|
by Susan Elbaum Jootla
In the canonical formula for contemplation of the Buddha, nine
epithets of the
Awakened One are mentioned. One of these, likely to be
overlooked, is sattha devamanussanam, "teacher of gods and
humans." The present essay focuses on one aspect of this epithet:
the Buddha's role as teacher of the devas or gods. In the pages to
follow we will carefully consider the instructions and techniques he
used when teaching beings of divine stature. If we study these
teachings we will gain deeper understanding of how we should purify
our own minds, and by studying the responses of the gods we can find
models for our own behavior in relation to the Master and his
teaching.
Many religious leaders consider themselves prophets whose authority
stems from an Almighty God, but as our epithet implies, the Buddha's
relationship to divinity was very different. He instructed deities, as
well as humans, on how to end all suffering (dukkha) by
eradicating ignorance and other unwholesome states. The gods came to
the Buddha to request instruction and clarification, to support his
Sasana or Dispensation, to praise his incomparable qualities, and to
pay homage at his feet. Devas and brahmas are often mentioned
throughout the Pali Canon. They regularly manifest themselves on the
human plane and participate in many episodes of the Buddha's career.
Some of these higher beings are foolish, some exceedingly wise; some
are barely distinguishable from well-off people, others are extremely
powerful, long-lived, and magnificent. The multiple connections
between the Buddha and beings of the higher planes can inspire
meditators to develop the Noble Eightfold Path that leads to the end
of suffering.
This essay will explore: (1) the Buddha's direct instructions to
devas and how they can help human meditators practice the Dhamma; (2)
how devas, out of gratitude and faith, honor the Buddha and support
his Dispensation; and (3) the process of attaining liberation for
devas, brahmas, and humans.
The Buddhist universe consists of thirty-one planes of existence
(see chart below). Every being lives on one or another of these
planes. After death all beings, except the arahants, will be reborn in
a realm and under circumstances that accords with their kamma —
their volitional actions of body, speech, and mind made in that
existence or in any previous one. We will often refer to this chart to
indicate where, in the cosmic hierarchy, the deities we meet come
from.
Thirty-one Planes of Existence
-
Four planes of the Immaterial Brahma Realm:
-
(31) Plane of Neither
Perception-nor-non-Perception
-
(30) Plane of Nothingness
-
(29) Plane of Infinite Consciousness
-
(28) Plane of Infinite Space
-
Sixteen planes of the Fine Material Brahma Realm:
-
7 Fourth Jhana Planes:
-
3 Third Jhana Planes:
-
(20) Third Jhana, highest degree
-
(19) Third Jhana, medium degree
-
(18) Third Jhana, minor degree
-
3 Second Jhana Planes:
-
(17) Second Jhana, highest degree (Abhassara)
-
(16) Second Jhana, medium degree
-
(15) Second Jhana, minor degree
-
3 First Jhana Planes:
-
(14) First Jhana, Maha Brahmas
-
(13) First Jhana, Brahma's ministers
-
(12) First Jhana, Brahma's retinue
-
Eleven planes of the Sensuous Realm :
The lowest area (planes 1-11) is called the sensuous realm; here
sense experience predominates. Next comes the fine-material realm
(12-27) attained by practicing the fine-material absorptions (rupa-jhanas).
Above that is the immaterial realm (28-31) attained by practicing the
immaterial absorptions (arupa-jhanas).
Although humans appear to be rather low on the scale, many
intelligent deities long for rebirth on the human plane. Why? Because
the best opportunity to practice the Dhamma and attain liberation is
right here on earth. On the lower four planes, little progress can be
made as suffering is gross and unrelenting and the opportunity to
perform deeds of merit is rarely gained. The very bliss of the higher
planes beclouds the universal characteristics of all phenomena:
impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and the lack of any lasting,
controlling self. And without fully comprehending these principles,
there is no motivation to develop the detachment from the world that
is essential to liberation.
Before examining the chart in detail, a few notes on terminology
are in order. We will use the word "deva" to include deva,
devata, and devaputta referred to in the Suttas, as all
three terms are almost synonymous. Although "deva" is often
used in the Pali texts to refer to all super-human beings, "deva"
and "brahma" can generally be distinguished. "Deva"
in its more limited sense refers to beings in the six planes
immediately above the human one (6-11), the sensuous heavens. When
"deva" refers specifically to these sense-sphere beings, the
term "brahma" is used for those residing in the
fine-material planes (12-27) and immaterial planes (28-31). If in a
particular discourse "deva" is used for a being who clearly
fits into the category of brahmas (as sometimes happens), we will call
him a brahma; if the deva is actually a sense-sphere being (or if his
identity is unclear) we will retain "deva." For variety, we
occasionally use "deity" and "god" as translations
for deva in all its senses.
Let us now study some features of the chart. The lower beings and
humans do not have fixed lifespans, but higher beings do. As you go up
the chart from the sixth plane to the thirty-first, each successive
group of deities lives longer than the group below it. The lifespans
of devas are measured in multiple centuries. The duration of a
brahma's existence can only be expressed in aeons. The Buddha defines
these extremely long periods of time by analogy. An aeon is the length
of time it would take to wear away a mountain of solid rock six miles
high and six miles wide, rubbing over it with a fine piece of muslin
once every hundred years. The highest brahmas of the immaterial sphere
live for 84,000 aeons.
