A Classical Introduction The Three Major Phases of the Buddha’s Teaching Immediately after attaining enlightenment, Buddha Sakyamuni did not rush to tell people about it but kept silent, in meditation. This was in itself a great teaching, showing that he had realised something far too deep and extensive for mere words to express. He remained in silence until the deva i requested him to teach and thereby launch the world into a major cycle of truth and awakening. According to the Buddha,ii this cycle will last for some five thousand years. At present, we find ourselves living at a truly pivotal time for the planet, just over halfway through this period, in the sixth of its ten 500-year phases. Despite the effort it takes to maintain pure ethics in this age, it is still possible to follow the Buddha's teachings and to realise for oneself what he had realised. By first remaining silent, the Buddha also established an ethic. A Buddhist should not proselytise but only respond, as a friend, when requested for help and advice. This is not only an ethical position but also sound sense, since even the wisest of counsel is only of benefit when it falls on ears that want to hear. When the listener’s mind is ripe and ready, receptive and respectful, he or she will relate to the teaching not as something imposed from the outside but as something really sought for, from within, at that particular time. The Buddha went on to teach for some forty-five years, addressing a remarkable variety of audiences. The India of his day was highly civilised and rich in culture. It was also a time of spiritual intensity: an epoch when—in India, Greece and China—thought systems were being evolved that would influence the world for millennia to come. It was the age of Confucius, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra and Socrates. In particular, many meditative traditions thrived in India, where there was also a keen intellectual interest in the nature of reality. Religious 2 Maitreya on Buddha Nature debates at the time used methods similar to differential calculus to speculate upon the nature of the smallest building-blocks composing the universe. Some of their notions, such as time's dependence upon events and the relation between perceived reality and consciousness, are only just being taken on board by Western science. Their theory of the elements postulated five omnipresent components called earth, water, fire, wind and space. Today we would call them mass, attraction, energy, motion and space. Their meanings, as defined in the texts of the time, are surprisingly close to those of the physics of this century.iii As well as addressing these intellectually advanced audiences, the Buddha also taught everyday people and, as time went by, the large community of monks, then nuns, who accompanied him. In retrospect, we can distinguish three major phases in his teachings. These are known to Buddhists as the Three Turnings of the Wheel of Dharma. The image of the wheel suggests a repetitive nature, something returning again and again to the same point. Dharma, the word generally used to denote the Buddha’s teachings, can simply mean 'the way things are'.iv Buddhas, who appear in 'golden ages' when the world is ready, repeat the timeless laws of universal truth, showing the ways things really are, for the benefit of the generations of that age. The wheel of dharma is the counterpart to another wheel: that of existence. Time and time again, in life after life, beings are caught up by their habits and whirled through the processes of passion and anger, crying and laughter, birth and death. This 'whirling firebrand' turns incessantly but the wheel of dharma turns rarely. Thus, from time to time—be it in one’s personal life or in the history of a planet—a rare light pierces through the fabric of illusion. Phase One established the foundations common to all his teaching. It revealed much about the nature of worldly existence, using ideas and a language which made sense to the common perception of reality. Its analysed happiness and suffering in a Introduction 3 way which did not demand blind faith and allegiance but instead encouraged those who wished to put the Buddha's teachings to the test to do so by uncompromising investigation. The absolute priority of this First Turning was to help people to eliminate, or at least reduce, suffering: the great shortcoming of this extraordinary universe. Hearing some religions' messages of joy and paradise, one may well wonder why Buddhism speaks first and foremost of suffering. Is it a pessimistic, gloomy faith? Not at all: it is a loving, compassionate and, above all, very realistic one. It should be clearly understood, by those of Christian background, that suffering is not at all viewed as a quality by Buddhists. It has not considered to have any intrinsic spiritual value. It is simply because Buddhism really cares for beings’ happiness that the very first thing to be dealt with are the sufferings which, like poison in food, time and time again spoils would-be joys. Many humans, animals and other beings have a very sorry lot, their existences being totally dominated by physical or mental suffering. Even the more fortunate can find their relative happiness easily marred by just a small amount of suffering. It is hard to enjoy assets, no matter how many they be, while the tooth is aching or the heart is broken! If one is truthful, most pleasures of this world come with a fairly expensive price-tag. And, beyond its relative ups and downs, all worldly existence is a suffering compared with the true bliss of enlightenment, the summit of all. Thus the Buddha, the greatest physician, targets suffering from the very outset. Just as when sickness is cured, health comes naturally, likewise once suffering and its causes are removed, profound happiness is the natural lot of the mind. This natural happiness, which deepens as each layer of suffering is shed, is different from an artificial happiness, maintained by false optimism or carefully-contrived thoughts. Many are the religious or psychological ploys which can create artificial joy. They are relatively easy to implement. But as long as one does not treat the underlying pains and weaknesses of life, they are like sweets 4 Maitreya on Buddha Nature given to a sick person by someone who does not know which medicine can cure the sickness. The essence of the First Turning is contained in the famous Four Noble Truths. ➢ The first truth is the Buddhist description of the cosmos, portraying the different life forms which inhabit it and their various sufferings and happinesses. ➢ The second truth points to the causes of their sufferings. To simplify, it says that through not recognising the true identity of mind—voidness—an illusion of persona develops. Feeling one area of experience to be 'self' automatically defines the remainder as 'other'. The illusory ego develops its desires, aversions, jealousy, pride and so forth in relation to the illusory other. Known as kles´a (defilements), these desires and so forth often motivate harmful actions. The actions (karma) generate suffering both for others in the immediate present and for their doer in the longer term, by the way they imprint and condition his or her mind. The chain reaction of suffering is therefore: ignoranceegodualitydefilementactionsuffering. Whereas the first two truths are a cause-and-result pair dealing with suffering, the final two truths are a cause-and-result pair dealing with freedom from suffering. ➢ The third truth describes the states wherein suffering is no more. ➢ The fourth truth examines the causes of those states—the famous 'path' of Buddhism. * * * The second phase The first phase had dealt mainly with what was tangible and conventionally true. For those who still wanted to be, it showed how to act wisely and create better future lives, with a minimum of suffering. For those who longed not to be, it showed the way to universal peace. Having taught, for Introduction 5 many years, this way out of suffering, and having many disciples who had already managed truly to free their minds, Buddha Sakyamuni introduced the second phase of his teaching. This phase entered more profoundly into the absolute truth. It extended the understanding of voidness of ego, taught in the first phase, into an understanding of the voidness of all perceived phenomena. Hand in hand with this unveiling of the illusory nature of everything came the teachings on great compassion. Compassion and total voidness are the crux of this turning. Over the years, his teaching had established a very complete scientific and psychological language, enabling all things material and mental in the relative world to be clearly defined and distinguished one from another. Just as, in the present day, our scientists’ penetration of the minutest details of the atom is permitting us to understand and master many things in the material world, so also does the fine Buddhist analysis of mental processes enable mind to be understood and mastered. It can seem almost paradoxical at times that the finer and more precise the means of investigation, the greater is the discovery and power achieved. Using the key terms developed in the First Turning's clear analysis of mind and its functioning, the Buddha revealed, in the Second Turning, all these elements of experience to be devoid of any ultimate reality. Thus, having shown his disciples, in the first phase, how to dismantle the million cogs in the mechanism of ego-illusion, he went on to show, in the second phase, how even the cogs themselves and the names of the cogs are illusions.