DAILY CONDUCT
The topic of the Buddha’s dwelling in emptiness in the last chapter led me from formal meditation on this theme to aspects of daily life. In the present chapter I further explore the latter topic by examining the everyday conduct of the Buddha in general. Although this book is a “meditator’s life of the Buddha” and thus naturally focuses on meditation practices, in the early Buddhist frame of thought such practices are intimately interrelated with matters of daily life. It is by adopting a certain conduct that one builds the foundation for one’s formal meditation practices and progress in their cultivation in turn shows in the way in which one behaves in everyday circumstances. Formal meditation practice is in fact not so much about attaining particular experiences, but about transforming oneself. For such transformation certain distinct experiences do offer a substantial contribution, no doubt. But in the final count their value rests in the degree to which they have led to an inner change, in particular to diminishing defilements and thereby gradually emerging from dukkha.
The daily conduct of the Buddha receives detailed coverage in the Brahmāyu-sutta and its parallels. The narrative context of this discourse features a brahmin who sends his student to investigate whether the good reputation he has heard about the Buddha is true. This brahmin student begins his investigation by ascertaining whether the Buddha is endowed with a set of marks that in the ancient Indian setting apparently represented exceptional bodily beauty. The way these marks have come down in the texts appears to be influenced by artistic depictions and conventions, as a result of which some are not easy to make sense of nowadays. However, close textual study shows that the original conception of these marks must have concerned rather subtle nuances that only someone trained in the lore of these marks could discern.1 In other words, the Buddha is not being depicted as abnormal in any way, such as would make him easily distinguishable from others.
According to a recurrent specification in the texts, the possession of these marks implies that their bearer is destined to take a leading role either in secular society by becoming a wheel-turning king or else in the religious realm by becoming a Buddha. The early discourses regularly present concern with the possession of these marks as a preoccupation of brahmins, who on ascertaining that the Buddha had such marks become amenable to being taught by him. Such ascertaining of the presence of these marks requires the Buddha’s cooperation, where he has to display the length of his tongue and the nature of his private parts; in regard to the latter it seems to me that the implication is that he was able to retract these.2 This would then symbolize his asexual character; in fact among the whole set of marks only some are related to maleness and others rather to feminine qualities.
In the Brahmāyu-sutta and its parallels, once the brahmin student has ascertained that the Buddha indeed possesses these special physical marks, he follows him for some time to observe his daily conduct. According to the Madhyama-āgama version, when reporting his observations to his teacher, the brahmin student describes how the Buddha wears his robes as follows:3
The recluse Gotama wears his robes in an orderly manner, not high up and not low down, not tightly on the body, [yet in such a way] that the wind is not able to blow the robe away from his body ...
He keeps robes not for the sake of ownership, not for the sake of pride, not for the sake of self-decoration, nor for the sake of adornment, but in order to protect himself against mosquitoes and gadflies, as well as the impact of wind and sun, and in order to cover the body out of a sense of modesty.
Alongside the emphasis given to dressing properly in this way, the above passage also mentions the appropriate attitude towards clothing.4 This attitude is based on giving priority to the protective purpose of clothing, in contrast to a common tendency to show off with clothes, be this by wearing particularly expensive clothing or else dressing in a way that others will find sensually attractive.
A related topic taken up in the Madhyama-āgama discourse is the Buddha’s way of walking, which is described in this manner:5
When the recluse Gotama wishes to walk, he first raises his right foot, raising it straight and putting it down straight. He walks without disorderliness and also without disarray. When he walks, the two ankles never bump against each other.
The Brahmāyu-sutta is more detailed, mentioning other aspects of the Buddha’s walking such as that he does not walk too quickly or too slowly, and that he puts his feet down neither too far nor too close. In sum, the Buddha walks in an orderly and balanced manner, exemplifying the balance of his mind.
