The pointed person next to Buddha
The obsession with love and power
Love
And ambition
Looks like two things
But in the eyes of the Buddha
They're the same thing.
Last episode
We talked about Sariputra, who is the first in wisdom, and Mukanlian, who is the first in supernatural powers.
These two people left before the Buddha died
A quiet return to his mother's side
One was stoned to death
Two lights went out
Buddha said
I am standing in an empty field
Keep talking
I'm going to tell you about two people today.
They also played an important role in the life of the Buddha
But their story
It will continue until after the Buddha's death
first person
The person on whom the Buddha depended most
He served the Buddha for 25 years
Remember almost everything the Buddha said
He is the hard drive of the entire Buddhist lineage
Without him
There is no classic that we can read today
Second person
Is the Buddha's most powerful enemy
He tried to kill Buddha three times
In the Sangha instigated the only split of the Buddha's life
He was the one who made Buddha openly admit that he had enemies
The names of these two people
You've probably heard about it.
A man named Ananda
One is Devadatta.
They have another relationship
They are cousins
They and the Buddha
From the same family
Hello
Hello.
I am Wang Lijie
Today we enter the seventh episode of practicing along the historical context of Buddhism
Let's talk about these two people
Their story
In my opinion
It's one of the most dramatic narratives in the entire history of early Buddhism.
None of them.
and
I want to leave you with one conclusion at the beginning.
You can listen back with that conclusion.
Ananda and Devadatta
They represent more than just loyalty and betrayal
They represent two extremes of the same force.
That power
It's called obsession.
But they ended up with two very different outcomes
The difference itself
This is the most worth seeing today
Ananda clings to his love for the Buddha
Devadatta was obsessed with the desire for power
Love and power
Looks like two extremes.
But at the heart of the Buddha's teachings is this
All the persistence
No matter what kind of coat you wear
Eventually there will be suffering
This is not a moral judgment
This is a diagnosis of human nature and spiritual depth
OK
Let's start with Ananda
Ananda
It's called Ananda in Sanskrit.
It means joy. It means joy.
This name
It is said that when he was born
The family is very happy
Hence the name
The day he was born
It is said that it happened to be the day of Buddha's enlightenment
This detail cannot be accurately verified in history
But it is repeatedly emphasized in the Buddhist tradition
As if to suggest some kind of echo of fate
Ananda is a Sakya
Siddhartha's cousin
After the Buddha became enlightened, he returned to Kapilavastu
After a statement that shook the entire royal family
Many young nobles of the Sakyamuni tribe chose to become monks
Ananda was one of them.
When he became a monk
About twenty years old
Early monk
Ananda did not immediately become the Buddha's servant
According to the records of the Palileo Collection
Around the middle and late stages of Buddha's teaching career
Buddha had several different people as attendants
But these early waiters were unstable.
That is, after about 20 years of teaching.
The Buddha said to the monks
I'm getting old.
I need a regular waiter to take care of my daily life
The monks wanted to take on this responsibility.
Because I can serve the Buddha day and night
It's an incredible honor.
But Ananda
But didn't come forward immediately
He put forward eight conditions
So he says.
If you are willing to promise me these eight things
I would like to be your waiter
The first four conditions are
Don't give me good clothes
Don't give me good food
Don't let me live in your incense room
Don't give me more food when the Buddha was invited to fast
These four conditions
The direction is to reject any perks obtained because of waiter status
The last four conditions are
If someone came to see the Buddha from afar
Let me in too
If I have any doubts
Let me ask you anytime
If you talk to someone in my absence
Promise me to repeat it for me later
If someone asks me to go somewhere
Allow me to speak for him on your behalf
These four conditions
The goal is to ensure that you have the most complete access to the Buddha's teachings
And can speak for the Buddha
Did you see Ananda's intention?
He wants to be a waiter
But he didn't do it for glory.
It's not about being near the center of power.
He is studying the Fa
He took the matter of serving the Buddha
Designed as a way to get yourself the closest distance
The most complete absorption of the structure of Buddhism
Buddha agreed
Since then
Twenty-five years
Ananda followed the Buddha every step of the way
Every word the Buddha said
He was there.
Every statement
He remembered it all
In an era without written records
Ananda is the walking hard disk.
It's the flesh-and-blood server.
Here's a little detail.
Need to stop and talk alone
Ananda's memory is spoken language
Buddha on various occasions
To different people
The words spoken are not exactly the same
Because the Buddha was talking to the machine.
He adjusts his expression to the root mechanism of the listener
So Ananda remembers
It is not an abstract philosophical system
It is the living language spoken by the Buddha in countless specific situations
This also means that
Ananda remembered
Not just doctrinal content
There's also context.
There is also the cause of the statement
He knew where it was.
Under what circumstances and to whom?
