Gautama Buddha: In Life and Legend by Kelen Betty

Author:Kelen, Betty [Kelen, Betty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-06-09T22:00:00+00:00

One day, not long after the First Sermon, an extremely intelligent ascetic, a Brahmin named Sariputra, noticed one of Buddha’s mob begging in the street, and he was much struck by the expression of serenity on his face. After having waited politely for the monk to fill his bowl, he accosted him and asked him to discourse on the new Dharma.

The monk, who happened to be one of the first five disciples, Assaji, replied rather modestly that he had not the eloquence to teach. However, he said that his Master’s teaching could be summed up by the phrase: “Everything that has a beginning has an end.”

This is a philosophical nutshell. It contains Buddha’s idea that everything in this mortal universe is in frantic motion, caught in the swift mill of cause and effect. He reasoned that anything that has started to move must someday cease to move. He did not believe in perpetual motion, any more than a modern engineer does.

Sariputra saw the point at once. Thanking Assaji, he made haste to communicate this teaching to his close friend, Mogallana. These two, it is said, were born on the same day, grew up together, and left their homes together in search of a doctrine that could engross their excellent minds.

Now they came to Gautama who immediately recognized their ability. Since he was at that time engaged in organizing the Samgha, he placed them next to him in authority over his monks. The pair became among the most famous personalities—probably historic—who surrounded Buddha. Sariputra excelled in learning and in teaching. He is thought to have devised the system used in the Samgha for explaining Buddha’s teachings painlessly to the slowest monks. Mogallana became an adept of iddhi, the psychic powers that are said to be a by-product of the practice of trance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.