Published On:Thursday, 23 October 2014
Posted by Celebrate Life Style information Blog
The Buddha’s discourse competence
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When one reads the Buddhist Sutta (Discourses) or the Dhammapada in particular, one would come across several similes and metaphors and would be attracted towards the figurative language used by the Buddha. The similes and metaphors were simple, appropriate, easily understood, closely linked with the environment (environment friendly) and linked with the Buddha's living experiences. The characters in His symbolic stories were mostly the commoners. He avoided Sanskrit and the metaphoric language of the Sanskrit poets. He devised new similes and metaphors from the lives and the day to day used instruments of the farmers, nomads, labourers, and servants.
The Buddha often used to embellish the discourses with interesting parables. He was very familiar with folklore. The Buddha was a competent communicator and He nursed a potential for understanding the nature and competence of individual members of an audience. He could flexibly adjust the mode and style of discourse to suit the audience perception. The Buddha possessed the rare faculty of reading other's minds (paracitta vijanana) and the power of recalling to mind past births (pubbe nivanuussati). These two powers were also potent promotive factors in his communication process that made Him an efficient communicator.
The Buddha was honorifically referred to as Tiloguru (The Teacher of Three Worlds) and He even formulated discourses as responses to questions of devas. For instance, the Mangala Sutta was a discourse in response to a question by a deva (a god or supernatural being) as to what constituted a real blessing. The discourses included admonitions, expositions, interpretations and discussions -all of which are preserved as Tipitaka (Pali Canon). Tradition states that the language of the canon is Magadhi, the language believed to be spoken by Gautama Buddha. The Buddha adapted an informed approach in formulating his discourses.
Once a group of Buddhist monks were walking along the bank of River Achirawathie which flows near about Savath Nuvara. The Buddha was residing there during that time. These monks noticed an elephant tamer trying to subdue an agitated elephant but without success. Among the group of monks there was a monk who had been an excellent elephant tamer during his lay life. But as he has become a monk he could not help this elephant tamer.
What he did was to tell the other monks the strategy of taming this elephant. The elephant tamer overheard this talk and quickly acted on it. To the amazement of the monks and the elephant tamer the boisterous elephant calmed down and obeyed the tamer. On their return journey after reaching Savat Nuvera Ven Ananda informed the Buddha about this incident. The Buddha found it a rich source of information for constructing a remarkable discourse about the Doctrine (Dhamma).
Once the Buddha was residing near Savasti in the palace of Migara's mother in the Eastern Monastry. A brahamin named Ganaka-Moggalana approached the Lord and after exchanging greetings asked the Lord about the schedule of traiing His disciples. The Buddha offered him a schedule of training activities composed of training in morality, sense control, moderation in eating, vigilance, mindfulness and clear consciousness, overcoming of the five hinderences, and jhana. The brahaman was very satisfied with the Buddha's discourse and he requested the Buddha to admit him as a lay-follower for life.
When the Buddha was residing near Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove at the squirrel's feeding place a novice Aciravata approached the Buddha and revealed that although he had taught the Dhamma to Prince Jayasena, the prince was not happy about his teaching about attaining one-pointedness of mind. The Buddha declared that Prince Jayasena was indulging in sense gratification could not comprehend the benefits of renunciation. The Buddha observed the difficult nature of training elephants, horses and oxen. The Buddha cited the similar of climbing a mountain to view the beauty of the surrounding environment and the simile of taming a wild elephant.
Insightful observations
The Buddha's discourse on the Tamed Stage (Dantabhumi sutra) commenced in such a way. In this sutta the Buddha's insightful observations on recollections of former habitations, divine eye and destruction of cankers (sainthood) were absorbing.
The discourses of the Buddha were so appropriate, rational, acceptable, substantial, attractive and appealing to the people and even the devotees of other religions too began to take refuge in the Buddha. The news spread that the Buddha was a magician and the Licchavi King Bhaddiya asked the Buddha whether the Buddha knew the magic of hypnotising people. The Buddha seized this opportunity to educate the king on rational understanding. The Buddha declared that one should not accept anything because one has heared of it or because it tracked down through generations or because it was historical knowledge or it was stated in texts or because it squares with logic and theory. The Buddha observed that one should accept any fact only when one sees for oneself and realiizes the truth of it. (Anguttara Nikaya-Catukka Nipata-Bhaddiya Sutta).
