Buddha's side of the point person (first): wisdom first person
Why die first
This question
It happened 2,500 years ago.
And it came at a moment that nobody anticipated.
In the last episode, we talked about
The Sangha founded by the Buddha
It is a unit that simultaneously undertakes the practice ashram and collective meeting
Sophisticated machines for social change and distributed memory storage
And it worked quite well when the Buddha was alive.
But there is an inherent vulnerability.
The central designer of this machine
Leave sooner or later
I'm going to tell you something today.
It happened before the Buddha's demise
Very few people talk about it in isolation.
The two most important disciples of the Buddha
Before the death of Buddha himself
Just go first
One is called Shariputra.
It is called wisdom first
One is called Muganlian
Known as the first supernatural power
The wisest person dies in front of the teacher
The person with the first supernatural powers
He was stoned to death.
These two things
Alone
Is the personal fate of two monks
But in the context of Buddhist history
They are the fates of both routes
About wisdom and supernatural powers
Disagreements about the goals of the practice
In the Sangha of the Enlightened
One should put the deepest effort into it
In which direction?
Hello
Hello.
I am Wang Lijie
Today we enter the sixth episode of practicing along the historical context of Buddhism
Speaking of which, the two are very famous in Chinese Buddhism
But the real character has been severely simplified
Let me start with their appearances.
Sariv
Sanskrit name Sharifutra
It means son of relic.
His mother's name was Sherry.
The Sanskrit word relic refers to a starling
A songbird commonly found in South Asia
So some people also translated it into wozi.
is the name of another bird
There are differences in the identification of Sanskrit bird species by different translators
But it's all the sons of some kind of bird
Moganlian
Sanskrit name Mahamu Gharenyana
Commonly referred to as Mahama Ganglian
Or Damuganlian
Big is great.
These two people are small
Before they became monks
He is a good friend who grew up in the same village near Wangshe City
They became monks at the same time.
I'm going to follow a skeptical philosopher called Sanjaya.
Sanjaya was one of the six heretics at that time
His fundamental claim is
The ultimate truth about the world
People are incapable of judgment
So the smartest answer is to make no judgments
Let me put it more precisely.
He is a philosophical position that refuses to answer
He will say every question
That's not true.
It's not like that either.
Not again and again
It's not right or wrong.
This school is called agnosticism in the Buddhist tradition
Two bright young men followed the teacher for a while
They thought something was wrong.
It's not that the teachers are bad
It's the feeling of being short of breath.
They each said the same thing to each other
Whoever finds the true enlightened one first
Be sure to tell each other
Then one day
Shariputra on the streets of the royal house
Saw a monk begging for food
The monk's name is Ma Sheng
One of the first five disciples of the Buddha
Sharifah watched him walk
Stopped
This is recorded in the Pali Classics, which is very picturesque
Shariputra later said
He had never seen a man walking in such a manner
calm
Light
Without any extra force
Neither self-presentation
It's not about restraint.
That's how it goes.
It was as if every step on the ground was just right there waiting for him
Sharifah goes up
Ask him who he practices with
What method did you learn?
Ma Sheng said
My teacher was called Shaman of the Sakyamuni.
It was Siddhartha.
I just became a monk.
He can't explain all his teachings clearly
But I can make a general point.
Then Ma Sheng said a verse
Later in the history of Buddhism, it was called the Katha of Dependent Origination
The original Pali is: Jedamo
Hey Du Pravaya
Desang
Hey, Doo
Tatagado
Aha
Desancha
Yo
Nilodo
Iwanvati
Mohasamono
Chinese meaning is
All laws are born of this
The Tathagata said their cause
It also talked about their extinction
This is the teaching of the Great Salmon
Shariputra stands in the streets of the royal city
After listening to this verse
It is said that at that moment
He directly developed the insight of the first fruit
All laws are born by reason
All laws are destroyed by reason
Everything that arises fades away
Nothing is an eternal and unchanging self
And he went to Moganlian.
Mukanlian listened to Sariputra's paraphrase
Also deeply touched
The two then went to the Buddha's house together
The Enlightenment of Tamugarian
In later records
It was achieved through continuous meditation after becoming a monk.
On the seventh day, the arhat fruit was obtained
The two go together to say goodbye to Shanjaye
Said we were going to follow Sakyamuni
It is said that among the more than 200 disciples of Sanjaya
Most people went with them.
