. The devas love places endowed with beauty, with clear and accessible waters. Finding the place can be the most complicated.

Already in the place, he began with his occurrences...

He came up with these three examples, which were not supernaturally inspired or learned to him before in the past.

"Suppose there is a green log full of sap lying in the water. Then a person comes with a drill thinking of lighting a fire and producing heat.

By piercing the stick against that sap-filled green log lying in the water, he could not light a fire and produce heat, because it is a sap-filled green log lying in the water. That person is surely going to wear himself out in vain.

In the same way, there are ascetics and Brahmins who do not live apart in body and mind from sensory pleasures. They have not subjectively renounced or nullified the craving, affection, conceit, infatuation, craving and passion for sensory pleasures. Regardless of whether or not they feel painful, piercing, severe, and sharp sensations due to overexertion, they are unable to achieve the episteme of peerless self-awakening.

This was the first example he came up with.

Then he came up with a second example.

“Suppose there is a green, sap-filled log lying on dry land far from water. If a person comes with a drill thinking of lighting a fire and producing heat.

By piercing the stick against that green and sap-filled log on dry land far from the water, neither could you start a fire and produce heat, because it is still a green and sap-filled log, even though it lies on dry land, far away. of the water. That person is surely going to wear himself out in vain.

Similarly, there are ascetics and Brahmins who, although living withdrawn in body and mind from sense pleasures, have not subjectively renounced or abolished craving, affection, conceit, infatuation, craving and passion for sense pleasures. Regardless of whether or not they feel painful, piercing, severe, and sharp sensations due to overexertion, they are unable to achieve the episteme of peerless self-awakening.

This was the second example that occurred to me.

Then a third example occurred to him.

“Suppose there is a dry and withered log, and it lies on dry land far from water. If a person comes with a drill thinking of lighting a fire and producing heat.

By piercing the stick against that dry and withered log on dry land far from the water, it could kindle a fire and produce heat, because it is a dry and withered log, and it lies on dry land far from the water.

Similarly, there are ascetics and Brahmins who live withdrawn in body and mind from sensory pleasures. And they have renounced and subjectively calmed the craving, the affection, the conceit, the infatuation, the craving and the passion for sensory pleasures. Regardless of whether or not they feel painful, penetrating, severe and sharp sensations due to overexertion, they are capable of reaching the episteme of despair.

supreme awakening

This was the third example he came up with. These are the three examples, not supernaturally inspired, nor learned before in the past, that he came up with.

But he lacked a fourth, more significant example: if a log is dry, even if it is floating in the water, it can catch fire. But at this stage, his idea was to get away from sensory pleasures while maintaining his initial idea of "pleasure is only obtained through pain."

And the occurrences began:

"Suppose now that I, with clenched teeth, with my tongue pressed against my palate, will I be able to make my mind submit, force itself and control itself?"

Then, teeth clenched, tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth, he kept the mind subdued, forced, and mastered itself. While he was subduing, forcing and dominating the mind, teeth clenched, tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth, sweat poured out of his armpits.

It is as if a strong man, having seized a weaker man by the head or shoulders, subdued him, forced him, and dominated him. Thus, he was subduing, forcing and dominating his mind, with clenched teeth, with his tongue pressed against the palate, while sweat broke out from his armpits.

He fought hard. He put all the energy and focus into him without relaxing. But he did not get peace in his body, because all the concentration was used to fight and master the pain. However, his mind was not overwhelmed by pain.

Then he came up with

"Why don't I practice breathless contemplation?"

So he cut off his breath through his mouth and nose. But then the air rushed out of his ears with a loud noise, like the puffing of a blacksmith's bellows.

He fought hard. He put all the energy and focus into him without relaxing. But he did not get peace in his body, because all the concentration was used to fight and master the pain. However, his mind was not overwhelmed by pain.

Then he came up with:

"Why don't I keep practicing breathless contemplation?"

So he cut his breath through his mouth, nose and ears. But then the pressurized air hit his head, as if a strong man was piercing his head with a sharp point.

