PRESENTED TO THE BUDDHA CENTER ON MONDAY, FEB. 16, 2015 AND AGAIN TO THE NEW BUDDHA CENTRE ON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2024 (REVISED).

The Discourse to Janavasabha

Digha Nikaya 18

Country: Vajji

Locale: Brick House in Nadika

Speakers: Ananda, the Buddha, Janavasabha

Date of Composition: 4th to 3rd cent. BCE

The Buddha is staying at the Brick House in Nadika, where he also stayed in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta.  The Buddha divines the rebirths of many people in that community. This discourse elaborates that story, as the previous discourse elaborated Ananda’s objection to the Buddha dying near Kusinara. The Buddha does not mention the Magadhans initially. Ananda points this out as a defect, since many Maghadans are Buddhist, including King Bimbisara, recently killed by his son, Ajatasattu. Ananda also notes that the Buddha became enlightened in Magadha, at Bodh Gaya. The ability to discern the karmic fate of individuals is the ninth power of a buddha, called the Divine Eye.

After completing his alms round, perhaps late in the morning or just after noon, the Buddha sits down to meditate in the Brick House and undertakes to divine the future lot and destiny of the Magadhans as Ananda requested, including King Bimbisara. In the early evening, when the sun is still able to cast a shadow, the Buddha comes out and sits in the shade. Ananda comes to him and notes that his face is “bright and shining,” a characteristic that is associated in other suttas with spiritual purity. Here Ananda associates it with the Buddha’s mind being tranquil.

The Buddha tells him that during his meditation he heard the voice of a yaksha, a class of nature spirit that guards natural treasures hidden in the earth and tree roots. There are two kinds of yaksha. This one is a nature fairy, associated with woods and mountains. (A darker version is a kind of ghost that haunts wilderness areas and waylays and devours travellers.) In Buddhist cosmology, they attend Vessavana, the Guardian of the North, in the realm of the Four Great Kings, next above our own world.

The yaksha identifies himself as Janavasabha. Afterward, the Buddha asks Ananda if he knows of him. Although Ananda does not, for some reason the name excites in him both fear and respect. The yaksha appears before the Buddha, in what is termed a “noble vision,” and identifies himself as the dead King Bimbisara. He tells the Buddha that this is his seventh rebirth in the realm of the Four Great Kings, as a king and messenger of the Guardian of the North. Interestingly, Bimbisara/Janavasabha mentions that he can recall fourteen rebirths. Thus, though divine beings typically recall their past lives, such recall is apparently limited, presumably according to their spiritual development, corresponding to their station in the divine worlds. People only rarely recall their past lives.

Bimbisara/Janavasabha identifies himself to the Buddha as a stream entrant, and tells the Buddha that he desires to become a “once-returner.” A once-returner has only one human rebirth remaining before achieving emancipation. The Buddha expresses astonishment at Bimbisara/Janavasabha’s claim: On what grounds can he know of such an attainment? Bimbisara/Janavasabha says that it is by the Buddha’s teaching that he knows, referring perhaps to the Mirror of Dharma practice described in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, whereby one knows that one has entered the stream. The stream entrant is free from all future states of woe and subhuman rebirths by having stricken off the three fetters of belief in a self; belief in rites, rituals, and codes of ethics; uncaused salvation; and doubt.

Bimbisara proceeds to tell the Buddha the story of an assembly of the divine beings in the realm of the Thirty-Three on the full moon day of the rainy season, probably in July, “in earlier times.” Seated in the Sudhamma Hall (‘Hall of Good Counsel’), including many other divine beings and beings of the realm of the Four Great Kings and 2,400 divine beings who were Magadhan followers of the Buddha of that time. The faces of the divine beings that were followers of the Buddha were brighter than the rest, causing the thirty-three to rejoice that the ranks of the divine beings are increasing while the ranks of the anti-gods are decreasing.