Only Sanjaya himself refused
So he says.
I'm getting older.
There's no way to relearn with a young person
This detail is worth stopping and feeling alone
The Failure of Sanjaya
It's not because he's been proven wrong.
But because of his two brightest students
Moved by a poem on the street
And then he left.
The most significant cognitive shift in human history
Never persuaded by logic
It's being touched by an immediate sensation in a moment.
OK
Sariputra and Moganlian followed a large group to the Buddha's Sangha
Soon acquired an unusual location
The Buddha himself announced
Shariputra is one of my disciples
Wisdom first
Mukanlian is the first supernatural power
These two titles
In the context of Chinese Buddhism
It has become almost two fixed labels
A mention of Shariputra
It's wisdom first.
Ichimeganlian
Avatar number one
The Story of Mukanlian Saving His Mother from Hell
Is the direct source of the Obon Festival
But in the folk circulation
This plot is like another story that also has a mother-saving plot
Kiso Bodhisattva Savior
Gradually confused
So many people can't tell the protagonists of the two stories apart
But these labels and spin-off stories
Hiding something more important
Wisdom first and supernatural powers first
In the entire teaching system of the Buddha
Not just the personal characteristics of two people
They represent two different spiritual paths
And the value differences behind these two paths
Let's start with Avatar
Avatar
Sanskrit Apirona
Refers to certain abilities that can be developed after deep meditation
Six magical powers are recorded in the Pali Scriptures
Shentong
Can fly and change bodies
tianertong
Distant sounds can be heard
He knows
You can know what other people are thinking.
Destiny Pass
Can remember past life experiences
Skyvision
You can see where all beings are reborn after death
missed pass
I completely realize that my troubles are over
It is a testament to liberation
And liberation itself
Is the core goal of the Buddha's system of practice
Of these six supernatural powers
The first five are by-products of meditation
A similar phenomenon is documented in many other religions and spiritual traditions
The sixth leakage pass
This is the true core of the Buddha's system of practice
Complete liberation
No longer driven by reincarnation
The Buddha's attitude towards divine powers
It's a very delicate subject.
On one hand.
He admitted that the powers were real
He also acknowledges that Muganlian's magical powers are real
And on many occasions, he acquiesced to Muganlian's display of supernatural powers to help save people
On the other hand.
He is in many classics
It is expressly forbidden for monks to show off their supernatural powers in front of ordinary lay believers
Here's another famous metaphor.
He said to show supernatural powers in front of the outside world
Like a Brahmin woman displaying her decorations on the road
Is inappropriate
What's the logic behind this?
Avatar is not liberation
People with supernatural powers
Not necessarily wise
Wise person
You don't need superpowers.
Avatar is a landscape that may be encountered on the road
But if you think of the landscape as a destination
And you get lost.
And here's what's even more dangerous.
Avatar for ordinary people
It's very easy to turn into attracting followers and establishing authority
Even tools for accumulating wealth and status
Once the supernatural powers are linked to these worldly interests
It ceases to be a by-product of the practice
It has become the starting point for the practice of depravity
This is why Muganlian is the first supernatural power
But the Buddha ranked Shariputra ahead of him
It's called wisdom first.
In the Buddha's value system
Truthfully understand the impermanence, suffering, and selflessness of all dharma
The insight itself
Forever more fundamental than any supernatural ability
But that's not to say that Moganlian isn't important.
Moganlian has a very specific, functional role within the Sangha.
He manages the affairs of the Sangha
Deal with all kinds of troubles
Use his abilities to help those who cannot be helped in ordinary ways
In many Pali scriptures
Muganlian will use his abilities to probe the spiritual state of certain monks
To deal with some internal problems within the Sangha
He was a man of action.
And Shariputra
Is a thinker
He was in the development of Abhidharma
Recognized by later traditions as one of the core contributors
Although this historical judgment itself is controversial
Because the final formation of the Abhidharma took place hundreds of years after the death of the Buddha
But there is a great deal of Sariputra in the Pali Scriptures.
A refined and systematic analysis of the Buddha's teachings
His style of speaking
Not the same as the Buddha's lively and agile way of talking about machines
He tended to spread out what the Buddha said in various places.
Into logically structured systems.
