The Buddha�s explanations of his own personality are
recorded in the Tripitaka. The following quotations give
a lucid account of the Buddha who walked through the
length and breadth of Magadadesha (present Bihar State
and State of Uttar Pradesh, India).
He walked for 45 years from the age of 35, till the
Enlightenment to the Mahaparinibbana covering
approximately 93600 miles coverage 10 miles per day for
26 days.
Once the Buddha giving a self-introduction said, �I am
of Khattiya born into a Khattiya clan. My life span is
brief, one who lives longer could live a little longer
than a century. I attained Enlightenment under the Asahu
Bodhi. My Chief disciples are Sariputta and Moggallana.
I have had twelve hundred and fifty disciples all of
them are Arahants. My Chief attendant is Bhikku Ananda.
King Suddhodana was my father. Queen Mahamaya was the
mother that bore me. The royal capital was the city of
Kapilavasthu� (Digha Nikaya 14 condensed). (Note:
Kapilavasthu, is not Piprahwa, in Uttar Pradesh, India,
but Tilauracot, that�s the present name. 26 km north of
Lumbini both in Nepal, Terai).
The Blessed One said once: Bhikkhus, the world has been
discovered by the Perfect One, he has dissociated from
the world. The origin of the world has been discovered
by Him. He has abandoned the origin of the world. The
cessation of the world has been discovered and He has
realised the truth.
�In the world with its deities and others, whatever can
be seen, heard sensed and cognized or reached, sought
out and encompassed by the mind, has been discovered by
the Perfect One that is why He is called a Perfect One
(The Thathagatha). The Most Enlightened.
Once King Pasenadi of Kosala met the Buddha and having
paid his reverence Blessed One; said There is no monk or
brahaman who can claim to have complete knowledge and
vision as one who is omniscient and all seeing; that it
is not possible.� Lord, do those who say that, what is
been said by the Blessed One, not misrepresent the
Blessed One with what is not the fact, and legitimately
deducible from their assertions that would provide
grounds for condemning them? �Great King, those who say
that say what has not been said by me and misrepresent
me.�
�There is no monk or brahaman who knows all, sees all,
in one single moment� �What the Blessed One says appears
reasonable� (Majjhima Nikaya 90).
Once the Buddha explained of his own personality to the
assembly of bhikkhus the Blessed One said, �A Perfect
One has the power of ten Perfect Ones, possessing which
he claims the leader�s place in the herd, makes his
lion�s roar in the assemblies, and sets the matchless
Wheel of Brahma turning. What are these ten powers? A
Perfect One understands, accordingly as it actually is,
the possible as possible and the impossible as
impossible: He understands, accordingly as it actually
is, with its possibilities and reasons, the past, future
and present liability to ripening of actions that have
been effected; He understands likewise whither all ways
lead: He understands likewise the world with its many
elements and various elements; He understands likewise
the differing inclinations of beings; He understands
likewise the dispositions of the spiritual faculties in
other beings, other, persons; He understands likewise
the corruption, purification, and emergence, in the
meditations, liberations, concentrations, and
attainments. He recollects his manifold past; With the
divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human,
he sees beings passing away and reappearing. He
understands how beings pass on according to their
actions. By realising himself with direct knowledge he
here and now enters and abodes in the deliverance of
mind, and the deliverance by understanding that are
taintless with the exhaustion of taints� (Majjhima
Nikaya of Anguttara Nikaya 10:21)
Still on another occasion, the Blessed One explained his
personality as follows: �A Perfect One has four kinds of
perfect confidences (Vesarajja), possessing which he
claims taking leadership.� I see no sign that any monk
or brahaman or deity or Mara of Brahma in the world will
justly accuse me thus, by you who claim to be fully
enlightened, these things are still undiscovered� of
thus: �in you who claim to have exhausted taints (Klesa),
these taints are still not exhausted,� or thus: Those
things which are said by you to be obstructive to one
who practise them, or thus: �When your Dhamma is taught
for someone�s benefit, it does not lead to the complete
exhaustion of suffering (dukkha) in one who practises
it. �Seeing no sign of that, I dwell secure, unanxious
and fearless� (Majjhima Nikaya 12).
Again this was said by the Blessed One. �Two thoughts
often occur to a Perfect One, accomplished and fully
enlightened; The thought of harmlessness and the thought
of seclusion.
A Perfect One takes pleasure and delights in
non-affliction, and with it often occurs to him: By such
behaviour I afflict none, timid or bold.� A Perfect One
takes pleasure and delight in seclusion, and with that
it often occurs to him:� What is unwholesome (alusal)
had been abandoned� (Itivittaka 38).
At one time the Blessed One was on his way to Setavya;
and the brahaman Dona too was walking. Having seen the
footprints of the Buddha he then thought:� It is
wonderful, it is marvellous. Surely this can never be
the footprints of a human being�. The Blessed One had
left the road and was seated cross-legged, with his body
erect and mindfulness established before him, at the
root of a shady tree. Brahaman Dona approached him,
having reverenced, he asked the Buddha. �Sir, will you
be a god?� �No, brahaman�, �Sir will you be a heavenly
angel?� �No, brahaman.� �Sir, will you be a spirit?�
�No, brahaman� �Sir, will you be a human being?� �No,
brahaman�. �Then, Sir, what indeed will you be?�
The Blessed One, replied, �Brahaman, that taints (klesa)
by means of which, through my not having abandoned them,
I might be a god or a heavenly angel or a spirit or a
human being have been abandoned by me, cut off at the
root, made like a palm stump, done away with, and are no
more subject to future arising. Just as a blue or red or
white lotus is born in water, grows in water and stands
up above the water untouched by it, so too I, who was
born to this world and grew up in the world, have
transcended the world, and I live untouched by the
world. Remember me as the one who is Enlightened.� (Anguttara
Nikaya 4:36).
අමාවක
පුර අටවක
පසෙලාස්වක
අව
අටවක