185: Nine Qualities of the Buddha

YouTube Video Link

YouTube Channel Link

Website:
www.satipatthana.ca

Donations and Memberships

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Tasabhato Rahato Sama Sambudassa Namo Tasambhato Rhato Sama Sambudasa Namo Tasabhato Arhato Sama Sambudassa Tirabara Buddhism series Dhamma talk number eight. Today's title is Nine Qualities of the Buddha. Whenever we start a Buddhist activity, we started with homage to the Buddha Namo Tasabhagwato Rahato Sama Sambudasa. Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Fully Enlightened One. Actually, these are the three qualities of the Buddha. And what does it mean by the Blessed One? Or the Worthy One or the Fully Enlightened One? Or simply just reciting the words that's printed. So there are nine qualities of the Buddha described in the Jagga Sutta Discourse. In there, these nine qualities of the Buddhas are enumerated. There are many more qualities, but these nines are the significant ones. So let's go through one at a time. The first one is Arahan. It means one who is worthy of honor and respect of human Deva and Brahma as he is fully endowed with morality, concentration, wisdom, and liberation, and has totally extinguished greed, anger and delusion. Loba, dosa, moha, the kilisa, mental defilements, and has broken the cycle of birth and death. So that's what Arahan means. It's translated as the worthy one. He is worthy of the respect of the human devas and Brahma. Why? Because he is fully endowed with morality, Sila, concentration, samadhi, wisdom, vinya, liberation, remoti. And also he has totally extinguished mental defilements and has totally broken the cycle of birth and death. Arhan, the worthy one. Second quality is Sama Sambudho. Fully enlightened one. So what does it mean by fully enlightened one? To be more precise, fully enlightened ones are one who knows without a teacher and all by his by himself. All correct Dharma all correct Dharma there is to know to free from suffering. So that's a key point is he has no teachers. Sama Sambuddha. Self-taught without a teacher, knows all correct dharmas that frees from all form of suffering. The third one, the third quality, Vujja Jarana Champano. So what does it mean by vision and conduct? And here we'll go more details now. In general, vision and conduct represent three wisdom, eight wisdom, and fifteen conduct practices. Three wisdom, eight kinds of wisdom, and fifteen conduct practices. So let's see what three wisdom means. I won't insert Pali word anymore, otherwise, too many Pali words and it might become confusing. Three wisdom. One is ability to remember past lives. Second one is ability to see objects at far distances. Like Dewa eyes, Dewa can see objects from far distance, far in a sense of planet to planet, or even some cases galaxy to galaxy. And the third one is ability to eliminate fifteen hundred kilesa mental defilements with pop wisdom meganyana. Those are the three wisdoms, and the next subgroup is eight wisdoms. What are the eight wisdoms? One is vipassanat the possessors of the three common characteristics of mind and matter. Second, ability to know others' minds and thoughts. Four ability to hear sound from far distance, like Deva ears. Five go through earth or mountains and fly in the skies, and many other miraculous. And to make it into eight, you add up the first three. The first three wisdom and this five wisdom together. We called it eight wisdom. Why three wisdom is presented separately? I believe it's considered that's more important wisdoms relative to the extra five and the eight. So possessors of three wisdom, possessor of eight wisdom, and also possessor of fifteen conduct practices, sarna practices, and still they are all under the fully endowed with vision and conduct. We are still discussing that one quality, going in details. What are the fifteen conducts? He's the possessor of Sada, faith and confidence, and wholesome, unwholesome actions, and their resultants, and the three jewels and existence of past life. Having faith and confidence in these things. Second is satifulness of being mindful of all things that are wholesome. Three hirit shameful of doing anything that is unwholesome. Four Utapa dreadful of the consequences of any unwholesome actions. Energy exertion on all that are wholesome. Six Sutta Knowledgeable of all temporal matters. We are talking for the Buddha, of course, for us is hearing and listening of all the Dharmas. Seven binya skillfully intelligent on all matters. Eight Sensible Eating. Just moderation. Eating for the purpose of sustaining the body, not for pleasure. Sensible eating. Nine sleep very little. Mostly around three to four hours. Sometimes it's said in some sutta two hours. Because at night Devas and Brahmas came and asked questions. So he is still working while everybody is sleeping. Sila. For us is simple five precepts. But I'll put it this way for the Buddha there. Perfect in keeping daily routine. Yes, a certain thing they do, a certain routine, a certain practice, everything. Eleven perfect in keeping all controlling faculties. The senses, restraint of the senses up in perfect order. That's eleven. Practice. