From the Buddha Day talk given at the Buddhist Society in May 2004
摘要
In this article I want to look at the relationship between the Buddha and his teaching. To do this, we need to start by examining what we mean by the word 'Buddha'.
Once the Buddha said: 'Monks, there is one person born to the world who is an extraordinary man. What person? The Tathagata who is an arahant, a fully enlightened one.'
The Buddha was a man who reached perfection in every respect. He eradicated all defilements, weaknesses and ills to which an ordinary man is subject. That is the difference between the Buddha and an ordinary man. Therefore we cannot call him manussa, a man in a general sense. Ordinary human beings are troubled with defilements and weaknesses, but the Buddha freed himself from them.
The Buddha is the Awakened One and the Awakener, and the Enlightened One, enlightened to the Truth. His Enlightenment is highly significant for all human beings because as a human being, he reached the highest wisdom through human effort without the aid of any supernatural, external agency such as God. His Enlightenment shows that any human being can also attain Buddhahood by making the necessary effort.
There have been many Buddhas before Sakyamuni Buddha; but when we speak of the Buddha, we refer to the Buddha Sakyamuni Gotama, who discovered the path to Nibbana in 542 BCE. He himself said: 'Suppose a man wandering in a forest wilderness found an ancient path over an ancient trail travelled by men of old and he followed it, and by doing so discovered an ancient city, an ancient royal capital where men of old had lived with parks and groves beautiful to see. In such a way I found the ancient Path, the ancient trail travelled by fully enlightened ones of old.'
Enlightenment is awakening to the Truth about things as they really are, not as they appear to be. The enlightened person sees things without the ignorance or delusion which cloud or obstruct the vision of an ordinary person like a veil.
The Buddha was endowed with a threefold knowledge (tevijja), namely: (1) the special vision with which he was able to recollect innumerable former existences (pubbenivasanussati nana). (2) the special vision with which he was able to see beings passing away and being reborn according to their Kamma (dibbacakkhu nana); and (3) the special vision with which he was able to destroy all cankers or defilements (asavakkhaya nana).
The state of realization was the same for Gotama Buddha as for his disciples. Other beings who attain Enlightenment may also develop these same knowledges, but the Buddha alone developed some other qualities which made him unique and without equal in the world. There are six extraordinary knowledges (asadharananana) which are not shared even by other enlightened beings: (1) the knowledge of latent potentialities (asaya anusaya nana). The Buddha fully understands the latent and dormant good and bad powers in a person's mind; (2) the knowledge of the levels of maturity concerning the five faculties present in a person's mind (indriya paropariyatta nana). The Buddha is able to see different levels of development of the faculties of faith (saddha), mindfulness (sati), energy (viriya), concentration (samadhi) and Wisdom (panna); (3) the knowledge of the attainment of great compassion (maha karuna samapatti nana). The Buddha stands unique in history as a religious teacher who showed incomparable love to all beings without any distinction whatsoever; (4) the knowledge of the twin wonder, or twin miracle (yamaka patihariya nana). This is a supernormal power exercised by the Buddha on three occasions to overcome scepticism on the part of his audience, including his relatives. He made water and fire gush simultaneously from the pores of his skin; (5) the knowledge of omniscience (sabbannuta nana). The Buddha could extend the net of his knowledge all over the world and bring any part of it within his consciousness; and (6) the unobstructed knowledge (anavara