All beings — human, sub-human, devas, and brahmas — die. All
except arahants are reborn in one or another of the thirty-one planes.
No being lasts forever. arahants have eradicated all mental
defilements and have thereby eliminated the causes for rebirth with
its attendant suffering. They are not reborn after death. Instead,
they attain Parinibbana, the complete, permanent cessation of every
form of existence. For all non-arahants, death is immediately followed
by rebirth. The plane of birth is determined by the kamma that becomes
operative at the moment of death. This could be any volition created
in the present life or in any previous existence. Even the three lower
kinds of noble ones (ariya) must be reborn. They have effaced
some of the mental defilements, are assured of eventually attaining
Nibbana, and will never again be reborn in the lower planes. Noble
ones of the two lower kinds — stream-enterers and once-returners —
can be reborn in the deva planes. For anyone who is not an ariya
— and this includes most devas and brahmas — the destination of
rebirth is uncertain. It may be on the same plane or on a higher one;
but most often it is on a lower plane. Rebirth is neither arbitrary
nor controlled by a God. It takes place strictly due to kamma, the
deeds we have performed and continue to perform all our lives. Brahmas
too die and are reborn, and also suffer, even though their lives are
so extremely long that they may be deluded into believing they are
permanent.1
The devas of the sensuous sphere are said to enjoy sense pleasures
in far greater abundance than can be found in the human world. Their
bodies emit light and they have subtle sense organs, similar to ours
but far more powerful and acute. That is why the supernormal powers of
seeing various realms and hearing at great distances are referred to
as deva vision and deva hearing. On the deva planes there are
stream-enterers and once-returners. For example, Sakka, king of the
gods in the heaven of the Thirty-three, became a stream-enterer while
discussing the Dhamma with the Buddha, as we will see below.2
However, only few among the devas have any understanding of the Dhamma.
In fact, all that is needed to be reborn in these heavens is the
meritorious kamma of generosity and good morality. Mental development
through meditation is not a prerequisite for rebirth on the higher
sensuous planes.
The fine-material brahmas have extremely subtle bodies of light;
their powers are great but not unlimited. A being is reborn among
these brahmas by cultivating the appropriate jhana, perfecting it, and
retaining it at the moment of death. Jhanas are states of deep
concentration that can be attained by unifying the mind through
meditation. They are all wholesome states of a very lofty and sublime
nature. But one can get "stuck internally" in any of the
jhanas and thereby block one's progress towards awakening.3
There are four fine-material jhanas. The beings in the brahma planes
spend most of their time enjoying their respective jhanas. Brahmas
experience no ill will or hatred, but only because they have
suppressed it by their jhana, not because they have uprooted it from
their mental continuum. Thus when a brahma is eventually reborn as a
deva or human being he or she can again be beset by hatred. (After one
birth as a deva or human, a former brahma can even fall to one of the
lower planes of the grossest suffering.) The brahmas also are prone to
conceit and belief in a permanent self, as well as to attachment to
the bliss of meditation. Fine-material brahmas can interact with the
human plane if they so choose, but to appear to humans they must, like
the devas, deliberately assume a grosser form.4
Later we will meet a number of brahmas who converse with the Buddha.
The immaterial brahmas of the four highest planes have no material
bodies whatsoever. They consist entirely of mind. They attained this
kind of birth by achieving and maintaining the immaterial jhanas, four
kinds of absorption taking non-material objects, and it is this kamma
that became operative at their death. These brahmas can have no
contact with the human or deva planes, for they have no physical
bodies; thus we will rarely mention them. They spend countless aeons
in the perfect equanimity of meditation until their lifespan ends.
Then they are reborn in the same plane, a higher immaterial plane, or
as devas. After that they too can be reborn on any plane at all. So
even existence without a body is not the way to permanently eliminate
suffering.
Only practicing the Noble Eightfold Path can bring suffering to an
end. In fact,
immaterial brahmas are in the unfortunate position of
being unable to start on the path. This is because one has to learn
the Dhamma from the Buddha or one of his disciples to attain the first
stage of awakening, to become a stream-enterer. That is why the sage
Asita, called by the Buddha's father to examine the newborn Bodhisatta,
wept after predicting that Prince Siddhattha would become a Buddha.
The sage knew he was going to die before the prince attained
Buddhahood. He had cultivated these immaterial absorptions so he would
have to be reborn in the immaterial realm and would thereby lose all
contact with the human plane. This meant he would not be able to
escape samsara under Gotama Buddha. He was sorely distressed to
realize that he would miss this rare opportunity to gain deliverance
and would have to remain in the round of rebirth until another Buddha
appears in the remote future. He could see into the future and thus
understood the precious opportunity a Buddha offers, but he could
neither postpone his death nor avoid rebirth into the immaterial
realm.
| Source: From Teacher of the Devas by Susan Elbaum Jootla. Copyright © 1997 Buddhist Publication Society
Access to Insight edition © 1999 For free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted, and redistributed in any medium. It is the author's wish, however, that any such republication and redistribution be made available to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and that translations and other derivative works be clearly marked as such. |
|