This contextual information
In the process of later classic finishing
It has become the fixed format at the beginning of each sutra
So I heard
The Buddha is somewhere
How many bhikkhus are there with
That's what I heard
It is the mark left by Ananda
That's what I heard.
But
Well, one thing
It's a huge paradox in the story of Ananda.
It took him 25 years.
Remember everything the Buddha said
But in the process
Failed to prove the arhat fruit
He is the first person to hear more
But not a proven arhat
Why is that?
From the surface
It's strange.
Twenty-five years of living with the Buddha
Heard the most law
Should be the first to realize
But the opposite is true.
One explanation is that
Ananda's feelings for the Buddha are too deep
He's not studying the Fa.
He is in love
Let me put it more precisely.
He's in love with the person who said that.
His feelings for the Buddha
There is an obsession that he himself may not be aware of
The obsession itself
Became an obstacle to his enlightenment
Think about it.
The structure of this thing
You love someone too much who teaches you to let go
So much so that you can't let him go
You hold on to every word he teaches you
But the core thing he taught you
Just let go
This is not an exception in the spiritual tradition
It's a systemic risk.
When you sanctify a specific person
When your spiritual motivation is love and dependence on that person
Rather than the desire for liberation itself
You have fallen into an obsession that is more subtle than worldly obsession
Because this obsession wears the cloak of Buddhism
You wouldn't even recognize it.
Ananda
In twenty-five years
Live yourself as a vessel for the Buddha's teachings
But the container itself
Not water
A container filled with water
And water are two different things
This difference
It was Ananda after the death of the Buddha
Really forced to face
The night the Buddha died
Ananda was present
His mood
No language can accurately describe
What we can read from the Pali Scriptures is
Ananda leans against the door and weeps alone
So he says.
I have not yet proven
And my teacher has passed away
He was so compassionate and caring for me
He's gone now.
After the Buddha passed away
Dajiaye hosted the first gathering
Summon five hundred arhats
Recite the Buddha's teachings in their entirety
Sealed in collective memory
Dajiaye
Also known as Mahakya
He was the most prestigious elder of the Sangha after the Buddha's death
Known as Toutuo First
But
On the list of kasyapa
No Ananda
The reason for Dajiaye is
Ananda has not yet proven the arhat fruit
This time we gather
Only arhats are allowed to participate
Dajiaye's attitude towards Ananda
There were other controversies before and after the gathering
There are many accounts in the classics of his criticism of Ananda
Imagine that scene.
Ananda
The only person who has heard almost everything the Buddha said
The only person who has recorded the entire 45-year teaching career of the Buddha
Blocked out the door
This is for Ananda
What does it feel like?
It is said that
The night before the gathering began
Ananda found out about it
He was there that night
Finally proved the arhat fruit
Not in peaceful meditation
Not under the Buddha's throne
But under the final pressure
The night he knew he would face history
He let go
About how he let go
There's a saying in the Pali annotation tradition
His night
Back and forth between walking and meditation
Work hard
But I can't get in
Then he decided to go to bed
The moment I lay down
Head hasn't touched the pillow yet
The body has not fully let go
He got it.
You notice this moment
Not at the best of times
It's in the gap between giving up the effort
It's not that the body lies down
It's the thought in my heart that "I must realize"
It's loose.
And the next day.
Ananda walked into the meeting place
He is the only one who can recite all the classics
He uses his own voice
Restore the Buddha's teachings word by word
The 500 Arahats present confirmed them one by one.
Right
That's it.
That's what it means.
So I heard
Said by Ananda
The classical heritage of Buddhism
Start here.
From the story of Ananda
You can see one thing
Really let go
It's not always a quiet, deliberate decision.
It is when all obsession has come to an end
The moment when all my efforts are exhausted
What just happened
What he couldn't put down for twenty-five years
At the most unlikely times
It's the crossroads between intense stress and a moment of total relaxation.
It just unclutches.
OK
Now let's talk about another person
Devadatta
The name Devadatta
In the context of Chinese Buddhism
Pretty much synonymous with bad guys
He attempted to murder Buddha three times
He instigated the division of the Sangha
His final fate is to fall into hell
This narrative is written very clearly in tradition
black and white
There are very few gray areas.
But historians and Buddhist scholars are studying
The Pali Classics and other early texts
Discovered a more complex picture
Devadatta
Not just a villain
He is a real person
A figure who represents a true line within the Sangha
His origin
Like Ananda
Also a Sakya nobleman
It was also when he became a monk in the royal family
He is said to have had profound achievements in meditation
There are also superpowers
He spent many years in the Sangha
And a respected practitioner.
The divide between him and the Buddha
Where did it start?
