I.
Or joy.
Ananda was the chief attendant to the Buddha the last quarter or third of his life.
He has come down to us as a person of monumental capacity for memorization, even in a religious community where, at the time, there was no written word, and for his being a treasurer or librarian of the doctrine, because of that.
Also, Ananda lived for service and study.
He is famous and revered for advocating along with the stepmother of the Buddha for the creation of a bhikkhuni order, a path for female renunciants. The Buddha’s mother, Maya, had died shortly after his birth, and he was raised by her sister, Pajapati. After his enlightenment and during his teaching career, his stepmother came to him with numerous women from his home country of Sakya who wished to take the precepts, as so many of the men from that country had done.
The Buddha said no repeatedly to her at this first meeting. As recorded in the Cullavagga, the next episode in this matter is said to have unfolded like this:
…thinking that the Blessed One would not allow women to enter into homelessness, she bowed to him, and keeping her right side towards him, departed in tears.
Then the Blessed One set out for Vesali. Pajapati cut off her hair, put on saffron-colored robes, and headed for Vesali with a number of Sakyan women. She arrived at Kutagara Hall in the Great Grove with swollen feet and covered with dust. Weeping, she stood there outside the Hall.
Seeing her standing there, the venerable Ananda asked, “Why are you crying?”
“Because, Ananda, the Blessed One does not permit women to renounce their homes and enter into the homeless state under the Dharma and discipline proclaimed by the Tathagata.”
Then the venerable Ananda went to the Buddha, bowed before him, and took his seat to one side. He said, “Pajapati is standing outside under the entrance porch with swollen feet, covered with dust, and crying because you do not permit women to renounce their homes and enter into the homeless state. It would be good, Lord, if women were to have permission to do this.”1 Susan Murcott, The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentary on the Therigatha (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991), p. 16.
The entreaties of Ananda were refused by the Buddha.
Then Ananda thought: The Blessed One does not give his permission. Let me try asking on other grounds.
“Are women able, Lord, when they have entered into homelessness to realize the fruits of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arahantship?”
“Yes, Ananda, they are able.”
“If women then are able to realize perfection, and since Pajapati was of great service to you — she was your aunt, nurse, foster mother; when your mother died, she even suckled you at her own breast — it would be good if women could be allowed to enter into homelessness.” 2Ibid., p. 16.
This is the description of how the bhikkhuni order came into existence. As Susan Murcott notes, “The nuns’ sangha was a radical experiment for its time. In its earliest phase, it consisted of samani, ‘female wanderers’ who could live in the forest alone. …However, it was more usual for nuns (and, for that matter, monks) to form into communities in or on the outskirts of villages.” 3Ibid., p. 4
Ananda seems to have been the whipping boy more than once in the suttas, having things, about which the later tradition was conflicted, attributed to him. The patriarchs held Ananda and Mahapajapati, along with the Sakyan women, unfairly prevailing upon the Buddha, as responsible for the bhikkhuni order, to the lasting credit of the Buddha’s faithful attendant.
Perhaps the characterization of him is in part a mistrust by the more wisdom-oriented strands of the tradition towards a devotional practice such as was disclosed by Ananda’s attention to clerical, secretarial, and body-servant duties.
II.
The religious comment, “Enshallah!” [God willing!”], while it can be a formality, like any words in ordinary conversation, is also capable of being deeply instructive when uttered by one whose mind reflects a reticence and attunement to human events. It can be a brake upon our all-too-human penchant to think we see things as they are, even as they will be. The hearer pauses and comprehends that nothing is given. The Algerian-born French writer, Albert Camus, advocated for “Mediterranean moderation,” by which he meant modesty of intellectual and moral claims to possession of the truth. It is arguably the most important aspect of his thought. Similarly, the dharma 4Ajahn Buddhadasa defines “dharma” as “nature” or “the way things are and have come to be.” It is a therapeutic view of the world that is reflected in many other thinkers and visionaries, including, for example, the Twelfth-Century mystic, Ibn Arabi, who exhorted his readers to look at “what-you-see” without any presumption that “I am.” is based on a relinquishing of what is conventionally called “knowledge,” even “facts,” certainly “truth.” We are compound things, each of us, along with all the myriad compound things, each subject to change. In the simple act of perception, all flows in and out of one another: “that” which we see, “we” who see, and the “seeing” itself. 5 “What (ever-changing) you (ever-changing) see (ever-changing),” The Prophet Hud, June 25, 2021; Insights from (Muhyiddin) Ibn Arabi, with Dr. Eric Winkel, The Futuhat Project. But this is not done, as is fashionable in some quarters today, to consign all things to relativity, but rather in order to prepare ourselves to walk rightly, to intend and speak and act rightly, When we hear someone exclaim “Enshallah!”, we can take it as an admonition, while that may not be all that it is, against a kind of arrogance or heedlessness.