Walking as one of the meditation postures is a recurrent feature in the early discourses as well as in modern practice. As mentioned in Chapter 19, the Buddha apparently even delivered a whole and rather long discourse in the walking posture. In the case of meditation undertaken in this posture, the standard descriptions speak of removing obstructive states from the mind.6 Thus walking meditation seems to be simply a continuation of the basic practice undertaken in the sitting posture, done by just walking up and down in a normal manner, orderly and in a balanced way, comparable to the description in the extract above. In present-day meditation traditions, meditation in this posture can also involve specific modes of walking, such as slowing down and taking only very short steps, or else walking in a particular formalized manner.
Another aspect of the Buddha’s conduct comes to the fore when he sits down to partake of food. The Madhyama-āgama version describes this as follows:7
The recluse Gotama turns the body to the right, adjusts the seat, and sits on it. He does not sit down on the seat with excessive bodily force and he also does not support himself with his hands on the thighs when sitting on the seat. Having sat on the seat, he is not worried and not disturbed, and he is also not jolly ...
The recluse Gotama forms the food into a ball in an orderly manner and slowly puts it into his mouth. He does not open the mouth until the ball of food has reached it. Once it is inside the mouth he chews it over thrice and swallows it, without any rice or soup being not broken up or remaining in the mouth when he further puts the next ball inside.8
In the ancient Indian setting one would have sat on the ground, so that the “seat” would have been a cloth or similar item spread on the floor. This explains the need to adjust the seat and then sit down on it, ideally without force and also without needing to support oneself. Another aspect of the same setting is that food is taken with one’s hand, thus one needs to roll it into a ball and put it into the mouth properly.
In agreement with its Pāli parallel, the Madhyama-āgama version continues by describing that the Buddha partakes of food just to maintain his bodily health and not for any other reason. Similar to the case of clothes, discussed above, the priority in matters of eating is the actual function of food to nourish the body and keep it healthy. The key aspect can best be summarized with the following statement in the Madhyamaāgama discourse:9
[When] eating he consents to experiencing the taste, but he does not consent to being defiled by the taste.
The Brahmāyu-sutta makes a similar statement, according to which the Buddha experienced the taste of the food without experiencing lust for the taste. The experience of the taste is in fact an integral aspect of proper digestion during its preparatory phase, when the food is still in the mouth, leading to an increase in gastric secretion. Thus it is indeed meaningful to taste the food and there is nothing intrinsically wrong with just experiencing its taste. The problem rather lies in how to relate to the taste of food, where the challenge is to avoid craving and clinging.10
The Madhyama-āgama version reports what takes place after the meal in this way:11
After the meal, at noon, he puts away his robe and bowl, washes his hands and feet, and with a sitting mat over his shoulder enters a hut to sit in meditation.
It is remarkable that the present passage, and the discourses in general, keeps referring to the Buddha’s regular practice of formal sitting meditation. This even holds when he is called to visit a seriously ill monastic, where he still does his daily meditation first and then goes to the sick.12 Clearly, even a fully awakened one maintains formal sitting meditation as a daily habit and a befitting expression of his realization, hardly leaving an excuse for those less advanced on the path not to follow this example.
The Brahmāyu-sutta and its parallels agree that the Buddha’s voice was endowed with exceptional qualities, making it not only a pleasure to listen to him, but also ensuring that what he said was clearly intelligible. The Madhyama-āgama version describes his actual engaging in teaching activity like this:13
The sound of the recluse Gotama teaching the Dharma to an assembly remains just in the assembly and does not go beyond the assembly. He teaches others the Dharma to encourage and inspire them, to accomplish their delight. He teaches others the Dharma with innumerable skilful means. Having encouraged and inspired them, and accomplished their delight, he rises from his seat and returns to where he has been [staying] before.
Besides wearing robes, walking, sitting, eating, and speaking, another daily activity that merits attention is sleeping. Although this is not taken up explicitly in the Brahmāyu-sutta and its parallels, in what follows I survey selected passages relevant to this topic.