The Buddha emphasised that His role was to Veneal and expose the virtuous way of living, abstaining from committing evil deeds. He further declared that He has never forced anyone to join His Order. Like In Bhaddiya Sutta where the Buddha answered a question or clarified a doubt there are several discourses which are the valued responses to questions projected to the Buddha by kings, monks and followers of other religions. King Kosol was such a person who benefited so much from the Buddha's discourses. The Buddha made good use of King Kosala to propagate the Doctrine making the best use of an opportunity when the bewitchingly beautiful courtesan Sirima died. On the instructions of the Buddha, King Kosola preserved her dead body for four days to auction it in the cemetry grounds. The King first placed a bid of one thousand gold coins. But even after lowering the bid value no body was willing to take the putrefied body of Sirima.
Awful dreams
On this occasion the Buddha delivered a memorable discourse on the impermanence and illusion of beauty. How the Buddha interpreted the awful dreams of King Kosol is quite well-known to the Buddhists. Sabhiya the ascetic had several questions which he needed solutions. He went after the six senior religious teachers during the Buddha's time and projected his questions to them. Purana Kossapa and other senior teachers refused or rebuffed to answer these questions. So Sabhiya approached the Buddha after travelling a long distance of 700 yojanas. The Buddha welcomed Subhaya and answered all his questions to the satisfaction of this wondering ascetic. Subhaya became one of the Buddha's disciples (Mahavagga-Sabhaya Sutta).
The conventional strategy of delivering sermons comprised specific approaches. The Buddha speculated on his own to find an appropriate audience who were intelligent to listen to and perceive His Doctrine. This was how he identified His former colleagues, the five ascetics for delivering the first Sermon on The Four Noble Truths (Dhammachakkapavattana Sutta) and the second discourse on Soullessness (Anantalakkhana Sutta). Most commonly the Buddha picked up an issue from His disciple monks at the forum. He would ask the monks what have they been discussing about when He arrived at the forum. Usually Ven Ananda would present the issue at hand and the Buddha would commence the discourse. The most popular discourse from the Sutta Nipata, the Karaniyametta Sutta was delivered by the Buddha to a group of monks who complained to the Buddha that they have been frightened by fearful visions and terrible sounds in the forest where they have been trying to meditate. This Sutta is a discourse on goodwill preached by the Buddha. It states that one should be upright, gentle.
Religious arguments
Modest, and straightforward and commends the practice of goodwill towards all beings, modelled on the attitude of a mother to her only son. The text is recited daily by monks and often lay people. Another approach was to deliver a sermon when the Buddha had been invited for an alms giving by any person irrespective of one's status. Thus the Buddha accepted an invitation form the courtesan Ambapali and declined the invitation from Licchavi kings on the very same day.
Yet another approach was to pay a visit to a scene of an issue with the idea of settling a dispute and to educate the parties entangled in a dispute. The taming of the demon Alavaka and the criminal Angulimala are famous incidents. The Mahavansa and the Chulavanse record the visits of the Buddha to Sri Lanka (Sinhaladeepa) on two occasions first to Mahyangana to settle a dispute among rivels and pVenented a war and the second visit was also to settle a dispute between two brothers, two tribal rulers on the ownership of a jewelled chair at Yapa Patuna.
On both these instances the Buddha has delivered sermons. There were instances when followers of other religions came to argue with the Buddha. One such instance was when Saccaka, a follower of Niganthnata Putta came to argue with the Buddha.
- Daily News:
Once a group of Buddhist monks were walking along the bank of River Achirawathie which flows near about Savath Nuvara. The Buddha was residing there during that time. These monks noticed an elephant tamer trying to subdue an agitated elephant but without success. Among the group of monks there was a monk who had been an excellent elephant tamer during his lay life. But as he has become a monk he could not help this elephant tamer.
What he did was to tell the other monks the strategy of taming this elephant. The elephant tamer overheard this talk and quickly acted on it. To the amazement of the monks and the elephant tamer the boisterous elephant calmed down and obeyed the tamer. On their return journey after reaching Savat Nuvera Ven Ananda informed the Buddha about this incident. The Buddha found it a rich source of information for constructing a remarkable discourse about the Doctrine (Dhamma).
Once the Buddha was residing near Savasti in the palace of Migara's mother in the Eastern Monastry. A brahamin named Ganaka-Moggalana approached the Lord and after exchanging greetings asked the Lord about the schedule of traiing His disciples. The Buddha offered him a schedule of training activities composed of training in morality, sense control, moderation in eating, vigilance, mindfulness and clear consciousness, overcoming of the five hinderences, and jhana. The brahaman was very satisfied with the Buddha's discourse and he requested the Buddha to admit him as a lay-follower for life.
