6. Various Experiences

Once the court carpenter, Pañcakanga by name, invited venerable Anuruddha for an alms meal. From other texts we know that Pañcakanga was a person well versed in the Dhamma and devoted to its practice. So, after the meal, he asked a rather subtle question from the venerable Anuruddha. He said that some monks had advised him to practise the “measureless liberation of mind,” and others recommended the “exalted liberation of mind.” He wanted to know whether these two are different or the same.

Anuruddha replied that these two meditations are different. The “measureless liberation of mind” [11] is the cultivation of loving kindness, compassion, altruistic joy and equanimity. But the “exalted liberation of mind” [12] is the meditative practice of widening the inner perception from a limited extent to a vast ocean-like extent.

After giving this instruction to Pañcakanga, Anuruddha spoke of a class of deities, the Radiant Gods, [13] and said that although they all belong to the same order of celestial beings, there are differences among them in their radiance, which may be limited or measureless, pure or not quite pure. He explained that these divergences are due to the different quality of the meditation that had caused their rebirth in that world. On being questioned by a monk, Anuruddha confirmed that his intimate knowledge about these deities derived from his own experience, saying that he had previously lived with them and conversed with them (MN 127).

There is yet another scene in which Anuruddha figures. Once the Buddha was sitting in the open, surrounded by many monks whom he was teaching. On the occasion he asked the venerable Anuruddha whether they all were contented in leading the ascetic life. When Anuruddha confirmed this, the Buddha praised such contentment and said:

Those who have left the home life while still young, becoming monks in the prime of their life, did not do so fearing punishment by kings, nor being motivated by loss of property, by debts, worries or poverty. Rather, they took to the ascetic life out of their faith in the Dhamma and inspired by the goal of liberation. What should such a one do? If he has not yet gained the peace and happiness of the meditative absorptions or something higher, then he should strive to get rid of the five mental hindrances and other defilements of the mind so that he may achieve the bliss of meditation or a peace that is still higher.

In concluding his discourse, the Buddha said that when he declares the attainment and future destiny of disciples who have died, he does so to inspire others to emulate their example. These words of the Blessed One gave much contentment and joy to the venerable Anuruddha (MN 68).

Once one of the Brahma gods conceived the idea that no ascetic would be able to penetrate to the heights of the Brahma-world. When the Buddha perceived in his mind the thoughts of that deity, he appeared before him in a blaze of light. Four of his great disciples—the venerables Maha Moggallana, Maha Kassapa, Maha Kappina and Anuruddha—considered at that time where the Blessed One might then be dwelling, and with their divine eyes they saw him seated in the Brahma-world. Then, by their supernormal power, they too appeared in that heavenly world and sat down at a respectful distance from the Buddha. Seeing this, the deity was cured of his pride and acknowledged the superior power of the Buddha and his disciples (SN 6:5).

Another time the venerable Anuruddha had woken up in the middle of the night and recited verses of the Dhamma until dawn broke. A female spirit with her small son was listening devoutly to the recitation and she told her son he should be very quiet: “It may be, if we understand the holy words and live accordingly, that it will be a great blessing for us and may free us from rebirth in the lower spirit worlds” (SN 10:6).

At the time when there was a quarrel between two groups of monks at Kosambi, the venerable Ananda went to see the Buddha, who asked him whether that quarrel had been settled. Ananda had to tell him that the quarrel still continued: a pupil of his brother Anuruddha insisted on creating disharmony in the Sangha, and to this the venerable Anuruddha did not say a word. This happened at a time when Anuruddha, together with Nandiya and Kimbila, had gone to the Gosinga Forest to devote themselves to a strictly meditative life. Ananda’s criticism was that Anuruddha had taken on pupils and then did nothing to guide them when there was discord among them.

The Buddha, however, came to Anuruddha’s defence, saying that there was no need for Anuruddha to concern himself with that. There are others like Ananda himself, Sariputta or Maha Moggallana who are quite capable of dealing with such disputes. Besides, there are incorrigible monks who are quite pleased when others quarrel as this would divert attention from their own bad conduct and thus they could avoid being sent away (AN 4:241).

