Episode 27 – Origin of City of the House of Kings (1)
>> He is non-abiding; He abides in all places. The place He expounds the Dharma is a dignified place of spiritual practice. His eternal Dharma-body and wisdom-life are ever-abiding. The Buddha is at the Vulture Peak in our hearts.
>> 5. Fulfillment of place. Vulture Peak near City of the House of Kings is the place where the one who abides abides. The Buddha is the one who abides. The place to abide in is the world of endurance
>> City of the House of Kings is called Rajagrha in Sanskrit. City of the House of Kings is also called the Kingdom of Magadha. Magadha means “no harm.” There was no punishment or killing in this kingdom. The kingdom was also called Magadhi, or Devala, which was also the name of a king. This king was the father of Marked-Foot.
He is non-abiding; He abides in all places. The place He expounds the Dharma is a dignified place of spiritual practice. His eternal Dharma-body and wisdom-life are ever-abiding. The Buddha is at the Vulture Peak in our hearts.
We need to understand that in the state of Buddhahood, He is non-abiding yet He abides in all places. As I often say, the mind, the Buddha and sentient beings are no different [in nature]. The Buddha’s Tathagata-nature abides in all places.
The place where He expounds Dharma is the most dignified spiritual training ground. Regardless of which sutra we read, it starts by describing the place where the Buddha taught as a dignified spiritual training ground. This is especially so for the one at Vulture Peak. A place where the Dharma is expounded is a place to develop and increase wisdom-life. So, “His eternal Dharma-body and wisdom-life is ever-abiding.” His Dharmakaya, His Dharma-body, is eternal; it does not arise nor cease. Therefore the Buddha’s wisdom-life is ever-abiding.
As I often say to you all, we need to continuously develop our wisdom-life. We all intrinsically have wisdom-life, but it is covered by ignorance. We learn Buddhism to eliminate ignorance. By eliminating a bit of ignorance, we develop a bit of wisdom-life.
“Do not go far to seek the Buddha at Vulture Peak. Vulture Peak is already in our own hearts.” This is a verse known to us all. Indeed, where is Vulture Peak? Is it in India? In the worldly sense, yes, it is in India. But if we mindfully listen to the Buddha’s teaching of the Lotus Sutra and comprehend our intrinsic nature of True Suchness, then the state of our mind should be identical to that of Vulture Peak when the Dharma was taught. Between this state of mind and the actual place, as long as we mindfully comprehend it, the mindset and environment are one. So, everyone has this intrinsic Tathagata-nature. Our true Tathagata-nature is forever expounding Dharma to us. “Do not go far to seek the Buddha at Vulture Peak.” Do not think about looking far away. “Vulture Peak is already in our own hearts.”
5. Fulfillment of place. Vulture Peak near City of the House of Kings is the place where the one who abides abides. The Buddha is the one who abides. The place to abide in is the world of endurance
Of the Six Fulfillments in expounding sutras, this is the fifth fulfillment, the place where the Buddha abides and expounds the Dharma. If not for this place, where would He have spoken? So, such a place was necessary. Where was this place? At Vulture Peak near the city of Rajagrha, City of the House of Kings. That was where the Lotus Sutra was expounded. That was the place where the Buddha taught.
Now I will explain the name of this place, “Vulture Peak near the city of Rajagrha,” and where it came from. When we drink water we think of the source, so when we hear of this place, we need to know the origins of its name. I will first explain the word “abide.”
To accommodate those in the human realm, the Buddha spoke of worldly matters. In the workings of these matters, there is always a subject and an object. So when we speak of abiding, there are subjects who abide and objects in which they abide. What are “the subjects who abide”? People who are able to abide. Who can abide in this place? I can abide, you can abide. Who else can abide? The subjects, those with the ability to do so, such as I, a person. I can abide here, therefore “I” am the subject. We, as subjects, also have the ability to be here.
So at that moment, the Buddha’s travels brought him to this place. It happened to be very suitable, and the capabilities of sentient beings were ready. [So], the Buddha could abide in this place to expound sutras to many people. So He was the subject; one who abided. He abided in that place.
“The object in which they abide” refers to Vulture Peak, the place where the Buddha expounded the Dharma.
This is the object. There is a subject and an object. I am able to use this object. This object is used by me, the subject. In the workings of worldly Dharma, there is always a subject and an object.
The city of Rajagrha is “the place where the one who abides abides.” The Buddha is the host of those who can abide. The Buddha was part of a large group of people, yet the group could not exist without Him. Therefore He was the host because. He was expounding this sutra in this place. Of this large group of people, only the one who was expounding the sutra could not be absent. Therefore the Buddha was the one who abides.
The place to abide in was the world of endurance. The world of endurance refers to the Saha World, so this world is one that needs to be endured. Every Buddhist knows that the Saha World is also known as the world of endurance. Living in this world is painful; there tends to be more suffering than not. So this is a world of endurance, a place we must endure. The Buddha is the one who abides. The place to abide is the world of endurance.
Why is the city of Rajagrha also called City of the House of Kings? I can explain this further.