THE WAR OF THE GODS

To unpack the reference to the divine beings and the anti-gods, we must examine the war between them. The anti-gods initially inhabited the realm of the Thirty-Three, the polar centre of the physical universe. However, the divine beings expelled them long ago due to their competitive and desirous nature—a story echoed in the Judaic legend of the fall, told from the perspective of the victors. The chief of this realm, Sakra, a Buddhist variation of the Hindu god Indra, led the expulsion. Despite this, the realm of the Thirty-Three is still a beneficent dimension. Its inhabitants are also involved in human affairs.

This realm resembles the “heaven” of the Judaic tradition, while one might compare the realm of the anti-gods to “hell.” Many ancient peoples believed that gods and supernatural beings dwell invisibly among us but can assume physical form when it suits them, a belief which gave rise to the custom of hospitality.

While humans live on the four great continents surrounding Mount Meru, the anti-gods inhabit the ocean encircling its base. Early interpreters (erroneously) interpreted the term asura as “non-sura,” meaning not a sura, or a divine being. The word deva means “celestial dweller” or “star.” Translators often describe the anti-gods as Titans, demigods, or demons, marked by a nature dominated by passions such as wrath, pride, envy, and bellicosity, despite their spiritual status. Ego, force, and violence rule them. Some anti-gods are actually malevolent, while others exhibit a surprising degree of spiritual awareness.

Like all six classes of sentient beings in Buddhist cosmology, anti-gods can be reborn as humans, and humans may be reborn as anti-gods. Since both humans and anti-gods inhabit the same plane—the one world ocean surrounding Mount Meru, separated only by a thin veil—there is considerable friction between them. The anti-gods enjoy a more pleasurable existence than humans enjoy but envy of the spiritual beings plagues them.

The origins of the anti-gods lie in the higher realms of the Buddhist cosmic hierarchy. They once inhabited the realm of the Thirty-Three at the peak of Mount Meru but were cast down due to their drunkenness, thus setting the stage for the ongoing conflict between the anti-gods and the devas. Humans become embroiled in this conflict as well.

Anti-gods perceive divine beings in much the same way that humans and animals perceive each other. While humans and animals tend to perceive one another consistently, humans perceive divine beings and anti-gods only rarely. The anti-gods are often confused with hell beings, though they are not always evil. In the Rig Veda (1500–1000 BCE), the anti-gods were considered a type of divine being, such as Asura Varuna, the god of the celestial ocean, law, and order, as well as nature. The term asura was originally associated with individual devas, not a distinct class of beings. It was only during the late Vedic period (1000–500 BCE) that anti-gods became a separate class of spiritual being.

Initially, the anti-gods were older, stronger, and beneficent siblings of the divine beings. However, during the later Vedic period, a conflict arose between the anti-gods and the divine beings, with the anti-gods often emerging victorious. The Bhagavad Gita paints the anti-gods as proud, arrogant, angry, harsh, and ignorant—traits that mirror a growing tension between the older, dominant cult of asura worship and the emerging cult of deva worship.

The anti-gods were non-anthropomorphic and formless gods, in contrast to the more anthropomorphic devas. They guarded the natural and moral laws of the cosmic order, comparable to the Buddhist concepts of dharma and karma. The deva worshippers, on the other hand, were concerned with power, might, fear, submission, and the status quo. Interestingly, it was during this late Vedic period that women were stripped of their traditional rights and relegated to the status of chattel—a shift the Buddha opposed, though it was reinstated after his passing by the arhants of the First Buddhist Council around 400 BCE.

This schism between the followers of the older anti-god tradition and the newer deva worshippers corresponds to a broader social divide in the late Vedic period, culminating in the renunciant counterculture of the fifth and sixth centuries BCE. The conflict between the asuras and devas reflects a deeper cosmic struggle, which is mirrored in later religions like Zoroastrianism and Christianity. In the Iranian tradition, the anti-gods, particularly Asura (Ahura) Mazda, the personification of wisdom, retained their privileged status, while they demonized the divine beings —a reversal of the story told in Hindu and Buddhist texts, though remarkably similar to the Hebrew myth of the fallen angels.