An example of this is the story of two conceited monks who tried to outdo each other in disputations. One of them was a pupil of Ananda, of whom we know how carefully he concerned himself with all affairs of the Sangha; the other monk was a pupil of Anuruddha who, as we saw above, had a more detached attitude. Those two vainglorious monks just acted according to their character though they had different teachers to guide them (SN 16:6). 
[Top]

7. Anuruddha’s Earlier Lives

Of Anuruddha’s earlier lives, we have several stories handed down to us, especially in the Jatakas, the Birth Stories. Once when he was a poor man, he made a gift to an ascetic (Th 910) and at the time of the Buddha Kassapa he had honoured his grave by lighting oil lamps.

Anuruddha said of himself:

I know my former lives, and where and how 
I lived in years gone by; among the gods 
Thirty and Three I stood of Sakka’s rank. 
Seven times a king of men I held my sway, 
Lord of the earth from end to end foursquare, 
A conqueror, of Jambudipa chief,
Using no force or arms I ruled by right.
Thence seven, and other seven spans of life, 
Even fourteen former births I recognise, 
Even then when in the world of gods reborn.

(Th 913–15)

In the Jataka tales, there are no less than twenty-three accounts telling us of Anuruddha’s earlier lives. In most cases he was Sakka, king of the gods (J 194, 243, 347, 429, 430, 480, 494, 499, 537, 540, 541, 545, 547). Once he was Sakka’s messenger, a deity called Pañcasikha, who was a celestial musician. In the seven earthly lives that are mentioned, he was most often an ascetic (J 423, 488, 509, 522), and he was twice a brother of the Bodhisatta. In three other lives of his human rebirth he was a king (J 485), a court priest (J 515) and a court charioteer (J 276). Only once his rebirth as an animal is reported, namely, as that amorous wood pigeon mentioned above (J 490). As far as is recorded in the jatakas, he was fifteen times a deity, seven times a human being, and once an animal.

The fact that he was so often a king, celestial or human, indicates the power and strength in his nature. But he was quite a different god-king than Zeus with his amorous liaisons, and different also from Jehovah, who often inflicted harsh punishment on people. As Sakka, king of the Thirty-three gods, he was rather one who always protected and helped. When the Bodhisatta was in need of help, he came to his succour. He protected him from being executed when he was defamed. On that occasion the Bodhisatta’s wife had raised her voice to high heaven over this injustice:

No gods are here! They must be far away. 
No gods who over all the world hold sway. 
Now wild and violent men work their will, 
For here is no one who could say them nay.

(J 347; transl. by W. H. D. Rouse)

Moved by her entreaty, Sakka—the future Anuruddha took action and saved the Bodhisatta.

When the Bodhisatta was a king, he had forbidden animal sacrifices in his kingdom. A bloodthirsty demon resented this and wanted to kill the king, but Sakka appeared and protected the Bodhisatta again (J 347).

In some other cases Sakka wanted to put the Bodhisatta to a test in order to strengthen his virtue. So in the last of the Jataka tales, the Vessantara Jataka Sakka, in the guise of an old brahmin, asked the Bodhisatta for his wife in order to test his joyful generosity (J 547). On another occasion Sakka also wanted to test whether the Bodhisatta was firm in his vow of generosity and asked him for his eyes (J 499). When the Bodhisatta was leading the life of an ascetic, Sakka wanted to test his patience and forbearance and blamed him for his physical ugliness. The Bodhisatta told him of his ugly deeds that had made him so ugly, and he praised the goodness and purity for which he was now striving. Then Sakka said that he would grant him a wish. What the Bodhisatta asked for was freedom from malice, hate, greed and lust; further he wished that he might never hurt anyone. All that, it was explained, was not in Sakka’s power to grant, but has to come from one’s own moral effort ( J 440). Sakka also tested the Bodhisatta’s frugality (J 429, 430).

In a third group of accounts, Sakka invited the Bodhisatta to his heaven and showed him the mysteries of the celestial and the hell worlds. This was told in the story of the musician Guttila which we have already recounted (J 243). In the stories of King Nimi (J 541) and of the charitable King Sadhina (J 494), Sakka also invited them to his heaven.

