II: The Rare Appearance of a Buddha – 39
intervening period between the lifetimes of two Buddhas. An omniscient
Buddha realises for himself the four noble truths without guidance and has the
ability to teach and make others understand them.
An Independent Buddha also realises the four noble truths on his own, but he is
in no way able to teach and make others understand them. Having realised
(
paṭivedha
)
25
the paths, fruitions and Nibbāna, he is unable to recount his
personal experiences of these attainments because he lacks an appropriate
terminology for these supermundane doctrines. Therefore, an Independent
Buddha’s knowledge of the four truths (
Dhammābhisamaya
)
26
is compared by
the commentators to a dumb person’s dream or an ignorant peasant’s experience
of a city life for which he has no words to describe it. Independent Buddhas
(
tārita
) are thus those who have gone across Saṁsāra on their own, but who are
in no position to help others cross.
Independent Buddhas may bestow monkhood on those who wish to become
monks, and they may give them training in special practices of the holy life
(
ābhisamācārika
)
27
thus: “In this calm manner, you should step forward, step
backward, you should see, you should say,”
[20]
and so on; but they are not able
to teach them how to differentiate between mind and matter (
nāma-rūpa
), and
how to view them in terms of their characteristics, namely, impermanence,
suffering and non-self, etc. so that they may reach the stage of realisation of the
paths and fruitions.
28
Noble disciples who have been helped across the ocean of Saṁsāra and have
been saved by omniscient Buddhas are called those who were helped across
(
tarita
). To illustrate, Upatissa, the wandering ascetic, who was to become Ven.
Sāriputta, became established in the path and fruition of Stream-entry (
Sotāpatti
)
25
Paṭivedha
, literally, penetration. It is one of the three aspects of the Buddha’s teaching,
the first two being learning (
pariyatti
) and practice (
paṭipatti
).
26
Dhammābhisamaya
, literally, truth-realisation, which according to the commentaries
means penetration of the four noble truths.
27
Ābhisamācārika
, “belonging to the practice of the lesser ethics,” according to PED;
“the minor precepts,” according to CPD.
28
The next paragraph in the original text deals with the Observance Day services
observed by Paccekabuddhas. This account is too technical for lay readers, and we
have thus omitted it from our translation.