Many names of the anti-gods refer to natural abstractions, as seen in Native American spiritualism and the Indus Valley civilization. A new cult of deva worship rose during the late Vedic period, casting the anti-gods as demonic and persecuting the older asura worshippers. The new deva worshippers supported the Brahmanic caste system and were often misogynistic. This division is mythologized in the historical conflict between the two groups, with the deva worshippers achieving pre-eminence in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent, while the asura worshippers held on to their prestige in the west, interestingly, eventually forming the foundation of Zoroastrianism in Iran, with Ahura Mazda at its head.

An epic mythic war between the two classes of deities marked this period. The divine beings cast the anti-gods, associated with vast cosmic and natural powers, down into the cosmic ocean. There, they, along with the divine beings, churn the soma (amrita), the divine nectar of timelessness. There is clearly much more to unpack here.

If we identify the divine beings of the Thirty-Three with the force of negentropy, the tendency to order, and the realm of the anti-gods with the force of entropy, the tendency to disorder or chaos, we see that the war of the divine beings and the anti-gods is a metaphor for the dualistic dynamic of the universe, raging between energy-information-negentropy and matter-ignorance-entropy. Thus, the teaching represents the action of the negentropic principle in a universe ruled by entropy. R. Buckminster Fuller might be the first modern to recognize that humans, in fact, fulfill a natural negentropic function in the universe.

THE ASSEMBLY OF THE DEVAS

In the course of their deliberations, a light appears in the north. Sakra declares, “when such signs are seen, such light is seen and such radiance shines forth, Brahma will appear.”  This association of the imminent appearance of the chief of the Brahma worlds with unpredictable luminous phenomena is familiar. Reminiscent of the near-death experience (NDE), all of the devas declare, “Let us find out what comes of this radiance, and having found the truth of it, we will go towards it.”  Kumara also means ‘gold,’ and the discourse says that he outshone the divine beings as a gold statue outshines the human figure.

The Brahma Sanat Kumara appears before the Assembly of the Thirty-Three. His name means ‘Eternal Child.’ In himself, Sanat Kumara is imperceptible but, by assuming a material form, he is able to appear to the Assembly. Brilliant to behold, he outshines all of the other divine beings and encourages them to follow the Buddha’s teaching.

The form that Sanat Kumara assumes is that of Pancasikha, a male youth beloved of the gods, floating cross-legged in the air, who praises the Buddha and the teaching. Since no one offers him a seat, he multiplies himself into thirty-three duplicates of his physical form, each of which sits down on the seat of each of the Thirty-Three Gods. That is, each god assumes the god-form of Sanat Kumara/Pancasikha. He declares that those who take refuge in the Three Jewels and follow the precepts will be re-born in one of the realms of the World of Sense Desires but no lower than the Four Great Kings. This is unusual in that other discourses declare that human rebirth is the best for an aspirant, but perhaps that this is included is implicit in the fact that he is a stream entrant. The voice of Brahma is distinct, intelligible, pleasant, attractive, succinct, concise, deep, and resonant. Each of the thirty-three divine beings, on whose seats Sanat Kumara is sitting, feels that he speaks to them alone.

THE FOUR ROADS TO POWER

Sanat Kumara reunifies his form and sits on the seat of Sakra. He declares that the Buddha has discovered the Four Roads to Power. These consist of four practices:

1. Concentration of Intention;
2. Concentration of Energy;
3. Concentration of Consciousness; and
4. Concentration of Inquiry.

An effort of will accompanies each of these practices. Sanat Kumara presents this practice as the universal key to realization practised by all ascetics and Brahmans of the past, present, and future. Thus, here we have in this discourse a declaration of the essential key of dharma practice. Moreover, these practices include the development of psychic powers in addition to realization. Here we see another sign of a proto-tantric element in the Pali Canon.

THE THREE GATEWAYS TO BLISS

He declares the three gateways to the bliss of a Buddha:

• Disassociation from sense desires and unwholesome conditions;
• Allaying the gross tendencies of body, speech, and mind; and
• Knowing what is right and wrong, based on the Law of Karma.