Rajagrha is the Sanskrit name. That is its name in India. Translated, it is City of the House of Kings. This place is also considered a kingdom, which has a another name. The name of the kingdom is Magadha. Translated, it means “no harm.” This means that this country was very harmonious because there was no capital punishment there.
The king was very benevolent and kind, and the people he led were very good and gentle. No one broke the law, so the kingdom did not execute any punishments. Therefore this country was a very harmonious and peaceful kingdom. This city also had yet another name, Magadhi.
Magadhi was the name of a king, which refers to the benevolence of the king and the goodness of the people. There was no killing or theft, or any illegal acts in this country. So this country was named after its king. This king later had a son. Because he had markings at the bottom of his foot, people called him “Marked-Foot” people called him “Marked-Foot.”
City of the House of Kings is called Rajagrha in Sanskrit. City of the House of Kings is also called the Kingdom of Magadha. Magadha means “no harm.” There was no punishment or killing in this kingdom. The kingdom was also called Magadhi, or Devala, which was also the name of a king. This king was the father of Marked-Foot.
Crown Prince Marked-Foot was very intelligent. He only had one interest: he craved meat, and he had to eat a lot of meat each day. His temperament was violent and heated. But the king only had this one son, so when he was about to pass away, he abdicated his throne to the crown prince. The crown prince began to rule. He demanded that in every meal he would be served an abundance of meat. So every day, the royal chef had to prepare many heaping dishes of meat for the king. Then suddenly there was a shortage of meat. The chef could not find any meat for the king. Then he saw a child who had passed away.
Since the child was already dead, he took the child’s flesh and prepared it in the kitchen as a dish. When King Marked-Foot tasted this meat, he found it very delicious. He had never had meat this wonderful. Therefore he issued this order to the kitchen staff, “From now on, you need to provide me with this kind of meat every day.” The chef did not know how to handle this because this meat came from a human body. Now the kitchen [staff] had to go out every day and kidnap a child to prepare the king’s three daily meals, so that he would be very happy with his food.
But this news started to make the people of the kingdom panic. No one knew whether their child would survive till the next day. Every parent was very worried. The king outraged the people in his country. This news then spread to neighboring kingdoms. In India in the past, many cities were considered kingdoms. All the neighboring kingdoms were also enraged. Not only were the citizens of his kingdom scared and enraged, the neighboring kingdoms were also angry.
After a period of time passed, one thousand kings gathered and began to share the belief that this kingdom no longer deserved to exist. They decided to invade that kingdom. So, many kingdoms laid siege to the king, and he fled to Vulture Peak.
At that time, in those mountains, there were many spirits and ghosts. This was because India had the custom that the deceased could not be kept at home. Once a person passed away, they had to be carried outside and placed in an open space. So Vulture Peak was a place for what is called sky burial. It was a natural place for people to bring corpses.
Because dead bodies were placed there, birds, especially vultures, would gather to eat the corpses. Everyone thought the place was filled with many ghosts and spirits. King Marked-Foot was surrounded by his enemies. He managed to escape to this place but became trapped there. There were many spirits haunting that mountain who wanted to capture and eat him. So this king negotiated with these mountain spirits, “If you are willing to spare my life, then I will collaborate with you all to capture these thousand kings for you.” Because of their agreement, these mountain spirits supported King Marked-Foot as their leader.
Consequently, he started the hunt. When he came across a king, he had these spirits capture him and bring him to the mountain. He decided to capture 1000 kings before sacrificing them all to the mountain spirits at once. Before long, they had already captured 999 kings and gathered them in one place. They were one short.
Eventually he found one more king. This king was very unusual. When he was captured, he would not stop crying. So, King Marked-Foot asked him, “There are so many other captured kings here, why are you the one crying for being here? You truly lack courage.” He said, “I am not crying for myself. Indeed, there are many people here. With my capture, there are finally 1000 kings, “so they will all be killed shortly.”
“Other than this, there is still one very important thing I need to take care of. If you can give me three days to resolve this matter, I will certainly come back.”
“I promise.” King Marked-Foot wondered, “How could anything be more important? than your own life?” He thought to himself, “Even if you don’t come back after three days, I have ways to re-capture you.” So, they made an arrangement and this thousandth king was indeed released.
The story that follows is truly touching. The name of the city, City of the House of Kings, and how it was established is based on this thousandth king.
Everyone, time passes so quickly. This is the way things are. We should know that all things can be fulfilled when causes and conditions come together. If these causes and conditions did not converge, this place would not have come into being. If this place did not exist, the Buddha would not have taught Dharma there. “He is non-abiding; He abides in all places.” This depends on causes and conditions and their convergence. So, where is the Buddha? He is forever in our hearts. Regardless of how the story goes or how the place He expounded Dharma came to be, the most important thing is that our heart is the place where the Buddha will always expound the Dharma. Therefore, this wondrous, undefiled lotus in every person’s heart is the purest and most dignified place of practice. We need to look for the Dharma deep within our minds. So, please always be mindful.