He fought hard. He put all the energy and focus into him without relaxing. But he did not get peace in his body, because all the concentration was used to fight and master the pain. However, his mind was not overwhelmed by pain.

Then he came up with:

"Why don't I keep practicing breathless contemplation?"

So he cut his breath through his mouth, nose and ears. But then he gave her a pounding headache, as if a strong man was tightening a leather thong around my head.

He fought hard. He put all the energy and focus into him without relaxing. But he did not get peace in his body, because all the concentration was used to fight and master the pain. However, his mind was not overwhelmed by pain.

Then he came up with:

"Why don't I keep practicing breathless contemplation?"

So he cut his breath through his mouth, nose and ears. But then the air pressure cut into his belly, like a skilled butcher or his apprentice was cutting into my belly with a meat cleaver.

He fought hard. She put all her energy and focus into it without relaxing. But he did not get peace in his body, because all the concentration was used to fight and master the pain. However, his mind was not overwhelmed by pain.

Then it occurred to him:

"Why don't I keep practicing breathless contemplation?"

So he cut his breath through his mouth, nose and ears. But then there was an intense burning in his body, like two strong men grabbing a weaker man by the arms to burn and scorch him in a pit of coals.

He fought hard. He put all the energy and focus into him without relaxing. But he did not get peace in his body, because all the concentration was used to fight and master the pain. However, his mind was not overwhelmed by pain.

Then some devas who live near the trees and rivers saw him and said, "Gotama the ascetic is dead." Others said: "He is not dead, but he is dying." Others said: "He is not dead or dying. The ascetic Gotama is a Worthy, for that is how the Worthy live."

Although he succeeded in insulating the mind from pain, which is a characteristic of the Worthy, by using all his concentration to master the pain, he could not achieve the necessary peace. The idea of not breathing was correct, but the way to achieve it prevented the achievement of gnosis.

Changing tack, he came up with:

"Why don't I practice completely giving up food?"

But the devas came to him and said, “Good sir, don't practice giving up food altogether. If you do, we will infuse divine nectar through your pores and you will live on it.

So he thought:

"If I claim to be fasting totally while these devas infuse divine nectar into my pores, it would be lying on my part."

So he dismissed those devas, saying:

"There's no need."

Then he came up with:

"Why don't I just have a little food at a time, a cup of broth made from green soybeans, lentils, chickpeas, or peas?"

That's what he did, until his body became extremely emaciated. Because he ate so little, his limbs became like the joints of an eighty-year-old or a corpse, his behind became the hoof of a camel, his vertebrae stuck out like the beads in a japamala and his ribs were as gaunt as broken beams in an old barn. Because he ate so little, the glint in his eyes sank deep into their sockets, like the glint of water plunged into a well. Because he ate so little, his scalp shriveled and withered like a bitter green gourd in the wind and sun.

Because he ate so little, the skin on his belly stuck to his spine, so that when he tried to rub the skin on his belly, he grabbed the spine, and when he tried to rub the spine, he rubbed the skin on his belly. Because he ate so little, when he tried to urinate or defecate he fell face down right there. Because he ate so little, when he tried to soothe his body by rubbing his extremities with his hands, his hair, rotten at its roots, fell out.

Then some people who saw him and said: "Gotama the ascetic is black." Some said, "It's not black, it's brown." Some said, "It's not black or brown." "The ascetic Gotama has reddish skin." So much had the pure, glowing complexion of his skin been ruined by taking so little food.

So he thought:

“Whoever ascetics and Brahmins have experienced painful, sharp, severe, penetrating sensations due to overexertion, whether in the past, future, or present, as far as it goes, no one has done more than this. But I have not achieved any achievement in episteme that is worthy of the nobles for this severe and exhausting work. Could there be another path to awakening?

At this point, he discarded the initial hypothesis: "pleasure is only obtained through pain." At this point the occurrences ended. He was thirty-five years old and it had been six years since he left home.