2021-05-17 Sutta Stories - The Preservation of Truth
IInsight Meditation CenterMay 17, 2021 at 2:56 pm16min
GGil Fronsdal
00:02For this week's dharmettes I would like to continue with the idea of stories. This time to tell the stories of the Buddha from the suttas, the ancient literature that we have in our tradition. They purport to be the direct records of the Buddha. Not some of the common stories that are often told about the Buddha. Rather some of the ones that contain some wonderful teachings. Some of these stories are not great stories. But they are stories that contextualize the teachings and can help them to stand out in highlight.
GGil Fronsdal
00:52The first one is a discourse (the ancient word for discourse is "sutta") called the Caṅkī Sutta. It is usually spelled in English "Canki." It is number 95 in the "Middle Length Discourses." I am particularly fond of this sutta. When I teach courses on the suttas themselves, these ancient discourses, especially when I teach courses on the Middle Length Discourses, I like to start with this one. The reason for this is this story pivots on (therefore the most important part of the text) a teaching the Buddha gives on the preservation of truth.
GGil Fronsdal
01:46How do we preserve the truth? To offer that at the beginning of study of the ancient teachings addresses: "How do we study these texts and preserve the truth as we do it, stay truthful in a certain way?" Not to accept the teachings naively. Not to accept them as true because that is what is in the text. How do we relate to these teachings, if we do not have our own direct experience of them? How do we talk about it? The preservation of truth.
GGil Fronsdal
02:22The story has to do with brahmins visiting the Buddha. Represented in this text is a bit of the tension, in ancient India, between the brahmin caste and the warrior or noble caste, the "kṣatriya" (Skt) or "khattiya" (Pali) caste that the Buddha came from. India was a very hierarchical culture. Everything was stratified according to hierarchies. There was vying for top position among the brahmin class and the warrior/noble class. Some of the brahmin priests, the priests of the Brahmanical religions, were phenomenally wealthy and controlled lots of territory. And the warrior/noble class, who were often the rulers.
GGil Fronsdal
03:26In this text the Buddha is camped out near a town where there is a brahmin, Caṅkī, who was phenomenally wealthy. He has been given land – like a medieval lord who was given by the king a whole territory to be his own. The wealth of it was his. The people in it were working for him. He was also very learned in the Brahmanical lore. One day he learns that the other brahmins in his town have heard a good report about the Buddha. He is supposed to be a wonderful teacher. And they all decide to go visit the Buddha and hear his teachings.
GGil Fronsdal
04:25However, there is a group of other brahmins, 500 it says, visiting the town from other places. They get upset that Caṅkī, this ruler of the territory, this great brahmin, is going to go visit the Buddha. They say, "It is inappropriate for you to visit the Buddha, because you are so wonderful." And they go through all the ways in which he is wonderful. "The Buddha should come see you, because you are so elevated. You shouldn't go to the Buddha." The brahmin Caṅkī says, "Oh, no, no. The Buddha is actually more wonderful." He lists all the special qualities of the Buddha to argue: "Yes, it is appropriate for me to go see the Buddha, not for the Buddha to come to me." So they all go to see the Buddha.
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