From his lives as a human being, the following episodes have been chosen. When Anuruddha was a court brahmin and counsellor, the king asked him how advantageous actions and justice could be combined by a ruler. Without intellectual pride, the brahmin admitted that he could not answer that question. Instead, he went assiduously in search of one who knew, and he found him in the Bodhisatta (J 515). When he was a royal charioteer, he once wanted to avoid a heavy downpour which was threatening. To speed up the horses, he hit them with the goad. From that time on, whenever the horses came to that particular spot on the road, they would start to gallop as if aware of a danger lurking just there. Seeing this, the charioteer regretted deeply that he had frightened and hurt those noble steeds and he admitted that by having done so he did not fully observe the traditional Kuru virtues (J 276).

All these diverse and colourful stories have a common feature. They show several characteristic qualities of Anuruddha: his strong active striving for virtue, his strength of character, as well as his concern for the welfare of others. They also show that his skill in meditation and his mastery of supernormal faculties had their roots in his experiences during many lives as Sakka, ruler of the gods. 
[Top]

8. The Death of the Buddha and Afterwards

The venerable Anuruddha was present in the last hours before the Buddha’s decease, recounted in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN 16) . When the Master knew that death was close, he entered into the full sequence of the meditative absorptions on the fine-material and immaterial levels, and then entered the state of cessation of perception and feeling (sañña-vedayita-nirodha).

At that moment Ananda turned to his brother, the venerable Anuruddha, saying: “Revered Anuruddha, the Blessed One has passed away.” But Anuruddha, an Arahant endowed with the divine eye, had been able to gauge the level of meditation into which the Buddha had entered, and he said: “Not so, friend Ananda the Blessed One has not passed away. He has entered the state of cessation of perception and feeling.”

The Buddha, however, rising from that attainment of cessation, turned his mind back to the stages of immaterial absorption in their reverse order until he reached the first jhana, then rose up again to the fourth fine-material jhana, and rising from it he instantly passed away into the Nibbana-element which is without any remainder of the aggregates of existence.

When the Enlightened One had finally passed away, Brahma the High Divinity and Sakka, king of the Thirty-three gods, honoured the Buddha in verses evoking the law of impermanence. The third to speak was Anuruddha who uttered these verses:

No movement of the breath, but with a steadfast heart,
Desireless and tranquil comes the Sage to his end. 
With heart unshaken by any painful feeling,
Like a flame extinguished, found his mind release.

Many of the monks attending the Buddha’s last hours grieved and lamented over the Master’s death. But Anuruddha exhorted them and told them that many deities were also present. Among them, too, there were those who lamented and others who contained their grief. But had not the Master always taught them the impermanence of all? And so, just that had happened.

The venerable Anuruddha and the venerable Ananda spent the rest of the night near the deceased Master. In the morning, Anuruddha asked Ananda to announce the passing away of the Blessed One to the householders living in the next village, Kusinara. At once they gathered and prepared the funeral pyre. When, however, eight strong men tried to lift the body up to the pyre, they could not do so. They then went to the venerable Anuruddha and asked for the reason why the body could not be moved. Anuruddha told them that the deities wanted a different ceremony and explained it to them, whereupon all happened just as intended by the deities.

With regard to the procedure of burning the body, the householders turned to the venerable Ananda for advice. This shows the different competence of the two brothers. Anuruddha was master of otherworldly affairs, while Ananda was well versed in matters concerning the worldly life (DN 16).

After the Buddha’s demise, the guidance of the Order did not go to his next of kin, as for instance the Arahant Anuruddha. The Buddha had not nominated any formal successor, but the natural veneration of the monks and lay people concentrated on the venerable Maha Kassapa. It was he who initiated the First Council at which five hundred Arahant monks took part in establishing a final text of the Buddha’s teachings. Before the Council opened, the venerable Ananda had not yet attained to Arahantship and this would have excluded him from participating in the Council. It was his brother Anuruddha who urged him to make a determined effort to break through the last fetters and realise final liberation. Within a short time Ananda succeeded and so as an Arahant could join the other Arahants in the Council. During its sessions, he recited the numerous teachings which he of all monks had best retained in his memory.