From the records of the Pali scriptures
Devadatta began to divide
There is a clear point in time
After he received the support and support of the Crown Prince of Magadha
He was very close to Ajashi
The Ajahs built a mansion for him
Offer generous offerings to him and his followers
After this
Devadatta has changed
About his inner state
There is a word in the canon
It is called being engulfed by Liyang and respectful respect
That is to say
Lots of offerings and fame
Changed him
In this context
He made a request to the Buddha
Please give me the leadership of the Sangha
You are getting old
Time to rest
Buddha rejected him
And refused quite directly
The scriptures record what the Buddha said
Translation into modern language is probably
I will not even hand over the Sangha to them to lead
How could I possibly hand over the Sangha to you?
Someone to be spit out
The person who is going to be spit out
It's a word used by the Buddha.
This is the entire Pali Canon
One of the harshest words the Buddha ever said to others
None of them.
Devadatta broke up publicly
Start planning an operation against the Buddha
On the Sequence of Proposing Disciplinary Reform and Murdering Acts
The different versions of the classic account are inconsistent
His three murders
It's in the scriptures.
first time
He hired assassins
But the assassin was in the process of approaching the Buddha
Be influenced by the Buddha's aura
Finally became a disciple of the Buddha
Second time
He pushed a big rock down from the top of the hill
But the big rock was blocked by another rock as it rolled down
Only the fragments scratched the Buddha's feet
A little blood
This is rare in traditional records
One of the scenes where the Buddha was physically injured
Third time
He had an elephant named Nalogi drunk with strong wine
And the elephant's Pali name is Nāāgiri.
Then drive the mad-haired elephant in the direction that the Buddha was walking
But the elephant came to the Buddha
It stopped.
These three failed operations
In the classic narrative framework
It's a clear cause-and-effect story.
The wicked murder the saint
Tiandao Nature Protection
But I want to ask you to look at these three things from a different perspective
Three murders
All failed
And every time it fails
It is not because the Buddha himself took protective measures
It was that the situation itself took an unexpected turn
An assassin is influenced
A stone is blocked
A mad elephant stopped
The Buddha's attitude in the face of these threats
It is said to be always calm
And here's one thing that's remarkable.
When the elephant came running wildly
It is said that Ananda stood in front of the Buddha
Cover the elephant with your body
Buddha pushed him aside
Say
Ananda
Don't do that.
You can't stop it
Ananda's reaction and Buddha's reaction
It creates a contrast.
Ananda used his body to protect the Buddha
It was love.
Also fear
Also persistent
Three things in the same motion
Buddha did not need to be protected
It's not because he doesn't know the danger
It's because he really doesn't care about life and death
Same elephant
The same road
Shows all the differences in the inner states of two people
OK
Now the crucial difference between Devadatta and Buddha
commandment
After Devadatta failed to assassinate the Buddha
Switched to another strategy
He proposed to the Buddha five stricter precepts of asceticism
Ask all monks to abide by
first
Live only in the forest all my life
Do not live in villages or towns
second
Begging for food.
Do not accept the common food distribution of the Sangha
third
Only wear clothes sewn from rags
You are not allowed to wear the whole cloth given by laymen
fourth
Only live under trees
Not allowed to live in the house
fifth
Never eat fish or meat
This one is particularly sensitive
Because it directly challenges the Buddha's existing position on the three pure meats
Buddha's response
Is neither fully accepted
Not completely rejected
So he says.
If a monk is willing to obey these commandments
He can abide by
But it's not mandatory.
It is not a higher standard of practice
It is allowed to choose to live in the forest
But it's okay to live in a town.
Choosing to sleep only under trees is allowed
But living in the room is also allowed
And Devadatta did something.
He publicly announced
The Buddha was a lax practitioner
He allowed his disciples to live too comfortably
This is a compromise on spiritual practice
He himself will bring monks who are willing to obey stricter commandments
Create a more pure monastic order
According to the Pali Scriptures
He did take 500 monks
Mainly the newly joined bhikkhus around Wangshe City
Split out
This one thing
It is the only time in the entire history of early Buddhism that is clearly recorded
The schism that took place during the Buddha's lifetime
This historical event
What is often described in traditional narratives as the evil deeds of Devadatta
But I want you to pause for a moment.
The structure behind this from a historical perspective
The Five Commandments of Asceticism Proposed by Devadatta
Are they themselves strictly wrong?
Not necessarily.
In ancient India
Ascetic practice is a generally respected practice
Society holds ascetics in high esteem
Devadatta's claim
It represents a socially orthodox
A spiritual path that generates broad social acceptance
The Buddha's position
It's a middle way that's harder to understand.
no asceticism
I don't indulge.
Don't force everyone to follow the same lifestyle
Allow to vary according to individual circumstances
This position
From a communication perspective
It's harder to sell.
Asceticism can be shown
It can be seen.
Can produce an intuitive respectful effect in society
But the middle way
How do you show the middle way?
You can't take a picture and say
You see
That's the middle way.
A little bit deeper.