There is a detail
I think it particularly explains the temperament of Shariputra
There is a passage in the Pali Scriptures
Shariputra asked the Buddha
Before this era
Are there any other Buddhas?
Buddha said
Yes.
Seven Buddhas in the past
Asked Shariputra
The Buddhist Sangha
Does it last long?
Buddha said
Some lasted.
Some don't.
Shariputra asks again
Why do some persist and some don't?
Buddha said
Those that last
It is because detailed laws have been formulated
It's because the disciples have an agreement with each other
There is consensus
In this conversation
Shariputra is asking a systemic question.
What makes a legacy last?
This is not a question of self-liberation
It's a question of the fate of the teachings.
This detail
Let us see the first person of wisdom
What do you really care about?
Not a personal superpower
It's not a personal achievement.
It's this set of insights.
How can we survive in time?
Let more people have access to it
Now let's talk about something that's rarely talked about.
Shariputra before the Buddha's death
Died first
According to the Pali Scriptures
Before he realized he was going to die
He made a special trip back to his birthplace
His mother
His mother was not a Buddhist.
They were followers of the Brahmin tradition.
He goes back
In the house where I was born
Sick
bed rest
And he died.
But before he died
And here's what happened.
His mother.
I have always been angry about my son's monk practice
She thought her son was the son of a Brahmin priest
Should have continued the family's religious traditions
He ended up following a sandman
This is a family loss and failure
She resented it.
Many years
Then those days when Shariputra was sick in bed
All kinds of gods came to visit him
According to some editions
Emperor Shitian is here
Brahma is here.
In many of Pali's classic cosmologies
These are extremely high existences
His mother was standing in the doorway.
Saw the existence of these visiting sons
Suddenly realized
Who is her son?
It is said that at that moment
This Brahmin woman
Insights that bear fruit
The death of Shariputra
Became the entrance to his mother's path of spiritual enlightenment
I want to stop here.
To give you a sense of the narrative structure of the event
A person who has explored the law with a lifetime of wisdom
In the final moments of life
Not in the Sangha
Did not leave quietly in meditation
It's back to where it started.
Returned to his mother
With your own death
Opened a window for her
This is a human being.
Not a label
The news of Sariputra's death reached the Buddha
Ananda went to tell the Buddha
The Buddha said something
It was later recorded in the Bari Classics
It's the following.
Ananda
Sharifah is gone
I looked at the Sangha
Like a tree that has lost its heart
But
The law of the Tathagata is still there
Act according to the law
The best memorial
Did you notice the detail in this sentence?
The Buddha used a word
heartwood
Sariputra for the Sangha
It's a heartwood.
Not a flower
It's not a landscape.
It's the essence of a support structure.
Then Muganlian left
The death of Mukanlian
More impactful than Shariputra's death
It also reveals a problem more difficult to avoid
According to the Pali Scriptures
Muganyen was stoned to death by an assassin hired by outsiders
A person with the first supernatural powers
One is said to be able to fly and shrink its body
People who can travel in different dimensions
How could he be stoned to death?
This question
In the early Buddhist tradition, there are various interpretations
One of the most popular versions is
Mugarian is using his supernatural powers as a final retaliation
According to the later annotation tradition
In his distant past
He was once because of being instigated
Abused his parents
Take them into the forest and beat them to death with clubs
An attack disguised as a thief
The seed of karma
After he became the first practitioner of supernatural powers
Still there.
When the fruit of this karma is ripe
Even the magic of Mugarian
Can't avoid
The first time he was attacked by an assassin
Escaped with superpowers
Then it was found again
Then run away
Such an escape
According to different versions of the records
Happened multiple times
Until the end
He gave up trying to escape completely.
Let those stones hit him
Some versions say
He was able to escape at the last moment
But he chose not to escape
There's a question at the heart of the whole Buddhist theology.
Can supernatural powers change karma?
In the Buddha's teaching system
And the answer is very clear.
No.
Avatar is a by-product of meditation
Is the ability to operate in a phenomenal world
But karma
It's the causal link between seed and fruit.
Avatar can fly over mountains
But superpowers cannot transcend cause and effect
A man with all the supernatural powers
If the seeds of harm to others are planted in a certain past
The fruit of that seed
He will still be used
This logic
To modern ears
May have a cruel taste
But within the framework of the Buddha's practice
It points in a very profound direction.