One passage reports that the debater Saccaka challenged the Buddha about taking a nap during the day in the hot season. In reply, according to the Mahāsaccaka-sutta and its Sanskrit fragment parallel the Buddha clarified that to do so is not in itself a sign of delusion.14 In other words, even one who has removed defilements might sleep during the day, should that be what the body at that time requires.
Another similar challenge involves Māra, which is reported in a discourse in the Saṃyutta-nikāya and its Saṃyukta-āgama parallels. The Buddha had spent the night in walking meditation and entered his hut to lie down to rest. Māra challenged him for sleeping when the sun was up. According to the partially preserved Saṃyukta-āgama, the Buddha replied:15
Craving’s net of attachment to all existences,
Which covers all places everywhere,
I have now destroyed that net.
All craving has forever been abandoned,
And all taking of birth has become extinct.
I am stilled in Nirvāṇa’s delight.
Evil One, now what further
Could you do in relation to me?
Needless to say, these two passages should not be taken as an encouragement to indulge in oversleeping. It can safely be assumed that the Buddha would have consistently practised wakefulness, with only the middle watch of the night spent in sleep. However, these two passages do clarify that sleeping as such is not problematic.
An additional perspective on the Buddha’s sleep and his freedom from defilements emerges from his first meeting with Anāthapiṇḍika. The householder had come in the early morning and on arrival began their conversation by courteously asking whether the Buddha had slept well. The Saṃyukta-āgama version reports the Buddha’s reply as follows:16
A [true] brahmin who [has attained] Nirvāṇa
Such a one is always at ease.
Undefiled by craving and lust,
Forever liberated without remainder,
All longings being abandoned,
The blazing flames in the mind being quelled,
The mind has attained tranquil appeasement;
And one who is appeased sleeps well.
Another exchange on the same topic of sleeping well can be found in a discourse in the Aṅguttara-nikāya and its Ekottarikaāgama parallel. In reply to a courteous enquiry as to whether he had slept well, the Buddha’s affirmative reply leads his visitor to wonder how this could be so, given that the nights were cold and the Buddha only had straw or leaves to lie down on and only his robes as a cover. In reply the Buddha described a man in a luxurious house with all possible equipment and surrounded by female attendants. On hearing this description, the Buddha’s visitor felt certain that such a man must sleep very well. According to the Ekottarika-āgama account, the Buddha continued in this way:17
The Blessed One said: “Householder’s son, how is it? If that man, who comfortably gets to sleep well, at that time gives rise to a mental condition of sensual desire, will he not get to sleep because of that mental condition of sensual desire?”
The householder’s son replied: “It is like this, Blessed One, if that man gives rise to a mental condition of sensual desire, he will then not get to sleep.”
The Blessed One said: “Now the Tathāgata has forever eradicated without remainder being like that person who is full of sensual desire, so that it has no further roots and can no more revive again.”
The exchange in the two parallels continues by covering in the same way the possible impact of aversion and delusion, clarifying that the Buddha slept well because he had removed the three mental poisons. This is what ensures good sleep, even if outer conditions should be harsh.
In this way, the sublime condition of a mind free from all defilements has a range of repercussions, which show themselves in various dimensions of daily conduct and even have a beneficial impact on sleep.
As a practice related to the present chapter, I would like to recommend clear comprehension during various activities. This is an exercise found in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta and one of its parallels. The task is to train ourselves to be clearly aware and act with decorum in relation to a range of bodily activities, from walking and sitting to eating and going to sleep. As a basis for such practice, a helpful tool is whole-body awareness, which already came up in the exercise related to Chapter 11. Building on the continuity of such proprioceptive awareness, the task now is to allow the qualities cultivated in formal sitting meditation to express themselves in a dignified manner of acting and behaving in whatever situation.
In order to build up such practice gradually, it can be useful to pick out one particular aspect of our daily experience and make this the focus for some time. Thus we might, for example, for several days give emphasis to eating mindfully. This could be done by trying to eat experiencing the taste of the food but without experiencing lust for the taste, and also by chewing well, such that all food is well crushed up before swallowing and nothing remains in the mouth before the next bite is taken. Even with such a simple activity we can follow the example set by the Buddha.
