This blogpost was originally written for the Jamyang Buddhist Center
One of the highlights of Jamyang Buddhist Center’s large shrine room is the 12 gold-covered bas-reliefs depicting the 12 deeds of the Buddha. Naturally drawing attention due to the artistic mastery and golden color (so clearly visible against the white of the walls), they might remain a bit a mystery when it comes to the events they depict. In this piece, Michael Lobsang Tenpa explores the lessons that the first 3 of the 12 deeds can offer to us all.
It is common for followers of different spiritual traditions to seek inspiration in the life stories of their respective founders. For Westerners, this is perhaps most strongly exemplified by the Abrahamic paths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, where the lives of the great prophets serve as a major source of moral guidance. For Hinduism, although it lacks a single founder figure, the same attitude is often held both towards the great Puranic stories (which describe the various exploits of gods and avatars are described) and the life stories of the more recent saints, such as Sri Ramakrishna. These stories are widely read even in the West; I’ve met many Western practitioners who were deeply and intimately familiar with Ramayana and Mahabharata, seeking inspiration in the resilience and virtue praised by these great epic stories. By contrast, few of my Buddhist friends, from any of the major lineages, spend much of their spare time reading and re-reading the life story of the Buddha. It can be argued, of course, that the Buddha’s instructions, contained in the three baskets of Tripitaka and summarized in the treatises of the great Indian, are more than sufficient on their own—at least when it comes to “tasting the chocolate”, to use Lama Thubten Yeshe’s expression. Do we really need to know much about the Buddha himself—beyond the basic narrative covering his birth, renunciation, enlightenment, and passing away? Here’s a working hypothesis: while this type of study is never forced upon us, by undertaking it on a personal basis, we can find a lot of inspiration and learn many valuable lessons.
Inspiration and interdependence
The benefits of learning about the Buddha’s life go beyond becoming superficially inspired to follow in his footsteps (which initially might seem difficult anyway—how many of us are born into royal families and locked up in pleasure groves?) It is not simply a ‘this guy seems great, let me emulate him’ situation, since the more elaborate presentations of the Buddha’s life also provide extensive presentations of his Dharma, illustrating multiple points related to such topics as ethics, compassion, wisdom, karma, impermanence, emptiness, the threes buddha-bodies, and so forth. Of course, all of these could also be summarized under a quintessential heading—such as interdependence, arguably the main principle taught by the Buddha; in reading the major Sanskrit sources on the Buddha’s life, one can see this principle illustrated with great clarity. Amongst these sources we find Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita and a major Mahāyāna sūtra by the name of ‘The Play in Full’, or Lalitavistara. Reading these two—ideally with a certain understating of basic Buddhist terminology, and better yet, again and again—can introduce us to the major activities of the Buddha and the way they can inspire our own progression on the Mahāyāna path. A helpful framework we can throw on top of these sources is the presentation of the 12 deeds of a buddha, said to be performed by all the wheel-turning awakened ones: those like Śākyamuni, the historical Buddha of our era; Maitreya, the buddha-to-be; and Dipamkara, who is said to be the first buddha of our fortunate eon and whose images are commonly venerated in the Kathmandu valley.
Descending from Tushita
Although Buddhacarita starts with the Buddha’s birth, for general Mahāyāna thought that is hardly the beginning. In a way, Buddha’s life is just the culmination of an extremely vast and arduous journey spanning three incalculable cosmic eons: an iceberg hiding a very vast network of compassionate wise activity. Having generated the enlightened attitude of bodhicitta countless eons ago, the Buddha-to-be spent numerous lifetimes accumulating merit and wisdom and traversing the bodhisattva stages and paths. At the culmination of this journey—and this is where the 12 deeds formally begin—he manifested a radiant body in the divine realm of Tushita, where all the buddhas of our ‘fortunate eon’ first manifest before descending into an actual human birth.
At the moment of his birth in Tushita, the future Buddha is not unlike a fully filled vessel, replete with every type of Dharmic knowledge and all the virtuous qualities. He shares his teachings with the local and visiting worldly gods (in other words, beings with the karma to get a temporary blissful rebirth), but that is not his final destination. According to the second chapter of Lalitavistara, a spontaneously resounding song then exhorts the future Buddha to not miss the right moment for descending into the human realm, lest the wheel of the Dharma there remains unturned.
This exhortation begins the arduous process of preparing for the descent, illustrating the principles of auspiciousness, appropriateness, and skilful means. The gods surrounding the future Buddha enter a discussion related to the potential circumstances for the human rebirth. Which family would be most suitable for the future Buddha? A perfect one has to be selected, but most candidates seem lacking. To explain how much needs to be present for all the conditions to be ideal, the Buddha-to-be describes the 64 qualities of the family and the 32 qualities of the future mother, finally pointing out the only suitable couple: king Śuddhodana and queen Māyādevī of the Śākya clan.
