Navigation bar
  Print Start Previous page
 4 of 6 
Next page End 1 2 3 4 5 6  

could be found beneath the trees. Monks did not engage in growing or cooking or
storing their own food. They could not dig the earth. But they were not to punish the
body or expose themselves to needless hardships out of some deluded sense of
struggle or trying to become a spiritual hero. For example, many spiritual followers
gained fame for how long they stood on one leg, allowing the other to wither into a
blackened crooked stick. However, Sakyamuni did allow the practise of one or all of
the twelve dhutas (of which there are various lists) because they were so popular at
the time.
The Indian culture and climate was of course very different from China and
other Far East Asian countries. The traditions of supporting mendicants or homeless
beggars of various religious or spiritual affiliations had wide social support. In China,
someone who had left their filial obligations was regarded as inherently
untrustworthy and a beggar was simply a shiftless parasite. In India one could live
under the trees. In parts of China, as with most of Canada, in the winter time the
very temperature of the air can kill you without shelter in a very short time. The
forms of monastic and lay practice that we now know have developed since the
Buddha’s time from literal homelessness through a radical number and depth of
changes in Chinese culture and then further refinement in Japan. 
Mahakasyapa practised the dhutas because he wanted, he said, for his life to
be like an open sky. He wanted a radical simplicity for his practice. As well, he was a
person of deep compassion. Just as he had been torn by seeing the insects and
worms destroyed in the ploughing of his family’s fields, he was also torn by the
distance between the wealthy and the poor. He tried to live in such a way as to close
that gap. Although he was often invited to feasts offered by lay patrons to the
Buddha and his monks, he preferred to beg a few grains of rice or mouthfuls of curry
from the people so poor that they could not afford to share more than that. His
reasoning was based on the kinds of metaphysics of karma that were common
throughout India. For a poor person to give what is difficult for them to give was
“worth” more than for a rich person to give what is easy to give. And to make an
offering of any kind to someone who had Woken Up was “worth” more than an
offering made to someone who had not. Those who realized for themselves what the
Buddha had Awakened to were known as “arhats” in Pali or “arahants” in Sanskrit.
The term means “worthy” and describes these Awakened people as being worthy of
receiving praise and offerings from laypeople because the merit or good fortune that
patrons received was exponentially vast. Now, of course it is true that it is natural
and appropriate to have respect for someone who has realized the Way and also to
do what one can to support that person’s ability to Teach it to others. But for a term
that is more than tinged with “fame and gain” to be used for those who have woken
up past self-images dreams of hope and fear and grasping and loss seems to me to
miss the point. In any case, strange as it might now seem, Mahakasyapa’s begging
from the poor was an expression of his deep care for those who suffer in any way.
Mahakasyapa is counted amongst the Ten Greatest Disciples of Sakyamuni
Buddha.  They are: 
1. Mahakasyapa, foremost in ascetic practices.  
2. Ananda, foremost in having heard the words of Buddha.  
3. Sariputra,  foremost in wisdom.  
4. Subhuti, foremost in expressing emptiness.  
5. Purna, foremost in explaining the Dharma.  
6. Maudgalyayana, foremost in miraculous abilities.  
7. Katyayana, foremost in Teaching. 
8. Aniruddha,  foremost in subtle perceptions.  
9. Upali, foremost in the practice of the precepts.