Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu - Under the Bodhi Tree: Buddha’s Original Vision of Dependent Co-arising

A RENOWNED BUDDHIST MASTER DIGS INTO THE IDEA OF INTERDEPENDENCE THE VERY CORE OF THE BUDDHAS TEACHINGS

Under the Bodhi Tree takes us back to the principles at the heart of Buddhas teachings conditionality and dependent co-arising. Ajahn Buddhadsa Bhikkhu makes the case for dependent co-arising as a natural law, and builds a compelling presentation from there of Buddhist philosophy, meditation, and practice. Basing himself squarely on the Buddhas own words as preserved in the Pli Canon, he brings clarity and simplicity to what is typically a thorny philosophical knot. By returning dependent co-arising to its central place in Buddhist theory and practice, Ajahn Buddhadsa provides perspective on the Buddhas own insights and awakening.

Under the Bodhi Tree is another excellent entry from one of the most renowned Buddhist thinkers of modern times.

AJAHN BUDDHADSA BHIKKHU (190693) is perhaps the most influential Buddhist teacher in the history of Thailand. In 1932 he founded Suan Mokkhabalrma, the first modern forest monastery in Thailand. Since the 1960s his work has helped inspire a new generation of socially concerned individuals throughout the world. He is the author of Mindfulness with Breathing and Heartwood of the Bodhi Tree.

The Buddha, recently awakened, remained seated at the base of the Bodhi tree, near the bank of the Nerajar River, in the vicinity of Uruvel. The Splendid One occupied a single seat beneath the Bodhi tree for all of seven days savoring the joy of liberation.

At that time, the Splendid One reflected upon paiccasamuppda forward and backward throughout the first... middle... and final watches of the night... and uttered this verse:

Whenever dhammas manifest clearly

to a supreme one ardent in focused contemplation,

this excellency incinerates Mra and his armies

just as the rising sun vanquishes darkness.

Vin.i.1 (Mahvagga) and Udna 1:13
(Bodhi Suttas 13)

Translators Preface and Acknowledgments

Setting and Provenance

The morning bell sounds through the coconut palm grove containing Suan Mokkhs International Dhamma Hermitage at 4 a.m. Just inland from the Gulf of Siam, the climate is warm and tropical, though relatively cool so early in the day. The monthly meditation courses participants awake, dress, and assemble for a mile-long walk in the dark. As in many of the months between February 1986 and October 1991, Ajahn Buddhadsa will be speaking during this retreat. Many of those filing down the laterite road between marshes and mangroves, know little if anything about the octogenarian monk they are about to meet, though he is the founder of the Garden of Liberation, Suan Mokkh in Thai, where theyve come to learn about Buddhism and meditation. Perhaps a third of them are brand new to Buddhism, having stumbled into this retreat from beaches in southern Thailand. Responding to the hospitality of their Thai hosts and the kindness of the retreat guides, mostly Westerners like themselves, they good humoredly follow the program.

The line of meditators enters under the large trees of Suan Mokkh proper. By 5 a.m. they are seated on concrete benches outside a simple two-story building. An elderly, rotund monk slowly walks to his own seat with the aid of a cane, followed by a dog who seems to own the place. As he arranges his robes and legs, a skinny American monk takes a seat beside him. After clearing his throat, Ajahn Buddhadsa begins with a brief welcome and then launches into his topic. The American myself translates first sentence by sentence, then a few sentences at a time, and eventually minutes at a time. If the translator leaves anything out, Ajahn Buddhadsa repeats it. Occasionally, he interrupts the translation with a cough and correction. As the American monk has been translating like this for over two years he is only slightly discomfited by the corrections, grateful for the warning coughs.

Ajahn Buddhadsa is in no hurry, having over a week to work with. Assuming that his audience knows little about Buddhism and is therefore free of the preconceptions that many born-Buddhists carry, he lays a foundation of what Buddhism is and is not. Far more familiar with Western philosophy and literature than other Thai forest masters, he works around our assumptions about isms (ideologies), philosophies, and religion. Understanding religion in a way that fits with the Buddhas teaching rather than cramming Buddhism into Western categories, he explains what sort of religion Buddhism is. He even broaches the topic of God, although the American translator has informed him that few of this audience believe in the God Ajahn Buddhadsa has read about in The Bible and known from Muslim friends in southern Thailand. His two introductory talks conclude with the coolness and freedom that is the purpose of Buddhism.

In the third talk, he takes up his primary theme, dependent co-arising (paiccasamuppda). He explains how this unifying thread runs through all of the Buddhas teaching and points to its deepest insights through the remainder of the seven talks. Each talk lasts two hours, including translation. A few dogs wander in and out. Dawn rises about halfway through with roosters serenading. In the background, monks leave on almsround. At 7 a.m. the retreatants return to the International Dhamma Hermitage for breakfast, followed by a full day of meditation practice along with instruction in mindfulness with breathing (npnasati). Ajahn Buddhadsa liked to send them on their morning walk with advice such as Walk without a walker.

Dependent Co-arising in Buddhism

The Buddhas vast corpus of teaching is anchored by a handful of core insights and principles. He stated that his teaching is only concerned with distress, dissatisfaction, or suffering (dukkha) and its quenching (nirodha).

Friends, there are groups of wanderers and priests that misrepresent me with deceitful, empty, baseless, insincere words: The wanderer Gotama, who leads people astray to their ruin, lays out a creed of the vacancy, destruction, and nonexistence of beings.

These wanderers and priests misrepresent me with deceitful, empty, baseless, insincere words because I have never said such things. Youll never hear me saying such things.

In the past as well as now, friends

This core concern is investigated through the prism of a subtle understanding of conditionality (idappaccayat) that everything happens, changes, and ceases dependent on other things that share the same essenceless nature.

When this exists, this naturally exists;

due to the arising of this, this consequently arises.

When this does not exist, this naturally does not exist;

due to the quenching of this, this consequently is quenched.

When we view ourselves and our world this way more as processes than entities, as natural law we see the Dhamma, we see the Buddha.

One who sees dependent co-arising sees the Dhamma.

One who sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha.

Citing these statements of the Buddha, Ajahn Buddhadsa continually reminded and emphasized how dependent co-arising (paiccasamuppda) is the very core of Buddhas teaching. It provides the definitive perspective of the Buddhas insights and awakening. Realize dependent co-arising and one realizes the natural truth that sets life free. Consequently, whether informing foreigner visitors new to Buddhism or reminding Thais born into Buddhism, Ajahn Buddhadsa insisted that dependent co-arising is central to the Buddhas experience and teaching, and therefore to our own study and practice. Having taken these words to heart, Ajahn Buddhadsa endeavored to return dependent co-arising to a central place in Dhamma teaching and practice.