Ananda was obviously “attached” to many things and people, perhaps some concepts and views, as well. The issue of attachment is not easy to think about, either within or outside of the dharma. One of the four “boundless minds” of Early Buddhism is mudita, sympathetic joy or taking joy in the joy, in the good fortune, of others. Do we risk becoming “Anandist,” rather than “Buddhist,” if we allow ourselves the space for relationship which Ananda seemed to allow? Do we do harm in taking joy in one another’s joys? Are we of benefit to others if we dissociate from their joys as the fleeting events of evanescent beings? The more austere interpretations of right conduct would seem to spurn happiness in relationships. However, if our bonds with one another are precious to each of us, is it a more enlightened way, is it any less delusional a way, for us to proceed, by denying their preciousness and working to extirpate them? How is this superior to living in acknowledgment that what we cherish, who each of us is, and the happiness that we derive therefrom are mutable?
Perhaps to understand things this way is the way of a householder. That would be no condemnation. We are twining vines and can wind around one another, can bind to one another, in ways which are mutually strengthening. Another of the boundless minds is metta, good will or loving-kindness, which the Buddha describes as a “moist” emotion, helping to counter the heat of the fire of aversion, providing moisture to the soil of our lives together.
Twining vines become attached to one another. Yet they know the uncertainty of their grasp, the changes that they undergo as they embrace, the unhappiness of losing hold. They also help to hold one another upright, providing shade as well as mutual support. Would we not be ill-advised to think that it is true equanimity (uppekha, another of the “minds”) to counsel one another not to twine? Indeed, it may be that such a counsel would be coming from indifference, a form of aversion and a “false friend” of equanimity, resembling it but being different in intent and in result.
There is some edge upon which we balance as beings (as “becomings”); on one hand, being with one another without possessing or dominating and, on the other, leaving one another room, without leaving each other aside. This is what the opportunities of households and communities represent. This is what Ananda signifies to the heart-mind of the Sangha.
“All that is dear to me and everyone I love are of a nature to change. There is no way to escape being separated from them,” says the Uppajjhatthana Sutta. This does not entail that we live alone, rather than together nor that we live in illusory independence, rather than mutual understanding. Transient beings can commit to affirming each other’s path to insight, reminding one another of that transience, as well as the ability of self-transcendence by thoughts, words, and acts of generosity, love, 6The fourth boundless mind is karuna (compassion). and wisdom. We make these commitments, knowing that we are fellow transients, that our compound forms will lead where we most fear, and yet we make the choice to accompany one another, every moment infinitely precious.
III.
Even though he may not be considered the model disciple, we sympathize profoundly with Ananda’s imperfect spiritual acumen, especially in light of his many redeeming qualities.
It is true that he did not comprehend some of the Buddha’s teachings easily.
He failed to achieve enlightenment during the lifetime of the Buddha.
He also cried inconsolably when he realized that the Buddha was in his last days.
And the Venerable Ananda went into his lodging and stood lamenting, leaning on the door-post: ‘Alas, I am still a learner with much to do! And the Teacher is passing away, who was so compassionate to me!’…
And the Lord said: ‘Enough, Ananda, do not weep and wail! Have I not already told you that all things that are pleasant and delightful are changeable, subject to separation and becoming other? So how could it be, Ananda — since whatever is born, become, compounded is subject to decay — how could it be that it should not pass away? For a long time, Ananda, you have been in the Tathagata’s presence, showing loving-kindness in act of body, speech and mind, beneficially, blessedly, whole-heartedly and unstintingly. You have achieved much merit, Ananda. Make the effort, and in a short time you will be free of the corruptions.’ 7 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: The Buddha’s Last Days, in The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya by Maurice Walshe (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), p 265.
One can only imagine Ananda, after his enlightenment, serving with the same devotion, and watering with loving-kindness the tender shoots springing up in the soil of the Sangha.
Footnotes
- 1Susan Murcott, The First Buddhist Women: Translations and Commentary on the Therigatha (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991), p. 16.
- 2Ibid., p. 16.
- 3Ibid., p. 4
- 4Ajahn Buddhadasa defines “dharma” as “nature” or “the way things are and have come to be.” It is a therapeutic view of the world that is reflected in many other thinkers and visionaries, including, for example, the Twelfth-Century mystic, Ibn Arabi, who exhorted his readers to look at “what-you-see” without any presumption that “I am.”
- 5“What (ever-changing) you (ever-changing) see (ever-changing),” The Prophet Hud, June 25, 2021; Insights from (Muhyiddin) Ibn Arabi, with Dr. Eric Winkel, The Futuhat Project.
- 6The fourth boundless mind is karuna (compassion).
- 7Mahaparinibbana Sutta: The Buddha’s Last Days, in The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya by Maurice Walshe (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995), p 265.