48 CHAPTER TWOafter his Awakening-establishing the religion on a firm foothold-so there
was no reason for him to further prolong his life. Nevertheless, the monks
who convened at the First Council (see Section 3.1) decided that it was
Ananda's fault for not taking the hint and asking the Buddha to live on.
The night after he relinquished his will to live, the Buddha is reported to
have called a meeting of the monks, at which he listed the essential teachings
in the message he had been promulgating for the previous 45 years. This list
has come to be named the bodhipakHa-dharma (Wings to Awakening) and is
common to all schools of Buddhism. It consists of seven sets of dharmas: (1)
the four foundations of mindfulness, (2) the four right exertions, (3) the four
bases of attainment, (4) the. five strengths, (5) the five faculties, (6) the seven
factors of Awakening, and (7) the Noble Eightfold Path. Set 1 is identical with
right mindfulness, set 2 with right effort, and we have already discussed set 7
in detail. Set 3 concerns types of concentration: based on desire, based on
vigor, based on attention, and based on discrimination. Sets 4 and 5 are iden-
tical: conviction, vigor, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. Set 6 is
mindfulness, analysis of mental qualities. (which the texts equate with discern-
ment), vigor, rapture, serenity, concentration, and equanimity. There is an ob-
vious overlap among the sets, and as the early texts explain, the full practice of
any one set involves the practice of the others as well. What is striking about
the sets is that they contain no tenets about the nature of reality or the cos-
mos. Rather, they deal entirely with the development of mental qualities. The
Buddha seemed confident that whoever develops these qualities, focuses them
on the present with reference to the foundations of mindfulness, and catego-
rizes what is experienced in terms of the Four Noble Truths is sure to come
to the same realizations that he did. Thus he felt no need to go into any great
detail in his final summary as to what those realizations are. The teaching will
survive, he concluded, as long as his followers agree about these qualities and
put them into practice. With this statement he in effect declared to his follow-
ers that the preservation of the teachings was now up to them.
The Tathagata's last meal was at the home of Cunda the smith. Mter eat-
ing a quantity of tainted pork (or perhaps mushrooms), he became very sick
and suffered sharp dysentery pains. Bearing them calmly, he arose and walked
a considerable distance to Kusinagari, where he lay down between two sala
trees. After night fell he received the wanderer Subhadra, to whom he recom-
mended the Noble Eightfold Path. Only in a religion that taught the Noble
Eightfold Path, he said, could members ofthe ideal Sangha be found. Ananda
then received this last of the Buddha's converts into the Bhik~u Sangha.
The dying Buddha then asked the assembled monks three times whether
they had any last doubts or questions regarding the teaching, but all remained
silent .. Then, as dawn approached, he delivered his final exhortation: "Condi-
tioned things are perishable by nature. Be heedful in seeking realization." He
then died a Buddha's death, composed and alert in meditation. Entering the
first dhyana, he ascended the dhyana stages up to the fourth and then on
through the formless dhyana states-focused on the infinitude of space, the in-
finitude of consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor nonpercep-