Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Virtues, Attributes or Epithets of the Buddha


There are many categories of Buddhas.(* See note below) But I am going to talk about virtues of the sammāsambuddha, the right Buddha, the supreme Lord Buddha of our era who was born over 26 centuries ago.  His former name was Prince Siddhārtha Gautama of Śākya territory. Thus he was also called Śākyamuni by non-Buddhists.

His 9 virtues called Buddhaguna (Pali: guna = virtues) can be found in the Pali chant praising him. I 'll put down with the English translation, adapted from the reference with my further explanatory notes.

Iti pi so Bhagava
Thus indeed is he, the Blessed One.
Araham
(1) the holy, the worthy, the accomplished, the one who ridded all mental defilements (Kilesa),
Sammāsambuddho
(2) fully enlightened,
Vijjācarana-sampanno
(3) perfect in knowledge and conduct,
Sugato
(4) well-gone, i.e. proceeded to Nibbāna
Lokavidu
(5) Knower of the World, the one with omniscience, the pantomath
Anuttaro Purisadammasārathi
(6) the leader of the men to be tamed,
Satthā Devamanusānam
(7) teacher of gods (angels or Deva, and Brahman) and men,
Buddho
(8) fully awaken one, the pleasant one (full of happiness)
Bhagavā
(9) blessed one, the analyst of dhamma (natural entities)

Reference: Phra Brahmagunabhorn (P.A. Payutto) Dictionary of Buddhism. 17th edition. B.E. 2551 (2008), Bangkok. entitiy 303, p. 222

Notice : I still could not find certain suitable characters for Pali words (with proper dots) so some of the characters are still incorrect.

Note: Other types of Buddhas include Paccekabuddha (one who became enlightened without (recent) teacher in the last reincarnation and later did not have students or following monks), and Sāvakabuddha (students of the sammāsambuddha who attained Arahat (4th enlightenment) after his guidance and thus later have purified the mind to the same level as their teacher).

While checking online references, I also found a useful PDF document here.


No comments:

Post a Comment