Originally posted by sinweiy:
From a Teaching by Surya Das:
One of my favorite stories is
about the Arhat Chunda. He was quite stupid. When his brother
became a monk, Chunda just wanted to do what his brother did. So he
went to Ananda, Buddha's attendant. But holy Ananda said, "Sorry.
You're too stupid." Ananda thought this kid was too stupid to
become a monk because he couldn't remember the rules, the chants,
the teachings. So the elder brother and his stupid little brother
went to the Buddha, for the Buddha was extremely wise, kind, and
compassionate. He scanned the past lives of this young, stupid boy,
Chunda. He saw in there one tiny root of merit that could help him
get enlightened. He said it didn't matter how dull-minded he was.
It didn't matter that he couldn't memorize anything. It didn't
matter if he could remember even one rule. The Buddha said to
Ananda, "Ananda, you're not the Buddha, so you couldn't see that
this kid can get enlightened. But I'm the Buddha and I'm going to
ordain him because he can get enlightened. He has one good root of
merit from a past life. He can do it, too. Watch over this little
child." (This story always brings tears to my eyes.)
So Buddha ordained the kid. The kid couldn't remember even one
rule, or how to wear his robes. You know, it's complicated to be a
monk. All the monks were studying and memorizing. There were a lot
of teachings. There were 253 rules of monastic ordination. But the
stupid, youthful Chunda couldn't remember anything.
Finally, the brethren gave him the job of cleaning off the sandals
of the monks. Chunda cleaned the sandals while the other monks were
getting teachings. Since there weren't any books in those days,
2500 years ago in India, nothing was written down; the monks had to
memorize the teachings. Chunda wanted to practice like the other
monks, and get this enlightenment thing he heard about every day.
So he asked the Buddha how he could get this enlightenment thing.
The Buddha said, "When you're scraping mud and sweeping the floors,
just think, 'Now I am purifying all the obscurations of the mind.'"
So he gave him a little two-line verse. "With each cleaning of the
sandals, I am cleaning off the obscurations of the shining, perfect
mind." The Buddha asked him to repeat it. He repeated it. The
Buddha said, "Can you remember that?" He said, "Yes."
Then dumb Chunda went out and tried to repeat the verse. "With each
scraping of the dirt, I am cleaning..." And he couldn't remember
it. But he had good karma and had gentle Ananda around to remind
him of the verse. Still, Chunda forgot again. Then Sariputra the
learned came out, and Chunda asked him to remind him. Finally, the
Buddha came back and said to Chunda, "Are you cleaning the
sandals?" He said, "Yes." Buddha asked, "Are you cleaning the dust
off the floor?" Chunda said, "Yes." And Buddha asked, "Have you
cleaned the obscurations off the shining, perfect mind?" Suddenly
Chunda was enlightened! He realized that the sandals with the dirt
are still the sandals. The floor even with the dust is still the
floor. Everything is just as it is. He became an arhat, a fully
liberated sage.
In those days, wherever the Buddha went, the people would always
try to serve lunch, the main meal of the day, to him and the
arhats. They thought if they gave Buddha lunch they would get the
most merit, and if they gave the arhats lunch they would get almost
as much merit. But if they couldn't catch any arhats, they would
feed the ordinary monks and get a little less merit. Everyone knew
how stupid Chunda was, and they didn't believe he was an
enlightened arhat. But wherever Buddha went, he saved a seat for
Chunda, because he said he was the purest-minded, least proud
arhat. Purest-minded because he didn't know anything. And least
proud because he was so simple, so humble, so undemanding and easy
to be with.
Unfortunately, we are not that stupid. We know too much. Or should
I say, we think so much, we know so little. If we could just be
ourselves, and take the path that is genuinely for us, it would be
so easy. Imagine if Chunda was trying to become a Buddhist scholar,
he never would have gotten enlightened. But he was content to clean
the monks' shoes because he loved his brother and Buddha and the
other monks. And it had to be done, so he did it. And he had a
little teaching, a little verse that fit into that. That's why
Thich Nhat Hanh gives everybody a little verse. He has a little
verse for eating, for waking up, for toilet, for going to sleep,
because one little verse can be enough to fully awaken you to the
fullness and richness of the present moment.
[b]Spiritual life has nothing to do with how smart you are. In
fact, being smart can be an obstacle. You can become proud and have
more clutter in your brain.
/\[/b]
I remembered the story about Cunda too. Yes, I agree that being
smart does not necessarily guarantee success in spiritual
awakening. However, the fact is most of us are educated to some
extent and we live in a world which emphasises intelligence,
creativity and world-savvyness.
We can't possibly expect all who are said to be thinking too much
to regress to Cunda's very, very simple way of thinking, for we are
not Cunda, and Cunda is not us.
We know so little but think too much because of many reasons. The
easiest way to explain is that we have not accumulated any
spiritual wisdom in our past lives, hence even when we come across
the Dharma now, we are still full of doubts.
Among Buddha's many disciples, not all become Arahats. Those that
do is because their spirtual wisdom accumulated from previous lives
has ripened and the Buddha merely knew what and when to say to each
of them to give them a push in the right direction.
Most however, could achieve 1st stage of sainthood, with or without
the Buddha personally teaching them any verse. They heard the
Buddha's verse from others and they just understood the Way on
their own after spending some time in cultivation.
We have heard so many Buddha's verses, but does anybody know anyone
who has attained the 1st stage of sainthood? Anyway, how does one
know, whether the person has attained it unless he/she comes before
an Arahant or a Buddha who is the best person to judge?
Does merely having a peaceful appearance and doing good deeds like
any Buddhist or Venerable would do means that you have attained
sainthood or Arahanthood?
Buddhism isn't about doing good deeds alone, it's about aiming to
be liberated from countless rebirths. That truly marks the primary
aim of Buddhism. If not, every religion teaches you to do good, why
should a free-thinker want to learn more about Buddhism?