This presentation, if considered from the point of view of karmic causality, is in itself an extremely rich teaching on merit. Following this, the future Buddha immediately imparts another teaching, talking about the 108 ‘gateways to the light of the Dharma’ that all the gods present in Tushita (and the rest of us) should ideally follow: Dharmic principles that need to inform our practice. These include such important practices as the four immeasurables, the four applications of mindfulness, six perfections, and so on—essentially, everything that needs to be present for the Mahāyāna path, either as a practice or as a quality. This is followed by a sequence of pithy instructions on conduct. Ostensibly delivered to the gods, these instructions, again, might also be meant for those learning about the life of the Buddha—us as readers:
For the welfare, benefit, and love of sentient beings,
You should emulate me with your discipline, study,
Conscientiousness, generosity,
Restraint, and self-control.
For you will not be able to accomplish the auspicious teachings
By the mere sound of your voice and speech.
Please adopt the right conduct
And practice what you teach.
(Lalitavistara, Chapter 4, transl. by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee)
The future Buddha then performs another important deed, passing his crown as the head teacher of Tushita to Maitreya, the next buddha of our fortunate eon. In doing that, he creates a lineage of transmission—something quite important in Buddhism in general, especially when it comes to the practice-oriented instructions that require proper guidance underpinned by the experience accumulated by multiple generations. With that, everything is ready for the departure; as a final gesture, the bodhisattva uses his powers to create some auspicious signs in Shuddhodana’s palace.
Meanwhile in the human realm, queen Māyādevī approaches king Śuddhodana and asks for his permission to abide in the 8 precepts (which include celibacy and are still practiced by lay Buddhists on important occasions). She expresses her wish to practice virtue, and asks the king to also show generosity and care towards his people. Delighted by this request, he assents. The stage is now ready for the bodhisattva’s mindstream to descend into the human realm—intriguingly, entering the womb of a mother who is abiding in celibacy. To initiate the technical process itself, the bodhisattva makes his Tushita body radiate boundless light, illuminating the billionfold universe, making it shake, and bringing love and peace to the minds of all sentient beings.
The basic theme for the Buddha’s descent from Tushita is thorough preparation. Already fully replete with virtue and wisdom, the future Buddha sets the stage for his remaining eleven deeds through teaching, radiating inspirational energy and carefully selecting the desirable circumstances. Everything has to be just right: the time, the place, the parents, and the universe itself.
In praising this deed, non-sectarian master Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro writes:
Placing noble Śvetaketu’s crown upon the head
Of the protector Maitreya in the heaven of Tuṣita,
With five considerations, you came to Jambudvīpa—
Siddhārtha, grant auspiciousness throughout the three times!
(Transl. by Adam Pearcey)
Entering the womb
Each journey must have a moment of arrival—especially a journey leading to a womb. Relying on his previous discussions with the worldly gods in Tushita, the future bodhisattva chooses to enter the womb of queen Māyādevī by using the illusory form an elephant: something important to alert humans to his exceptional nature, since this form, according to Lalitavistara, aligns with the traditional Vedic augural systems and would be recognized by the ages. Once again, this act does not involve sexual contact between the king and the queen, since both are holding temporary vows of celibacy. Much like Jesus and the originator of Buddhist Dzogchen teachings, Garab Dorje, the Buddha (at least in this narrative) is described as having been conceived miraculously.
Once the conception-via-elephant-vision occurs, king Śuddhodana is summoned to the queen so that the joyful news can be shared (the king remains surprisingly calm in the face of an immaculate conception, perhaps due to the overall vibe of miracles filling the air). Priests are asked for their opinion on the significance of the queen’s experience. This is where the famous prediction of dual fate is voiced: the child so conceived will either be a universal monarch or a fully awakened Buddha. Overjoyed, the king proceeds to give out riches and to look for a comfortable place for the pregnant queen. In a typical Mahāyāna sūtra fashion (so beautifully exemplified by the Avatamsaka Sūtra), Lalitavistara then presents a vast vision of multiple bodies and dimensions: as various gods offer their palaces, pregnant Māyādevī temporarily gains the ability to abide in all of them at the same time, along with the one offered by her own husband.
