Hymn of victory, middle path and Buddha nature
By Ashok Vohra
According to Buddhist tradition, soon after Gautam realised that human life is fraught with pain and suffering, he embarked on a 'noble quest' to find a method to permanently end human misery. Many scholars uphold that his quest was a 'metaphysical and psychological adventure'.
During these six years, Buddha had discussions with various teachers, performed several ascetic practices, penances, and meditations of numerous types. He thought in a deep, serious, and sustained manner on notions of truth and reality, human condition and destiny. He ultimately became enlightened.
Till he passed away, he taught at different times, in different ways, to suit intellectual levels, capacities, and needs of those who sought refuge in him. Buddha's utterances and sermons can be classified into three periods. First, the words he spoke, remaining silent for forty-nine days after he attained enlightenment. Second, his first preaching or sermon, called Dhammacakkappavattana – setting in motion of the wheel of Dhamma, delivered in the Deer Park to his former companions in modern Sarnath. Third, his last teaching in a shaalavana in Kushinagar.
Buddha's first utterance, after he became enlightened, is called the 'hymn of victory'. Dhammajoti translates it thus: 'My mind has attained nibbana, the unconditioned; it has attained end of craving.' Explaining the hymn, DT Suzuki says Buddha asserts that his mind 'is released from its binding conditions and his craving is under control'.
In his first sermon, Buddha 'teaches righteousness by the middle path, avoiding two extremes, on one side, the extreme of wallowing in vulgar sensual pleasures and unbridled gratification of desires and on the other side, extreme of asceticism which mortifies the mind and body'.
In his last sermon, Buddha asserted, 'All beings possess a Buddha Nature.' The Buddha nature is nitya, permanent; dhruva, steadfast; shiva, calm; shashvat, eternal. It is parama sacca, parishuddhi, and paramakushala – supreme truth, purity, and good. It is absolute and immanent in all. Buddha nature is a transcendental consciousness, beyond space, time and causation. It is perfection and happiness, infinite and luminous, transcendentally real, eternal and pure. However, the pure Buddha nature is accidentally defiled. To realise that true Buddha nature is unintentionally defiled is to be in a state of nirvana.
The last words of Buddha were, 'All composite things are perishable by nature; strive diligently.' He asserted that 'whatever is phenomenal is impermanent; this is the dharm of birth and death. Annihilation of birth and death brings bliss in nirvana.'Nirvana is such an expansion of the mind in which the mind becomes vimariyadikatena cetasa, boundless, in which there would be no strivings and selfishness. It is infinite consciousness. By preaching the universal presence of Buddha nature, Buddha opened the gates of immortality to all.
Buddhism is not based on pure logic or rationality, tradition, hearsay, revelation from God, a mysterious source, or an external person; rather, it is based on the personal endeavour and awakened understanding of Gautam, the Buddha, through shila, samadhi, and prajna.
The Buddha is not a mere human being, and he is also not God, but an enlightened being who attained transcendence.
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