Tagged: devatā
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4. Rājāyatanakathā (The Account of the Rājāyatana Tree)
1After emerging from another seven days of `samādhi` and spending a further seven days at the Rājāyatana tree experiencing liberation, the Bhagavā was approached by merchants Tapussa and Bhallika, who were guided by a `devatā` (deity) to offer him barley-meal and honey-comb. Pondering how to accept the food, as Tathāgatas (realised ones) do not receive offerings in their hands, the four Great Kings miraculously provided four stone bowls. The Bhagavā accepted and partook of the meal, after which Tapussa and Bhallika took refuge in the Bhagavā and the `Dhamma` (Buddha's teachings), becoming the first lay followers in the world with two utterances.
6. Pañcavaggiyakathā (The Account of the Group of Five)
2After realising his first two choices for teaching the Dhamma had passed away, the Buddha (Bhagavā) decided to teach the group of five ascetics who had previously attended him. Journeying to Bārāṇasī, he encountered Upaka, to whom he declared his supreme enlightenment and status as a teacherless Arahant. The five ascetics were initially skeptical of the Buddha, whom they perceived as having reverted to luxury, but he convinced them of his attainment. He then delivered his first discourse, "Setting the Wheel of Dhamma in Motion," teaching them the Middle Way (`Majjhimā Paṭipadā`) which avoids the extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification, and the Four Realisations (`caturāriyasaccāni`): suffering, its origin in craving, its cessation, and the path to its cessation: `Ariyo Aṭṭhaṅgiko Maggo` (the Noble Eightfold Path). Koṇḍañña was the first to gain the `dhammacakkhu` (insight into the Dhamma), understanding that whatever is subject to origination is subject to cessation, followed by the other four, all of whom were then ordained. Subsequently, the Buddha taught them the second discourse - the doctrine of anattā (not-self) in relation to the `pañcupādānakkhandhā` or Five Collections (form, feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness), leading to all five ascetics achieving liberation as Arahants.