The three gateways to bliss develop gladness and knowledge.

THE FOUR FOUNDATIONS OF AWARENESS

He declares the Four Foundations of Awareness, in which one contemplates:

• Body as body;
• Feelings as feelings;
• Mind as mind; and
• Mind-objects as mind-objects.

The Four Foundations of Awareness develop concentration, calm, serenity, knowledge, and vision.

THE SEVEN REQUISITES OF CONCENTRATION

He declares the Seven Requisites of Concentration:

1. Right View;
2. Right Thought;
3. Right Speech;
4. Right Action;
5. Right Livelihood;
6. Right Effort; and
7. Right Awareness.

The similarity to the Noble Eightfold Path is obvious.  A question that arises with respect to the Noble Eightfold Path is the significance of the numbered sequence as a sequence, i.e., do the tasks corresponding to the “limbs” of the Noble Eightfold Path represent a gradual path?  This contrasts with the Threefold Division, attributed to the nun Dhammadinna, which seems to imply a different order from the Noble Eightfold Path. I would note the strong emphasis on the sequence of the Seven Requisites for Concentration, which clearly correspond to the stages of the Noble Eightfold Path.  Each requisite establishes the necessary basis for the next, so the requisites are clearly in order, confirming Peter Masefield’s hypothesis that the proper sequence of the Threefold Division is Wisdom, Morality, and Meditation, culminating in the higher concentration, gnosis, and liberation.  From Right Awareness arise Right Concentration, Right Knowledge, and Right Liberation, corresponding to the eighth limb of the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Concentration. The Seven Requisites of Concentration give us greater insight into the structure of the Noble Eightfold Path.

He declares that the teaching is timeless, capable of rational apprehension and analysis by each individual for themselves, and progressive. He reiterates a continuous refrain of the Pali Canon, “Open are the doors of the Deathless” (aparuta amatassa dvara’ti), which decisively negates any notion that the Buddha taught anything less than personal immortality: “For indeed, my Lords, the Dhamma is well-proclaimed by the Lord, visible here and now, timeless, inviting inspection, leading onward, to be comprehended by the wise, each one for him or herself, and, too, the doors to the Deathless are open.”  Access to the doors to the Deathless seems to be non-gender-specific and evolutionary.

Finally, Sanat Kumara affirms the doctrine of the Buddha lineage, that buddhas arose in the past and will arise again in the future.

CONCLUSION

Unlike most discourses in the Pali Canon, this discourse is an explicit spirit teaching, like similar productions in Tibetan Buddhist and Taoist traditions. Sanat Kumara transmits the teaching to the thirty-three divine beings, who transmit it to Vessavana, who relates it to his followers, including Janavasabha. Janavasabha is King Bimbisara of Magadha, reborn as a king in the realm of the Four Great Kings. Janavasabha, noticing (to a higher dimensional being, the minds of people are open books) what the Buddha is thinking about (i.e., the future rebirths of the Magadhans, including King Bimbisara), he transmits it to the Buddha, who confirms its coherence with his own realization and transmits it to Ananda. Ananda transmits it to the male and female monastics and lay followers or householders, emphasizing the inclusion of both genders. Clearly, the concept of initiatory transmission is implied, which we also find in later traditions of the tantric type especially but also in Zen.

The end of the discourse is also unique. Most discourses end with the phrase “Thus the Lord spoke” or an utterance or an incident, often a conversion, an awakening, or a summary poem. The Janavasabha Sutta ends with the words, “And so the holy life waxed mighty and prospered and spread widely as it was proclaimed among mankind.”  One expects this sort of revelatory tone from a communication of this type. This discourse is further confirmation of a proto-tantric thread in the Pali Canon, and is also an anticipation of the Mahayana.

Buddha Centre, Saturday, November 30, 2024.

Reference

Audiopedia (accessed 2014, Nov. 29). Magadha. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaLS5JwIaE0&list=PLIlnX5XqpaLTTYyIK7NDQ4RWDcHaeZ-QZ&index=2