After some time it can be useful to shift attention to something else (ideally maintaining fundamental aspects of the conduct established already for eating). Perhaps we could give attention to our walking for a change. Trying to walk centred and balanced, without disorderliness and without bumping into things. Other options will naturally present themselves, even if they have not been mentioned explicitly in this chapter. Any activity can become food for mindfulness and clear comprehension and thereby a way of emulating the Buddha.
1 For a more detailed discussion see Anālayo 2017a: 57–69.
2 See Anālayo 2017a: 132f.
3 The translated sections are taken from MĀ 161 at T I 687a3 to 687a5 and 687a9 to 687a11, parallel to MN 91 at MN II 139,20 (translated Ñāṇamoli 1995/2005: 748) and T 76 at T I 884b13; for a comparative study see Anālayo 2011: 539.
4 Although MN 91 does not mention the Buddha’s attitude to robes, a comparable description can be found in MN 2 at MN I 10,4 (translated Ñāṇamoli 1995/2005: 94) as a way of removing influxes through proper usage, and according to MN 68 at MN I 464,13 (translated Ñāṇamoli 1995/2005: 567) the Buddha adopted such proper usage.
5 The translated part is from MĀ 161 at T I 687a13 to 687a15, parallel to MN 91 at MN II 137,12 and T 76 at T I 884a12.
6 An example is AN 3.16 at AN I 114,10 (translated Bodhi 2012: 212) and its parallel EĀ 21.6 at T II 604a15; see also Anālayo 2003a: 140.
7 The translated sections are taken from MĀ 161 at T I 687a25 to 687a28 and 687b1 to 687b4, parallel to MN 91 at MN II 138,1 and T 76 at T I 884a22.
8 The reference to chewing three times, or two to three times in MN 91 at MN II 138,22, could not imply that the Buddha only moves his mouth thrice, since that would hardly suffice for ensuring that the food is properly broken up and nothing remains in the mouth when the next mouthful is taken. I take it that it instead means two or three complete mastication cycles, each involving several chewing movements.
9 The translation is based on MĀ 161 at T I 687b5, parallel to MN 91 at MN II 138,26. The Chinese phrase uses a term that can render chanda (as well as kāma, rāga, etc.), where my translation follows a sense this term has in some Vinaya contexts as “consent” or “agreement”.
10 Ñāṇananda 2016: 15 notes that “the taste-buds of the Buddha are as acute as ours. They do not go inactive with the attainment of Buddhahood. But he has no attachment to taste ... this means that there is Nibbāna even at the tip of the tongue.”
11 The translated extract stems from MĀ 161 at T I 687b23 to 687b25, parallel to MN 91 at MN II 139,25 and T 76 at T I 884b15.
12 See Anālayo 2016b: 171f.
13 The translated part is based on MĀ 161 at T I 687c3 to 687c6, parallel to MN 91 at MN II 140,1 and T 76 at T I 884b23.
14 MN 36 at MN I 250,1 (translated Ñāṇamoli 1995/2005: 342) and fragment 338v8, Liu 2010: 238.
15 The translated verses are taken from SĀ2 26 at T II 381c29 to 382a3 (for an alternative translation see Bingenheimer 2011: 132), parallel to SN 4.7 at SN I 107,23 (translated Bodhi 2000: 200) and SĀ 1087 at T II 285a26.
16 The translation is taken from SĀ 592 at T II 158a27 to 158b1, parallel to SN 10.8 at SN I 212,15 (translated Bodhi 2000: 313) or Vin II 156,25 (translated Horner 1952/1975: 219) and SĀ2 186 at T II 441a7.
17 The translation is based on EĀ 28.3 at T II 650b5 to 650b9, parallel to AN 3.34 at AN I 137,17 (translated Bodhi 2012: 233, referred to as discourse number 35) and SHT V 1343, Sander and Waldschmidt 1985: 232.