Ananda

[Samadhi]

All the directions are obscure,

The teachings are not clear to me;

With our benevolent friend gone,

It seems as if all is darkness.

For one whose friend has passed away,

One whose teacher is gone for good,

There is no friend that can compare

With mindfulness of the body.

The old ones have all passed away;

I do not fit in with the new.

And so today I muse alone

Like a bird who has gone to roost.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These mournful words were uttered by Ananda in the Theragatha, and reveal a very human side of one of the canon's most sensitive characters.

Ananda was the Buddha's cousin and personal attendant, and was always to be found at the master's side throughout the many years of wandering and teaching. As Ananda put it: "For twenty five years I served the Lord with loving deeds, loving words and loving thoughts — when the Buddha paced to and fro, I paced along behind."

It is Ananda who washed his feet at the end of the day, who arranged his interviews and protected his solitude as best he could, and who tended him lovingly during his final illness. It is Ananda also who we find weeping bitterly at the passing away of the Buddha, and being gently admonished for it by the teacher of non-attachment to changing phenomena.

After the Buddha's final passing Ananda seems to have been treated somewhat badly by some of the other monks, who were jealous of his close relationship with the master. Poems like this one suggest that Ananda passed a lonely old age and never ceased mourning for his beloved teacher and friend.

-from Access To Insight-

[Fawzo]

This post is an interesting coincidence.

Last night I was reading about the differences between being a disciple or student and about having knowledge of Buddhism or actually living it.

One can study Buddhism and its precepts for years but if one does not live those precepts one does not then actually "know" them. This is the advantage of being a disciple instead of just a student of Buddhism.

A student sits and learns the lessons but many will be hard to live because they are contrary to the ego nature that is ingrained in the student. A disciple on the other hand gets hands on training from the Master who lives the precepts. Living side by side with the Master he begins to live the precepts until the day comes when the disciple is ready and the "knowing" passes from Master to disciple quite easily.

I think this is the main stumbling block in my living the precepts. I have knowledge of them but I do not "know" them in my being else I would live them.

He surely missed someone he shared a great deal of bliss with and someone who was irreplaceable.

[JimBob]

Yep. Attachment is a double-edged sword.

And I agree with Fawzo's assessment. To be knowledable of the Way but not live according to the Way is nothing more than a waste of one's time and a portion of one's life.

Peace & Love!