In commemoration of Vesakha Day, the day of recognition of the birth, enlightenment and parinibbāna of Lord Buddha, I leave you with the first words he uttered after his enlightenment (Dhp 153 & 154):
Anekajātisaṁsāraṁ
Sandhāvissaṁ anibbisaṁ
Gahakāraṁ gavesanto
Dukkhājāti punappunaṁ.
Gahakāraka diṭṭhosi
Puna gehaṁ na kāhasi
Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā
Gahakūṭaṁ visaṅkhataṁ
Visaṅkhāragataṁ cittaṁ
Taṅhānaṁ khayamajjhagā.
I, who have been seeking the builder* of this house (body),
Failing to attain enlightenment which would enable me to find him,
Have wandered through innumerable births in saṁsāra,
To be born again and again is indeed dukkha.
Oh housebuilder! You are seen,
You should build no house (for me) again.
All your rafters are broken, your roof-tree destroyed.
My mind has reached the Unconditioned (nibbāna),
The end of craving has been attained.
May you, and all beings, be happy, healthy and free from physical and mental suffering!
* Craving (taṅhā)
Thank you for posting this, Ashin-hpoya! These are my favorite lines from the Dhammapada, I’ve always found them very moving. Happy Kason La Pye!
Hello Bhante!
Happy Vesak to you too! Japanese Buddhism celebrates this every April 8th (moved away from lunar calendar among other things), so I celebrated 30 days ago.
By the way, this Dhammapada quote is among my favorite too. Interesting that Nibbana here is translated as Unconditioned. Can you help elaborate a little more on that?
Hi Doug,
Yes, I remember your posting about that and had meant to ask why it was changed (if indeed it was) from the month of Vesakha!**
According to the Buddha, everything – and that means literally everything – is conditioned. The only unconditioned element is Nibbana.
If I might quote from the Samyutta Nikaya, Asankhatasamyutta Chapter 43.1:
“And what, bhikkhus, is the Unconditioned? The destruction of greed, the destruction of aversion, the destruction of delusion – that is called the Unconditioned.”
…the very definition of Nibbana.
[update] ** If you took the time to explain it in your post, my sincere apologies for the swiss cheese mind!
Hi Bhante,
I can’t recall if I explained it either, but Japan, like the rest of East Asia, used the Chinese Lunar calendar, but in the Meiji Period (late 1800′s early 1900′s), they modernized the calendar to use a solar one. All religious dates became fixed in the same way that Christmas is always December 25th for us Westerners. So, somehow they decided April 8th would always be the Buddha’s Birthday and that was that. The rest of East Asia (Korea, China, Vietnam) still observes the lunar calender, which is similar to Thailand and Burma, though somewhat different dates.
Anyways, as for the Unconditioned, I guess I am still a little clear what the term unconditioned itself means, or for that matter what conditioned itself means. I have a vague idea, but I am still not familiar with the term.
HI Doug,
“When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises”
The above statement is Dependent Origination in a nutshell, that no phenomenon, be it mental or material, arises independently of a cause or condition. The formula flows thus: ignorance conditions formations, formations condition consciousness, consciousness conditions mind and matter, mind and matter condition the six sense bases, the six sense bases condition contact, contact conditions feeling, feeling conditions desire, desire condition attachment, attachment conditions becoming, becoming conditions birth, illness, aging, suffering.
When one of these conditions is eradicated then the cycle is broken and the formula above changes to “when this ceases, that no longer is; with the cessation of this, that ceases.”
Desire, as we know, is the cause of dukkha, and it is the eradication of desire that is task set out in the Buddha’s teachings. When we no longer desire, we cannot attach, when we don’t attach, there is no becoming, then birth, etc.
Actually, “conditioning” is a discussion on one of the subscription email groups and I am preparing an explanation. Perhaps I will cross-post it here.
Thank you very much, Bhante!