The goal of practice
Not to get the super plugin in the reincarnation game
It's about fundamentally changing the nature of the seed.
No more creating new causes of suffering
True liberation
Is the accumulation of no new karma
Instead of bypassing existing karma with God-pass
When Muganlian died
The bones are broken
The disciples brought his body back
Told the Buddha
When the Buddha heard the news of Mukanlian's death
What the contrast hills say
It's the following.
monks
These two lamps
extinguished
Two Lamps
Sariputra and Moganlian
These two lamps
It's all out.
Here we go.
The Buddha gave a comparison
Let the monks present deeply remember his intention
So he says.
A long time ago
There was a Pizhi Buddha.
Before the destruction
On a full moon night
Gather his disciples
Ask if you have any questions
No questions asked.
So he was on that full moon night
Complete annihilation
Buddha said
Here it is.
The monks of the Pizhi Buddha
That's how it ended.
A complete, static farewell
But I
different
In my Sangha
Shariputra and Moganlian walked ahead of me
I am standing in an empty field
Without these two lamps
Keep talking
empty field
It's a word uttered by the Buddha himself
A person who has realized
Facing the empty field
What do you feel?
And I don't want to give a neat answer to that question here.
Because neat answers would take away the weight of the matter.
I'm just going to put it here.
OK
Let's now take a historical perspective
It's about putting these two people in the bigger picture.
Sariputra and Moganlian
The routes they each represent
After they passed away
Didn't disappear with them
The Route of Wisdom
After the death of the Buddha
Developed into a system with the Buddha's teachings as its core task
Abidamo tradition
And later sects that were extremely sophisticated in doctrinal analysis
Theravada retains the line of wisdom closest to its original form
Using Zen to Truthfully Know the Impermanence and Selflessness of the Five Aggregates
Avatar route
In a longer timeline
Has a very interesting fate
In early Buddhism
Avatar is strictly constrained
It is not the goal of the practice
It's a by-product that should be managed.
But with the spread of Buddhism
As it enters different cultural soils
The attraction of supernatural powers is becoming increasingly difficult to manage
During the spread of many folk Buddhists
Avatar is easier to display than wisdom
Something easier to convince ordinary people
Emptiness is hard.
The three seals are difficult
But a monk who can fly in the air
Practitioners who can see past lives
Someone who can subdue demons and exorcise demons
His influence was immediate
This tension
The tension between the wisdom route and the supernatural route
The era of disciples did not begin with the Buddha
But throughout the history of communication after the Buddha's death
Repeatedly and in different forms
Certainly.
It's a very simplistic description.
The rise of esotericism has a more complex intellectual history background
I'm just starting from the main line of supernatural powers and wisdom here
Point out a directional tension
And the Theravada's strict management attitude towards supernatural powers
It is the continuation of the line of wisdom in another context
From this perspective
Sariputra and Moganlian
More than just two historical figures
They were the prototypes for two ways of spreading Buddhism.
It is the living embodiment of two understandings of the nature of spiritual practice
And the Buddha put the Shariputra in front of him.
Put wisdom first before supernatural power first
The arrangement of the location itself
It was the clearest statement he ever made
Practice is not about becoming stronger in this world
Practice is to see through the workings of the world
And we're free from that.
Know the truth
Forever more important than supernatural powers
But knowledge itself cannot be flaunted
Cannot be marketed
It cannot be regarded as a miracle
It can only be practiced quietly
By one serious living person after another
In your own life
Verify slowly
This is perhaps why the story of Shariputra
Fewer stories are told than those of Moganlian
Wisdom is not as good as supernatural powers
easy to remember
Good spread
2,500 years later
This reality remains unchanged
About this episode
I have a couple of questions for you.
In the Buddhist or spiritual traditions that you are exposed to
Do you feel this tension between the path of wisdom and the path of supernatural powers?
What is your own judgment on these two routes?
and
A more fundamental question
The Life of Shariputra
Gave us the most thorough demonstration
His wisdom never needed to be seen
So I want to ask you
If only you know the fruits of your practice
Nothing to show anyone
Are you still willing to continue practicing?
This question
In the story of Shariputra and Mogaryan
Two very different ways of living have been given
Please let me know what you think in the comment section.
Also feel free to tell me what topic you would most like to hear in the next issue
I am Wang Lijie
See you next time.