Another theme related to this deed is the period of pregnancy itself, which is longer for future buddhas: 10 months pass between entering the womb and birth. In answering Ānanda’s confused question on the potential unpleasantness of hanging out in a regular human womb, the Buddha explains that the future buddhas appear as a fully formed embryo and spend the whole 10 months in a majestic temple hidden inside the mother’s womb (on its ride side, in particular). This pocket dimension, for lack of a better term, is filled with beauty, and the bodhisattva abiding there is comfortable and developed enough to entertain guests from amongst the six classes of beings. During this period, various visitors arrive. Brahma, in particular, comes to offer the future Buddha a drop of vital energy that contains the essence of our world system (which later merits him custodianship over the Buddha’s womb palace). The four directional kings also come to pay homage, and so do Shakra, other divinities, and a variety of other Dharma-sensitive beings.
This deed, once again, exemplifies the idea of proper preparation. While the bodhisattva himself does not reportedly need to mature (already having a fully formed embryo body), waiting 10 months still makes sense as a way to let the world prepare for his eventual arrival. Good fruit needs time to ripen—in the Buddha’s life and in our own.
Praising this deed together with the first one, a famous hymn attributed to Nāgārjuna reads:
Homage to you who, having taught the gods,
Knew the time had come to tame the human world, and
Descending from the god realm like a great elephant,
Foresaw the family of your birth and entered the womb of Māyādevī.
(Transl. by Patrick Gaffney and Adam Pearcey)
The long awaited birth
After 10 months, the time is ripe for the future Buddha to finally be born; miraculous signs appear all over king Śuddhodana’s kingdom, preparing beings for this joyful occasion. Wishing to give birth in a pleasant grove, queen Māyādevī asks for the king’s permission to travel to Lumbini—now one of the four major pilgrimage places for Buddhists:
Lord, please listen to what is on my mind:
For a long time now, I have thought about the pleasure grove.
If you will not be upset, displeased, or envious,
I should quickly go to that pleasure grove.
(Lalitavistara, Chapter 7, transl. by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee)
Arriving to the pleasure grove in the company of multiple human and divine beings, queen Māyādevī finds a majestic fig tree, praised as the tree that supported the mothers of all the previous buddhas. As she’s holding onto the tree, it bends to pay homage to the future buddha—showing the karmic gravity of a bodhisattva in his last lifetime. Sixty thousand goddesses appear to offer their support and admiration, and a flash of lightning appears in the sky. With that, the prince emerges from the mother’s right side, which immediately fully heals.
Born with full awareness (and offered a fragrant shower by Brahma and Shakra), the prince then proceeds to take seven steps in the different cardinal directions—a scene partly depicted in Bertolucci’s Little Buddha. As the bodhisattva steps on the ground, lotus flowers emerge; the young prince makes an important proclamation in each of the directions. In the east, he says “I will be the cause of all virtuous practices”; in the south, “I am worthy of the offerings of gods and humans”; in the west, “I am the Supreme Being on this earth. This is my last birth, where I shall uproot birth, old age, sickness, and death!” His proclamation in the north is “I will be supreme among all sentient beings!” Finally, he takes seven steps downhill (“I will subjugate Māra and his army! I will cause great rain clouds of the Dharma to shower down on all hell beings, extinguishing the fires of hell and filling the beings there with happiness”) and seven steps uphill, where, lifting his gaze, he proclaims “All sentient beings will look up to me.”
An important part of the Buddha’s birth story is the demise of his mother, who passes away seven days later. Lalitavistara explains that this happens to the mothers of all the buddhas and is caused by the exhaustion of the natural karmic lifespan; were the mothers to remain alive, they would be unable to witness their precious child depart when embarking on a spiritual quest. With queen Māyādevī gone, the role of the Buddha’s mother is taken by her sister, Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī—Buddhism’s future first bhikṣuṇī.
The birth of the Buddha is the formal beginning of his path on our Earth. It is a fascinating turning point, full of promise and potential: the bodhisattva is already here, but his teachings are not ready to be released to all beings (in fact, the sage who definitely predicts Buddha’s full awakening laments his own inability to live long enough to witness the emergence of the Dharma). That, perhaps, is why Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro praises this deed by asking for blessings—
The Sage took birth within the garden in Lumbinī;
Brahmā and other gods whom people worship paid reverence.
You shone with the splendid marks and signs of a hundred acts of merit—
Son of Śuddhodana, bestow the light of your blessings!
(Transl. by Adam Pearcey)
The Buddha’s birth, let alone his preceding two deeds, never get as much attention as his awakening. That’s understandable, given the importance of enlightenment and the discoveries made therein; and yet we can contemplate each of the deeds, seeing how every act in this important drama of enlightenment has something valuable to teach us: lessons on generosity, kindness, merit-making, auspiciousness, timeliness, and, above all, the implacable wish to benefit all sentient beings. Illuminating our minds with these thoughts, we can supplicate the Buddha for inspiration and continue diligently practicing on the path.
To be continued