When the Buddha was residing near Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove at the squirrel's feeding place a novice Aciravata approached the Buddha and revealed that although he had taught the Dhamma to Prince Jayasena, the prince was not happy about his teaching about attaining one-pointedness of mind. The Buddha declared that Prince Jayasena was indulging in sense gratification could not comprehend the benefits of renunciation. The Buddha observed the difficult nature of training elephants, horses and oxen. The Buddha cited the similar of climbing a mountain to view the beauty of the surrounding environment and the simile of taming a wild elephant.
Insightful observations
The Buddha's discourse on the Tamed Stage (Dantabhumi sutra) commenced in such a way. In this sutta the Buddha's insightful observations on recollections of former habitations, divine eye and destruction of cankers (sainthood) were absorbing.
The discourses of the Buddha were so appropriate, rational, acceptable, substantial, attractive and appealing to the people and even the devotees of other religions too began to take refuge in the Buddha. The news spread that the Buddha was a magician and the Licchavi King Bhaddiya asked the Buddha whether the Buddha knew the magic of hypnotising people. The Buddha seized this opportunity to educate the king on rational understanding. The Buddha declared that one should not accept anything because one has heared of it or because it tracked down through generations or because it was historical knowledge or it was stated in texts or because it squares with logic and theory. The Buddha observed that one should accept any fact only when one sees for oneself and realiizes the truth of it. (Anguttara Nikaya-Catukka Nipata-Bhaddiya Sutta).
The Buddha emphasised that His role was to Veneal and expose the virtuous way of living, abstaining from committing evil deeds. He further declared that He has never forced anyone to join His Order. Like In Bhaddiya Sutta where the Buddha answered a question or clarified a doubt there are several discourses which are the valued responses to questions projected to the Buddha by kings, monks and followers of other religions. King Kosol was such a person who benefited so much from the Buddha's discourses. The Buddha made good use of King Kosala to propagate the Doctrine making the best use of an opportunity when the bewitchingly beautiful courtesan Sirima died. On the instructions of the Buddha, King Kosola preserved her dead body for four days to auction it in the cemetry grounds. The King first placed a bid of one thousand gold coins. But even after lowering the bid value no body was willing to take the putrefied body of Sirima.
Awful dreams
On this occasion the Buddha delivered a memorable discourse on the impermanence and illusion of beauty. How the Buddha interpreted the awful dreams of King Kosol is quite well-known to the Buddhists. Sabhiya the ascetic had several questions which he needed solutions. He went after the six senior religious teachers during the Buddha's time and projected his questions to them. Purana Kossapa and other senior teachers refused or rebuffed to answer these questions. So Sabhiya approached the Buddha after travelling a long distance of 700 yojanas. The Buddha welcomed Subhaya and answered all his questions to the satisfaction of this wondering ascetic. Subhaya became one of the Buddha's disciples (Mahavagga-Sabhaya Sutta).
The conventional strategy of delivering sermons comprised specific approaches. The Buddha speculated on his own to find an appropriate audience who were intelligent to listen to and perceive His Doctrine. This was how he identified His former colleagues, the five ascetics for delivering the first Sermon on The Four Noble Truths (Dhammachakkapavattana Sutta) and the second discourse on Soullessness (Anantalakkhana Sutta). Most commonly the Buddha picked up an issue from His disciple monks at the forum. He would ask the monks what have they been discussing about when He arrived at the forum. Usually Ven Ananda would present the issue at hand and the Buddha would commence the discourse. The most popular discourse from the Sutta Nipata, the Karaniyametta Sutta was delivered by the Buddha to a group of monks who complained to the Buddha that they have been frightened by fearful visions and terrible sounds in the forest where they have been trying to meditate. This Sutta is a discourse on goodwill preached by the Buddha. It states that one should be upright, gentle.
Religious arguments
Modest, and straightforward and commends the practice of goodwill towards all beings, modelled on the attitude of a mother to her only son. The text is recited daily by monks and often lay people. Another approach was to deliver a sermon when the Buddha had been invited for an alms giving by any person irrespective of one's status. Thus the Buddha accepted an invitation form the courtesan Ambapali and declined the invitation from Licchavi kings on the very same day.
Yet another approach was to pay a visit to a scene of an issue with the idea of settling a dispute and to educate the parties entangled in a dispute. The taming of the demon Alavaka and the criminal Angulimala are famous incidents. The Mahavansa and the Chulavanse record the visits of the Buddha to Sri Lanka (Sinhaladeepa) on two occasions first to Mahyangana to settle a dispute among rivels and pVenented a war and the second visit was also to settle a dispute between two brothers, two tribal rulers on the ownership of a jewelled chair at Yapa Patuna.
On both these instances the Buddha has delivered sermons. There were instances when followers of other religions came to argue with the Buddha. One such instance was when Saccaka, a follower of Niganthnata Putta came to argue with the Buddha.
- Daily News:
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