In this manner Anuruddha had helped his brother to attain the goal of liberation, for the good of the Sangha and for the good of all seekers looking for a way out of the existential dilemma; and this has remained a blessing for us even today. Anuruddha himself was entrusted at the Council with the preservation of the Anguttara Nikaya, according to the commentary to the Digha Nikaya.

About the venerable Anuruddha’s death nothing else is known except the serene last stanzas of his twenty verses in the “Songs of the Elders”:

The Buddha has my loyalty and love, 
And all the Buddha’s ordinance is done. 
Low have I laid the heavy load I bore, 
Cause for rebirth is found in me no more. 
In Veluva, in Vajjian land it will be
That life will reach its final term for me;
And I beneath bamboo-thicket’s shade that day 
Free from all taints, shall wholly pass away.

(Th 918–19) 
[Top]

Of Related Interest

Lives of the Great Buddhist Disciples

• Life of Sariputta by Nyanaponika Thera (Wheel No. 90/92). Sariputta was the Buddha’s foremost disciple, the most distinguished in wisdom and a man of the highest saintly qualities. This full biographical study examines the man and his teaching, vividly demonstrating why Sariputta is held in such high veneration throughout the Buddhist world.
• Life of Maha Moggallana by Hellmuth Hecker (Wheel No. 115). A biography of the Buddha’s second chief disciple, who excelled in supernormal knowledge and in psychic powers.
• Life of Ananda by Hellmuth Hecker (Wheel No. 273/274). Ananda was the personal attendant of the Buddha and the most learned of the great disciples. His prodigious memory enabled him to serve as the “guardian of the Dhamma,” a role through which he could ensure the continued transmission of the Dhamma to the world.
• Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha, by Hellmuth Hecker (Wheel No. 292/293). A collection of biographical sketches, including stories of Khema of Great Wisdom; Kisagotami, the mother with the dead child; Nanda, the Buddha’s half-sister; and Patacara, the preserver of the Vinaya.
• Life of Angulimala by Hellmuth Hecker (Wheel No. 334). A biography of the chief lay disciple of the Buddha, a multi-millionaire who was also a man of deep spiritual insight and vast compassion, whose very name means “feeder of the poor.”
• Maha Kassapa: Father of the Sangha by Hellmuth Hecker (Wheel No. 345). A biographical survey of the great disciple whose spiritual depth and natural authority elevated him to a position of leadership within the Sangha in the period following the passing away of the Buddha.

[Top]

Notes

1. The three knowledges (tevijja) are: remembrance of former rebirths, the divine eye, and extinction of the cankers (asavakkhaya, i.e. Arahantahip). [Back]
2. Translated by Ñanamoli (Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 1979). Ch. XIII, §§ 95-l01, pp. 469–471. [Back]
3. Obhasa-sañña; this is the inner vision of light preparatory to fully absorbed concentration (Comy.: parikammobhasa). [Back]
4. Rupanai dassana. Comy.: seeing them with the divine eye. [Back]
5. The Commentary says that this may occur when the range of the inner light is widened excessively. [Back]
6. “The Non-diffused” (nippapañca) is the final freedom from the vast multiplicity and complexity of phenomenal existence, i.e. Nibbana. “Diffuseness” (papañca) accordingly means existence in its aspect of enormous variety. [Back]
7. The four requisites are robes, almsfood, shelter and medicine. [Back]
8. See Nyanaponika, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (London, Rider & Co. 1962), p.181 and note 45. [Back]
9. These are the stream-enterer, the once-returner and the non-returner. [Back]
10. In the case of Ananda it was Pacittiya Rule 83 that was proclaimed. [Back]
11. Appamana cetovimutti. This is another name for the four sublime states (brahmavihara) on the level of jhana. [Back]
12. Mahaggata cetovimutti. This meditation proceeds by widening the inner perception and is obtained by expanding the reflex image (patibhaga-nimitta) of the kasina which arises by concentration on a limited surface of earth, water, colour disks, etc. [Back]
13. Abhassara deva. Their realm within the fine-material sphere (rupavacara) corresponds to the level of the second jhana. [Back]

[Top]