The Awakened One

From the very beginning there were questions about the nature of the Buddha. Was he a god, a mere human teacher of morality or something else? Even today, many people mistakenly believe that the Buddha is the God of Buddhism or that he was just a teacher of philosophy like Socrates or that he is a transcendent savior like Jesus Christ. Even many Buddhists who are not familiar with the actual teachings of the Buddha as found in the sutras are likely to hold these same misconceptions. However, as this first passage will make clear, the Buddha did not see himself as definable in these or any other terms. The Brahmin Dona tried to discover if the Buddha was destined to become a deva (god), gandhabba (celestial musician), a yakkha (demon) or a human being. This was a polite way of asking about the Buddha’s present identity. The Buddha, however, denies that he will become anything, and identifies himself only as a buddha, an “Awakened One.”

On one occasion the Blessed One was walking on the highway between Ukkattha and Setavya. And it happened that the brahmin Dona was also walking along that road. Dona the brahmin saw on the footprints of the Blessed One the wheel marks with their thousand spokes, with rim and hub, perfect in every respect. Seeing these marks, he thought to himself: “It is truly wonderful, it is astonishing! These certainly cannot be the footprints of a human being.”

Meanwhile the Blessed One had left the highway and had sat down under a tree not far off, with legs crossed, keeping his body erect, having set up mindfulness before him. Then Dona the brahmin, following the Blessed One’s footprints, saw him seated under a tree, of pleasing appearance, inspiring confidence, with calm features and calm mind, in perfect composure and equipoise, controlled and restrained (like) a well-trained bull elephant.

Seeing the Blessed One, Dona approached him and said:

“Will your reverence become a deva?”

“No, brahmin, I shall not become a deva.”

“Then your reverence might become a gandhabba.”

“No, brahmin, I shall not become a gandhabba.”

“Then will your reverence become a yakkha?”

“No, brahmin, I shall not become a yakkha.”

“Then will your reverence become a human being?”

“No, brahmin, I shall not become a human being.”

“Now when I asked whether your reverence will become a deva or a gandhabba or a yakkha or a human being, you replied, ‘I shall not.’ What, then, will your reverence become?”

“Brahmin, those outflows whereby, if they were not abandoned, I might become a deva – these outflows are abandoned by me, cut off at the root, made barren like palm-tree stumps, obliterated so that they are no more subject to arise in the future.

“Just as, brahmin, a blue, red or white lotus, though born and grown in the water, rises up and stands unsoiled by the water, so, brahmin, though born and grown in the world, I have overcome the world and dwell unsoiled by the world. Consider me, O brahmin, a Buddha.” (Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, pp. 87 – 88)

 The title “Buddha”, as mentioned before, means “the awakened one” and that is the one essential quality that sets the Buddha apart from all other sentient beings. This story also refers to the thousand spoked wheels on the Buddha’s feet which were believed to be one of the thirty-two marks of a wheel rolling king or a buddha. A wheel rolling king is a divine emperor who is able to bring peace and justice to the entire world. A buddha, however, is one who changes the world by awakening himself and others to its true nature. In either case, they are said to bear these thirty-two marks so that they can be identified by those who know what to look for, such as the brahmins. Some of the thirty-two marks would strike people today as bizarre mutations, such as webbed hands and feet or hands which extend past the knees or the thousand spoked wheels on the soles of the feet. Others would perhaps inspire a sense of awe and wonder, such as a golden complexion which radiates light. Finally, there are marks like the tuft of curly hair growing between the eyebrows and the protuberance at the crown of the head which can be seen in most portraits or sculptures of the Buddha. In any case, these marks are a symbolic way of expressing the power and dignity of one who is able to change the entire world, either politically or spiritually. These marks, however, are still mere appearances and do not reveal the true character of the one who bears them. That is why Shakyamuni calls himself “Buddha”, because it is his awakening and not his physical appearance or form that really matters.

The Buddha also tells Dona that he has extinguished and cut off the “outflows”. What did the Buddha mean by this? The word “outflows” is actually a technical term in the Buddhist science of mind that refers to the mental defilements which lead to suffering. On the one hand, “outflows” refers to the tendency of the mind to flow out of itself in search of happiness and security. On the other hand, the deluded mind also allows outside influences to flow in and disturb the mind’s clarity and equilibrium. One of the most obvious forms of this occurs when someone craves some object, person or environment in the belief that satisfying their desires will bring lasting peace and happiness. Another form of outflow is when one seeks to become something that one is not, to realize some ideal image of oneself. Finally, there is the basic ignorance that does not recognize the contingent and impermanent nature of the self and all other phenomena and so makes the false assumption that there is a fixed, permanent and independent self in the first place. Sometimes the false views and beliefs that one clings to in order to support these mistaken desires, ideals and assumptions is also counted as a form of mental defilement. As we shall see when we go deeper into the Buddha’s teachings, the whole point of Buddhist teaching and practice is to uncover and uproot these defilements which are the sources of suffering. In this passage, however, what is important is that the Buddha is saying that he no longer feels the need to seek his happiness outside of himself, nor does he need to a seek out or assert a specific identity for himself. Though supremely self-aware, the Buddha also realizes that there is no real self to be aware of, therefore he denies that he is or will become anything human or supernatural. In other words, because he has woken up to the fact that there is no static or independent self to be defined, he now only refers to himself as one who is awake, a buddha.