February 13, 2023
 
From early in the morning, the Sangha departed from the homeland of Buddha’s mother, passing through rice fields in bloom and fields of yellow mustard flowers, iridescent in the morning sun. Life here is calm and gentle, without the hustle and bustle of people passing by, car horns blaring, and traffic jams of teeming cities.
 
At the end of the road running alongside the green rice plants and yellow flowers, is the stupa that protects the stone pillar marking the birthplace of Buddha Koṇāgamana, built by King Asoka.
 
The Great Chronicle of Buddhas (Buddhavaṁsa) recorded about Buddha Koṇāgamana as follows:
 
“After Buddha Kakusandha’s attainment of Parinibbāna, in the present bhadda-kappa, the life span of human beings gradually decreased from forty thousand years to ten years and increased to asaṅkhyeyya. When it reached thirty thousand years on its next decline, Bodhisatta Koṇāgamana, on his complete fulfilment of the Perfections was reborn in Tusitā. Having complied with the request made by devas and Brahmās to becoming a Buddha, he descended to the human world to be conceived in the womb of a brahmin lady named Uttarā, wife of Yaññadatta Brahmin, in the city of Sobhavati. When ten months had elapsed, he was born in Subhavatī Park.”
 
“At the time of the boy’s birth, there fell a heavy shower of gold over the whole of Jambudīpa and taking the significance of this event, “coming down of gold from the sky”, learned readers of omens and his relatives named him Kanakagāmana (Kanaka means ‘gold’, āgamana ‘coming’;hence Kanakagāmana “the boy for whom gold has come (down).” Owing to its antiquity, the original name Kanakagāmana has taken the corrupt form of Konāgamana.” The stone pillar that King Asoka erected marks the birthplace of Bodhisatta Koṇāgamana used to be located at Nigali Sagar, now Nepal.”
 
“When the boy Koṇāgamana came of age, he lived in three palatial mansions, namely, Tusitā, Santusita and Santuṭṭha. Being entertained and served by his wife Rucigatta, a brahmin lady, and her host of sixteen thousand brahmin female attendants, he thus enjoyed a divine-like household life for three thousand years.”
“When Brahmin Konāgamana had seen the four omens while living a household life and when his wife Rucigatta had given birth to a son, named Satthavāha, he renounced the world riding an elephant. Thirty thousand men, following his example, also renounced the world.”
 
“With his thirty thousand recluses, Koṇāgamana practised dukkaracariyā. On the full moon of Vesākha, the day in which he would become a Buddha, he partook the milk-rice offered by Aggisona, daughter of Aggisona, and spent the daytime in the local grove of acacia. In the evening, he went alone to the Mahābodhi tree. On the way, he accepted eight handfuls of grass offered by Jaṭatinduka, a watchman of barley fields. As soon as he spread the grass at the foot of the (Udumbara) Mahābodhi tree, there appeared the Aparājita Pallanka of twenty cubits. Sitting cross-legged on the pallanka, he concentrated his energy of four levels in the same manner as previous Buddhas, and attained Buddhahood.”
 
(See The Great Chronicle of Buddhas by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw – https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/the-great-chronicle-of-buddhas/d/doc364394.html)
 
After chanting to pay respects at the stupa, we received offerings of fruits and refreshments from a group of Thai Buddhist pilgrims and then continued on our way to the birthplace of Buddha Kakusandha. The stone pillar is hidden in a village called Gothihawa, Nepal, near Kapilvastu, Lumbini, Devadaha, and Ramagrama. The pillar has been damaged over time, and now only a short fragment excavated not so long ago remains.
 
With regards to Buddha Kakusandha, the Great Chronicle of Buddhas (Buddhavaṁsa) documented as follows:
 
“After Buddha Vessabhū’s attainment of Parinibbāna, when the aeon in which He appeared had come to an end, twenty-nine suñña-kappas which were aeons of no Buddhas had elapsed and there emerged the present bhadda-kappa of five Buddhas. In this kappa had appeared four Buddhas, namely, Kakusandha, Konāgamana, Kassapa and Gotama. The next Buddha yet to come, definitely is Metteyya.”
 
“The chronicle of Buddha Kakusandha, the first of these five Buddhas, is as follows: The bhadda-kappa comprises sixty-four antara-kappas (in the eighth antara-kappa according to the Mahā Rajavaṃsa or in the first antara-kappa according to the Hmannan Rajavaṃsa), when the human life span decreased from asaṅkhyeyyas to forty thousand years, Bodhisatta Kakusandha, on complete fulfilment of the Perfections, was reborn in Tusitā. Having complied with the request made by devas and Brahmās to becoming a Buddha, he descended to the human world to be conceived in the womb of a brahmin woman, Visākha by name, wife of the Purohita Aggidatta, who was advisor to King Khemankara of the city of Khemavati. When ten months had elapsed, the Bodhisatta was born in Khemavati Park.”
 
“When the youthful Bodhisatta Kakusandha came of age, he lived in three mansions, namely, Kāma, Kāmavaṇṇa and Kāmasuddhi. Being entertained and served by his brahmin wife, Rocinī by name, who had thirty thousand brahmin maids, he thus enjoyed a divinelike household life for four thousand years.”
 
“When he had seen the four omens and when Rocinī had given birth to a son, named Uttara, Brahmin Kakusandha renounced the world riding a chariot drawn by a thoroughbred horse and became a recluse. Joining him were forty-thousand men who also became recluses by themselves.”
 
“With these forty thousand recluses, Bodhisatta Kakusandha practised dukkaracariyā for eight months. On the full moon of Vesākha, the day he would become a Buddha, he partook the milk-rice offered by the daughter of a Brahmin, Vajirinda, of the market-town of Vajirinda and spent the daytime in the local acacia grove. In the evening, he went alone to the Mahābodhi tree and on the way, he accepted eight handfuls of grass from Subhadda, a watchman of barley fields. As soon as he spread the grass at the foot of the Sirīsa Mahābodhi tree (which was as big, etc., as the aforesaid pātali Mahābodhi tree of Buddha Vipassī), there appeared the Aparājita Pallanka of twenty-six cubits. Sitting cross-legged on the pallanka, he concentrated his energy of four levels and attained Buddhahood in the same way as previous Buddhas.”
 
(See The Great Chronicle of Buddhas by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw – https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/the-great-chronicle-of-buddhas/d/doc364394.html)
 
The stone pillar marking the birthplace of Buddha Kassapa has not been found so far.

#chuahuongdao #chuahuongdaotemple #sbsstupas
#buddha #buddhism #Dhutanga #dhammajourney
 
Source: Dhammacetiya