On one occasion, when the Blessed One was newly Self-awakened, he was staying at Uruvela on the bank of the Nerañjara River, at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan Tree. Then, while he was alone and in seclusion, this line of thinking arose in his awareness: “One suffers if dwelling without reverence or deference. Now on what priest or contemplative can I dwell in dependence, honouring and respecting him?”
Then the thought occurred to him: “It would be for the sake of perfecting an unperfected aggregate of virtue that I would dwell in dependence on another priest or contemplative, honouring and respecting him. However, in this world with its devas, Mara, and Brahma, in this generation with its priests and contemplatives, its royalty and common-folk, I do not see another priest or contemplative more consummate in virtue than I, on whom I could dwell in dependence, honouring and respecting him.
“It would be for the sake of perfecting an unperfected aggregate of concentration…
“It would be for the sake of perfecting an unperfected aggregate of discernment…
“It would be for the sake of perfecting an unperfected aggregate of release…
“It would be for the sake of perfecting an unperfected aggregate of knowledge and vision of release that I would dwell in dependence on another priest or contemplative, honouring and respecting him. However, in this world with its devas, Mara, and Brahma, in this generation with its priests and contemplatives, its royalty and common-folk, I do not see another priest or contemplative more consummate in knowledge and vision of release than I, on whom I could dwell in dependence, honouring and respecting him.
“What if I were to dwell in dependence on this very Dharma to which I have fully awakened, honouring and respecting it?”
Then, having known with his own awareness the line of thinking in the Blessed One’s awareness – just as a strong man might extend his flexed arm or flex his extended arm – Brahma Sahampati disappeared from the Brahma-world and reappeared in front of the Blessed One. Arranging his upper robe over one shoulder, he saluted the Blessed One with his hands before his heart and said to him: “So it is, Blessed One! So it is, One-Well-Gone! Those who were arahants, Rightly Self-awakened Ones in the past – they, too, dwelled in dependence on the very Dharma itself, honouring and respecting it. Those who will be arahants, Rightly Self-awakened Ones in the future – they, too, will dwell in dependence on the very Dharma itself, honouring and respecting it. And let the Blessed One, who is at present the arahant, the Rightly Self-awakened One, dwell in dependence on the very Dharma itself, honouring and respecting it.”
[SN VI.2]
57. Seated Buddha, date unknown, Wat Manorom, Luang Prabang, Laos.
58. Seated Buddha, date unknown, Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Burma.
He wonders, “Should I teach this Dharma to others?”:
I have heard that on one occasion, when the Blessed One was newly Self-awakened, he was staying at Uruvela on the bank of the Nerañjara River, at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan Tree. Then, while he was alone and in seclusion, this line of thinking arose in his awareness: “This Dharma that I have attained is deep, hard to see, hard to realise, peaceful, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, is excited by attachment, enjoys attachment. For a generation delighting in attachment, excited by attachment, enjoying attachment, this/that conditionality and dependent co-arising are hard to see. This state, too, is hard to see: the resolution of all fabrications, the relinquishment of all acquisitions, the ending of craving; dispassion; cessation; Unbinding. And if I were to teach the Dharma and if others would not understand me that would be tiresome for me, troublesome for me.”
Just then these verses, unspoken in the past, unheard before, occurred to the Blessed One:
Enough now with teaching
what
only with difficulty
I reached.
This Dharma is not easily realised
by those overcome
with aversion and passion.
What is abstruse, subtle,
deep,
hard to see,
going against the flow –
those delighting in passion,
cloaked in the mass of darkness,
won’t see.
59. A Himalayan shrine containing an image of a seated Buddha draped with colourful fabric, date unknown, Kunzang La pass, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh state, India, gilt bronze.
60. Reclining Buddha, date unknown, Chaukhtatgyi Pagoda, Yangon, Burma, painted plaster.
61. Head of Reclining Buddha, date unknown, location unknown.
As the Blessed One reflected thus, his mind inclined to dwelling at ease, not to teaching the Dharma.
Then Brahma Sahampati, having known with his own awareness the line of thinking in the Blessed One’s awareness, thought: “The world is lost! The world is destroyed! The mind of the Tathagata, the arahant, the Rightly Self-awakened One inclines to dwelling at ease, not to teaching the Dharma!” Then, just as a strong man might extend his flexed arm or flex his extended arm, Brahma Sahampati disappeared from the Brahma-world and reappeared in front the Blessed One. Arranging his upper robe over one shoulder, he knelt down with his right knee on the ground, saluted the Blessed One with his hands before his heart, and said to him: “Lord, let the Blessed One teach the Dharma! Let the One-Well-Gone teach the Dharma! There are beings with little dust in their eyes who are falling away because they do not hear the Dharma. There will be those who will understand the Dharma.”
Then the Blessed One, having understood Brahma’s invitation, out of compassion for beings, surveyed the world with the eye of an Awakened One. As he did so, he saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace and danger in the other world. Just as in a pond of blue or red or white lotuses, some lotuses – born and growing in the water – might flourish while immersed in the water, without rising up from the water; some might stand at an even level with the water; while some might rise up from the water and stand without being smeared by the water – so too, surveying the world with the eye of an Awakened One, the Blessed One saw beings with little dust in their eyes and those with much, those with keen faculties and those with dull, those with good attributes and those with bad, those easy to teach and those hard, some of them seeing disgrace and danger in the other world.
Then Brahma Sahampati, thinking, “The Blessed One has given his consent to teach of Dharma,” bowed down to the Blessed One and, circling him on the right, disappeared right there.
[SN VI.1]
62. Head of Maha Muni Buddha, date unknown, Mawlamyine, Burma, gilt bronze.
63. Head of Buddha statue, date unknown, Eindawya Pagoda, Mandalay, Burma, gilt bronze.
To those who look upon Gautama in a less mystic light, as a man of mixed motives and desires, it will seem reasonable that other considerations of a less lofty kind must have tended, half-unconsciously perhaps, in the same direction. Silence would be taken as a confession of failure; and, even apart from what had happened, there is always sweetness in declaring the unknown or being the bearer of good news. It is at least certain that Gautama, like Muhammad, had an intense belief in himself, a confidence that must have been peculiarly strong