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen is jhana. The first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, fourth jhana. So altogether fifteen, he is the possessors of these fifteen conduct practices. So as Buddha is the possessor of the three wisdom, eight wisdoms and fifteen conduct practices. He is known as Vijacharanat Sampandal. He is known as one who is fully endowed with vision and conduct. That is the third quality. The fourth one called Sukato. One line translation. Who has gone rightly? What does it mean by who has gone rightly? Sukato. Buddha has gone rightly or trust, has journeyed, had traveled, has trespassed, gone rightly, rightly. From the time he received prediction or confirmation from the prediction or confirmation for the Buddhahood that he will become a Buddha from Buddha Dipinkara. That was more than four eons, one cycle ago. From that moment till this attainment as a Buddha Gautama. During those periods, he journeyed, he traveled, he practiced for the benefits of human Deva and Brahma. He practiced all these four eons and hundred thousand one cycle without any deviation, without taking any detour for the benefits of the three worlds, the worlds of human, the worlds of Deva, and the worlds of Brahma. That is number four quality. Number five quality is Loka we do. The knower of the worlds. What does it mean by the knower of the worlds? Buddha knows all there is to know of the wall of materiality, in other words, physical wall. In other words, all these planets and suns and stars and the physical universe. That is the world of materiality, and also the world of beings, every living beings, whether it is Brahma or Dewar or human or animals or birds or fish or hellbeings, all beings. He knows about these worlds. And the world of arising and ceasing. The physical world, the world of living being and the world of formation. Sankara. Arising and passing away. That's why he is known as the knower of the worlds. Number six quality. Anukta purikta dhamasadati. Translated as incomparable leader of men to be tame. What it means is he has the ability to tame all deserving, uncultured human being, uncultured Devas and uncultured yaka. Yakat means close liter. The closest can translate is the giants, very powerful, egoistic short tempered beings. That's Yakat. And he contains whoever needs to be tamed. Master Tamer, Master Trainer. Number seven, the seventh quality. Translated as the teacher of gods and man. He is the teacher of human. He is the teacher of Deva. And also he is the teacher of Brahma and guiding across the burning desert of birth, aging and death, and leading to the peace of deathless Nippana. That's why he is known as the teachers of the three worlds. Quality number eight Buddha translated as one who knows. What does he know? What does the Buddha know? The Buddha penetrated the full noble truth. Noble truth of suffering, the cause of the noble truth of suffering, the cessation of the suffering and the part leading to the cessation of suffering. He penetrated into these four noble truths and taught all beings, not this or that, all beings, equally, without discrimination, whether in terms of race or color or creed or even different forms of beings. He has no discrimination. He taught them all. Whoever wanted to be taught. Whoever is available to teach and willing to learn. That's number eight quality. Number nine quality is called bhagoa. Translated as the blessed one. That recitation, homage to the blessed one. What does it mean by blessed one? He is the possessor of six prowess or six powers. It's difficult to translate. So let's go and count it what these six powers are and all the prowess. The first one is called Ithriya Prowess. The sixth or first one is Itiria prowess. What does it mean by itriya? It is ability to shrink the body to the smaller size of the matter. Ability to fly as swift as consciousness. Ability to expand the body to an unimaginable size. Ability to transport instantly to anywhere. Ability to create instantly different forms and shapes. Ability to influence the mindset of human Deva and Brahma. Ability to enter instantly into any level of jhanas and abhinias, psychical power, abhina. And the eighth sub-ability is ability to instantly solve any problems. Those eight abilities are called Idriya Prowess. So that is one prowess with a eight subdivision. So the second prowess is Dhamma Prowess. Full path Dhamma, full fruition dhamma, and one nibbana dharma. Altogether it is called nine ultra mundane dharmas. He possessed. Buddha's name, Buddha's fame of truth spreads to over thousands of galaxies. Theory powers or theory prowess possess extremely pleasant physical features. Karma prowess. All his intended wishes were fulfilled because of his great store of wholesome karma he had done in the past. That's called karma prowess. And the sixth and the last prowess is a Yatta prowess possess great energy so that he is the refuge for all beings for all beings to take refuge in him. The Buddha must possess an enormous amount of energy, effort, warya. Those are the six powers. As the Buddha possess these six powers of power, of karma and wisdom. If you squeeze it down, it is about power, karma, and wisdom. As he is the possessor of these six powers of power, karma, and wisdom, he is called Bhagoa, the Blessed One. So those are the nine qualities of the Buddha as we are learning, studying, practicing his teachings. It is good to know what kinds of quality he possessed. Not only that, in one of the concentration meditation practice, there is one practice called Buddha Nusati. Reflections on the Buddha's qualities. As a form of meditation, what does meditation do? Meditation in general keeps the killesa away. So Buddha Nusati, reflecting on the qualities of the Buddha. By keep reflecting deeply into the meaning of these qualities, your mind is away from Kilisa. You may reflect all nine of them, or you may pick one that is most suitable for your mentality or have chemistry with. And just reflect deeply on that one quality again and again and again and again. That's called Buddha Nushit. So may all of you be able to practice Buddha nushit in your spare times while you are not practicing mindfulness meditation or times that you cannot practice mindfulness meditation as you are a layperson doing your chores and the jobs for livelihood. You can keep this Buddha's quality in the mind and reflect all the time as much as you can and keep the Kilisa away as much as possible. Thank you very much.