Issue 297

Then the World Honored One extended his tula-cotton webbed bright hand, opened his five-wheeled fingers, and told Ananda and the great assembly, “When I first accomplished the Way I went to the Deer Park, and for the sake of Ajnatakaundinya and all five of the bhikshus, as well as for you of the four-fold assembly, I said, ‘It is because living beings are impeded by guest-dust and affliction that they do not realize Bodhi or become arhats.’ At that time, what caused you who have now realized the holy fruit to become enlightened?”

Then, while those in the assembly stood waiting to receive the Buddha’s compassionate teaching and transforming, the World Honored One, Shakyamuni Buddha, extended his tula-cotton webbed bright hand, opened his five-wheeled fingers… On the Buddha’s hand is the hallmark of the thousand-spoked wheel. His hand is extremely soft, like the finest cotton, and it is webbed and luminous.

He told Ananda and the great assembly, “When I first accomplished the Way, I went to the Deer Park, and for the sake of Ajnatakaundinya and all five of the bhikshus, as well as for you of the four-fold assembly…” One evening, on the eighth day of the twelfth month, while sitting under the Bodhi tree, he saw a star and awakened to perfect the Way. Shakyamuni Buddha said, “For the sake of all five bhikshus…” Since the five bhikshus are all together at one place, the Buddha did not call out one person by name. The four-fold assembly consists of the bhikshus (monks), bhikshunis (nuns), upasakas (laymen), and upasikas (laywomen).

The Deer Park is actually Deer-Wilds Park. Why it is called Deer Park? This is a vast park devoted exclusively to raising deer. How did that come about? It all began limitless kalpas ago when Shakyamuni Buddha was a deer, the leader of a herd of 500. And guess who else was there? Devadatta, who was also a deer-king with a following of 500 deer.  At that time, there was a king who went hunting in the mountains. He used a lot of manpower and material resources to corral all the wild animals together.  His plan was to kill them all.

Because too many beasts were killed, Shakyamuni Buddha, in the form he had taken of a deer-king had a meeting with the deer-king Devadatta. They said to each other, “We should save the lives of our retinue. We shouldn’t let the king kill us all! How can we save ourselves? Let’s go talk it over with the king and petition him not to kill us off!”

Although they were deer, they could speak the language of people. So the two deer went to see the king. When they reached the gate, they said to the armed guard, “We would like to have an audience with the king. Can you please deliver our message?”  Hearing the deer spoke human language, the guard relayed their message to the king. The king also found it strange that deer could speak human language, and so he agreed to an audience with them so they could state their petition.

The two deer-kings went before the king and said, “We are deer. If you kill us all today, there is more venison than you can consume in a day. What cannot be eaten is left to spoil (I believe there were no refrigerators at that time). Wouldn’t it be better if we did it this way: every day we will take turns supplying you with one deer, that way you can have fresh venison every day without killing us all off at once. If you use this method, your supply of venison will never run out. Several hundred years from now there will still be venison to eat!”

Because he saw the sense in their petition, and because the deer could speak, the king was moved to grant their request. So each of the deer-kings, on alternate days, sent the king a deer. Now one day it happened that it was the turn of a pregnant doe in Devadatta’s herd to go sacrifice herself to the king. Her fawn was heavy in her belly and would probably be born in a day or so. So she pleaded with the deer-king Devadatta, “Can you send someone in my place today? After the fawn is born I will go to the king and sacrifice myself!” Devadatta replied, “Impossible! It is your turn, and you must go. There is no favor in this matter. You don’t want to die. Who does? Not one of the deer want to go to their death. You want to live a few more days now that it has come around to your turn, but that is impossible!”

The pregnant doe’s eyes brimmed with tears and she went to talk to the deer-king who was to become Shakyamuni Buddha. Although she didn’t belong to his herd, she went to plead with him and ask if he could work out a temporary exchange so she could live a few more days until her fawn was born. As he considered her request, Shakyamuni Buddha realized that not one of his 500 deer would want to go in her place. However, the Buddha said to her, “Fine! You stay in my herd; you don’t need to go.”

Then the deer king Shakyamuni Buddha went himself to be sacrificed in her place. The king asked him, “What are you doing here? Have all your deer been eaten? Is your herd all gone? Why have you come?” And since he could talk, the deer-king Shakyamuni Buddha said, “King, you haven’t eaten all our deer; on the contrary, we are prospering. Day by day our herds are increasing. You only eat one deer a day, and in one day our does give birth to many fawns.”

The king said, “Then why have you come yourself?”

Shakyamuni Buddha explained, “There is a pregnant doe whose fawn will be born in a day or so. It was her turn to come today, but since she wanted to wait until she had given birth to her fawn before she came to let the king eat her, she came to me and pleaded to have someone sent in her place. I thought over her request and realized that none of the deer in the herd would want to die before they had to, so I came myself to substitute for her.”

When the king heard that, he was profoundly moved, and he said, “From now on, don’t send any more deer to the palace.” Then he spoke a verse:

You are a deer with human head.
I am a person with a deer’s head.
From this day forward,
I will not eat the flesh of living beings.

He said, “Although you have the head of a deer, you are a human being and although I have the head of a human being, I am a deer.” And then he vowed never to eat the flesh of living beings again. Because of that, the deer population in the park increased significantly; It was also named The Park of the Immortals because the “wind and water,” the geomantic lay of the land and its location, were particularly fine, and many immortals came there to cultivate the Way. So when Shakyamuni Buddha became a Buddha, he went first to the Deer-Wilds Park to convert the five bhikshus.

Three of the five bhikshus were relatives of the Buddha’s father and two were relatives of the Buddha’s mother. Of the three who were his father’s relatives, one was called Ashvajit – the name means “Horse Victory”; one was called Bhadrika – the name means “Little Worthy”; and the other was called Mahanama Kulika. The two on the mother’s side were Ajnatakaundinya and Dashabala Kashyapa, “Drinker of Light,” so named because he was a fire worshipper.

When the Buddha first left the palace to leave the home-life and cultivate the Way in the Himalayas, his parents had sent these relatives (three people were sent by his father Pure Rice king, and two people were sent by his mother) along after him to try to convince him to return. At that time the five bhikshus were not bhikshus, but high officials, and although they exhorted the Buddha to return, he would not. The five of them couldn’t go back and face the king, the Buddha’s father, without having accomplished their mission, so they stayed with the Buddha instead and accompanied him in cultivating the Way. The five stayed with the Buddha and cultivated ascetic practices, but eventually it became so bitter that three of them couldn’t take it and left. They backed out. The other two continued to cultivate with the Buddha.

The Buddha had cultivated in the Himalaya Mountains for six years. At that time the Buddha was eating only one grain of rice and one sesame seed a day, and he became so emaciated that he was nothing but skin and bones. Then one day a goddess brought him some milk gruel as an offering. He drank the gruel, and his body began to fill out again. The two who were cultivating with him got upset when they saw this, and they said, “How can someone who cultivates the Way drink milk gruel?” And so they left too. There was Shakyamuni Buddha in the midst of bitter cultivation and the five people his father and mother had sent to be with him all left him, three because they couldn’t take the suffering, and two because they saw the Buddha enjoying his blessings. The Buddha remained alone to cultivate.