Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
116c ould only t ake one part of the way: inst ead of simply avoiding violenc e, an
aspirant mu s t behave gent ly and kindly to everything and everybody; he mu s t
c ult ivat e thoughts of loving-kindness to c ounter any inc ipient feelings of ill will. It
was very imp o rt a n t not to t ell lies, but it was also crucial to engage in ‘right t alk’
and ma ke sure that whatever you said was wort h saying: ‘reasoned, accurate,
c lear, and benefic ial.’ Besides refraining from st ealing, a bhikkhu should posit ively
rej oic e in t aking whatever a lms he was given, expressing no personal preference,
and should t ake delight in possessing the bare min i mu m. The yogins had always
maint ained that avoiding the five prohibit ions would lead to ‘infinit e happiness,’ but
by deliberat ely c ult ivat ing these posit ive states of min d , suc h exstasis c ould surely
be redoubled. Onc e t his ‘skillful’ behavior b e c a me so habitual that it was sec ond
nature, the aspirant, Go t a ma believed, would ‘feel wit hin himself a pure joy,’
similar to if not ident ic al wit h the bliss that he had felt as a boy under the rose-
apple tree.
T his a lmo s t Proust ian rec ollec t ion was, according to the texts, a turning point
for Gotama. He resolved from then on to work wit h human nature and not fight
against it – amplifying states of min d that were c onduc ive to enlightenment and
turning his back on anything that would stunt his pot ent ial. Go t a ma was developing
what he c alled a ‘Middle Way,’ whic h shunned physic al and emotional self-
indulgenc e on the one hand, and extreme ascetic ism (whic h c ould be just as
destructive) on the ot her. He decided that he mu s t immed iat ely abandon the
punit ive re g ime that he had followed wit h his five c ompanions, whic h had ma d e him
so ill that t here was no way he c ould experience the ‘pure joy’ that was a prelude to
liberat ion. For the first t ime in months, he took solid food, starting wit h what the
texts c all kummāsa, a soothing milky junket or ric e pudding. When the five
bhikkhus saw him eat ing, they were horrified and walked away in disgust,
c onvinced that Go t a ma had abandoned the struggle for enlightenment.
But t his, of c ourse, was not the case. Go t a ma mu s t have nursed himself slowly
back to health, and during t his t ime he probably started to develop his own spec ial
kind of yoga. He was no longer hoping to disc over his eternal Self, sinc e he was
beginning to think that t his Self was just another one of the delusions that held
people back from enlightenment. His yoga was designed to help him b e c o me better
ac quainted wit h his human nature, so that he c ould ma ke it work for him in the
attainment of Nibbāna. First , as a prelimina ry to medit at ion, c a me the practice that
he c alled ‘mindfulness’ (sati), in whic h he sc rut inized his behaviour at every
mo me n t of the day. He noted the ebb and flow of his feelings and sensations,
together wit h the fluc tuations of his consciousness. If sensual desire arose, inst ead
of simply c rushing it , he took note of what had given rise to it and how soon it
faded away. He observed the way his senses and thoughts interacted with the
external world, and ma d e himself c onsc ious of his every bodily ac t ion. He would
b e c o me aware of the way he walked, bent down or stretched his limbs, and of his
behaviour while ‘eat ing, drinking, c hewing, and tasting, in defecating, walking,
standing, sit t ing, sleeping, waking, speaking and keeping silent .’ He not ic ed the
way ideas c oursed through his min d and the c onstant st ream of desires and
irrit at ions that c ould plague him in a brief half-hour. He b e c a me ‘mindful’ of the
way he responded to a sudden noise or a c hange in the temperature, and saw how
quic kly even a t iny thing disturbed his peace of min d. T his ‘mindfulness’ was not
c ult ivat ed in a spirit of neurotic int rospec t ion. Go t a ma had not put his humanity