Devadatta's route
For those five hundred bhikkhus who chose to follow
It has real appeal.
Those monks were not necessarily deceived by Devadatta
Among them
It is very likely that someone sincerely believes that
Stricter asceticism is the path closer to liberation
Their choice
Not necessarily Devadatta.
But because of their own sincere judgment of the path of practice
Later
Sariputra and Mogaryan were ordered by the Buddha to find the five hundred monks
Brought them back
The scriptures say
Devadatta was told this in her sleep
A mouthful of hot blood spat out of his mouth
About the end of Devadatta after this
Different classics have different versions
But almost all versions record that he ended up in hell
That's the conventional narrative.
But there is another historical detail
Travels left by Faxian, a monk from the Jin Dynasty in China, during a trip to India
Faxian arrived in India around the fifth century AD
It has been nearly a thousand years since the Buddha passed away
He mentioned in his travelogue
He saw it with his own eyes
There were also some monastic communities in India at that time
Their tradition is to make offerings to the three Buddhas
But not to Buddha Shakyamuni
Faxian said
Those people are the inheritance of Devadatta
This means that
Devadatta's Sangha
Almost a thousand years after the end of the Buddha
Still survives in some form
This is a tributary that has been almost entirely ignored by mainstream Buddhist history
What's the scale?
What does it mean?
We almost never know
But its very existence
That says one thing
The line represented by Devadatta
Someone agreed with it and chose it
And passed it on
From this perspective
We are usually exposed to the account of Devadatta
History is written by the victors
Mainstream Theravada tradition characterizes him as a villain
Because that's the mainstream view.
But the complexity of history
It's often hidden in the stories of those who are characterized as failures
This is not about reversing the case of Devadatta
His personal threats to Buddha were real
There is a lot of evidence in the historical records
But the judgment of his ideological line
To judge his murder
It's a lot more complicated.
OK
Now I want to put Ananda and Devadatta together.
Make a final comparison
They are all Sakyamuni
They were both ordained in the same year
They have been practicing with the Buddha for decades
Their starting points are almost the same
But they went in two completely different directions
And then...
Shaped the history of Buddhism in a completely different way
Ananda shaped Buddhism
Rely on memory
He took the voice of the Buddha
Preserved in oral tradition
No Ananda
There is no classic that starts with what I heard
Devadatta shaped Buddhism
Relying on conflict
The five commandments of asceticism he proposed
Forcing the Buddha to make a clear statement
Between the ascetic route and the middle road line
Which one does he choose?
That conflict
Instead, it made the Buddha's position clearer
Let the idea of the Middle Way be tested in a real crisis
No threat from Devadatta
Perhaps the Buddha's Middle Way position never needed to be so clearly articulated
From this perspective
Loyalists and betrayers
They each assumed the roles assigned to them by history
But there's a more fundamental question worth asking.
Ananda and Devadatta
What is the fundamental difference?
Loyalty and betrayal
The difference lies in their respective attachments
Where did it end up?
Ananda clings to his love for the Buddha
This love is real
It's pure.
And it was something that was holding him back.
It didn't let go until the last night
Devadatta was obsessed with the desire for status and power
This longing
The beginning may also be wrapped with real spiritual motivation
But under the erosion of abundant offerings and worldly respect
Spoiled
What he wants
Slowly it ceases to be liberation
But to be the one who leads others to liberation
You see
He didn't want freedom.
It's the one standing at the Liberty Gate collecting tickets.
Ananda's Persistence
Finally, on a difficult night
Forced to let go
And he was liberated.
And became one of the most important figures in the Buddhist tradition
Devadatta's obsession
Getting tighter
Deeper and deeper
Finally crushed him
This is why the Buddha said
Practice is not stricter than anyone else
No, it's farther away from people than anybody else.
It's not more shabby than anyone's clothes
No one has more commandments than anyone else
practice
It is a continuous
Take an honest look back at what your hand is grasping
Because obsession itself
It is the source of suffering
No matter the object of obsession
It's power, fame, worldly pleasures
The figure of a great teacher
Or a set of asceticism that I think is the most correct way
It doesn't matter what you catch
You are catching
The thing itself
That's the problem.
In today's episode
We talked about two of the most pivotal in early Buddhist history
But in general Buddhist popular science often simplified characters
Ananda's memory allows Buddhism to be passed on
Devadatta's rebellion forced the Buddha's core position to be clear
These two things
The influence of Buddhism in history
It's profound.
I'd love to hear your thoughts
In your own experience
Have you ever felt that way?
You love something too much
Hold too tight
Instead, it feels like it's leaking through your fingers
Here's another question.
I think it's worth your quiet thought
The five articles proposed by Devadatta
Forest, begging, rags, under trees, no meat
Do you think they make sense?
The Five Commandments
And the Buddha's Middle Way
Which path will you choose?
I am Wang Lijie
See you next time.