Date: 05/03/2025 05/04/2025
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Yunquan Huang
Dharma Talk
The Strange Encounter of Vakkali
Once, the Buddha was traveling in Rajagaha, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha, and asked a potter named Bhaggava if he could stay overnight.
The potter Bhaggava said:
“World-Honored One! I don’t mind, but there’s already a monk who came earlier and is staying in the pottery hut. If he has no objection, then you may stay.”
The monk who had arrived earlier and was staying in the pottery hut was none other than the venerable Vakkali, who had renounced the world and become a monk because he admired the Buddha, and was now wearing the robe of a bhikkhu.
After the Buddha entered the hut, he said to Vakkali, who was already inside:
“Bhikkhu! I would like to stay here for one night, do you agree?”
“Friend! I don’t mind. This hut is spacious. Just pick any place to sleep as you wish.”
So that night, the Buddha stayed in the pottery hut together with the Venerable Vakkali.
That evening, Venerable Vakkali meditated together with the Buddha until very late. His endurance was impressive and drew the Buddha’s attention, who then asked:
“Bhikkhu! Who is your teacher? With whom did you renounce and practice?”
“Friend! The ascetic Gotama of the Shakya clan is my teacher. I renounced and practiced under him.”
“Bhikkhu! Have you seen him before?”
“No!”
“If you met him, would you recognize him?”
“No, I wouldn’t. But the World-Honored One is the Worthy One, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Practitioner of Truth and Righteousness, the Completer of Happiness and Ender of Birth and Death, the Thorough Knower of the World, the Supreme Leader of those to be trained, the Teacher of gods and humans, the Self-Awakened One who awakens others, the Most Noble in the World. Because I greatly admire him, I renounced the world. So, the World-Honored One is my teacher.”
The Buddha thought:
“This good man renounced because of his admiration for me. I should teach him.”
So the Buddha said to Venerable Vakkali:
“Bhikkhu! Let me explain to you the six elements. This will be helpful to your pure practice. Please listen carefully and contemplate well.”
“Okay, friend!”
The Buddha then explained in detail the earth, water, fire, air, and space elements in the body. Then he explained the nature of non-negligent wisdom, supreme wisdom, supreme truth, supreme renunciation, and supreme cessation:
“Bhikkhu! Regarding earth, water, fire, air, and space, you should see them with right wisdom as they truly are: none of these is mine, nor should they give rise to pride or be taken as self. If one can see them this way, the mind will not cling, and will be free from desires. This is called non-negligent wisdom.
Besides earth, water, fire, air, and space, there is consciousness. What can consciousness know? Consciousness can know suffering, pleasure, and neither-suffering-nor-pleasure. These arise from contact following sensory experience, which leads to feelings of either suffering, pleasure, or neither. When such contact ceases, the resulting feelings of suffering, pleasure, or neutrality also disappear. It’s like two sticks rubbing together to produce heat—once the sticks are separated, the heat dissipates and cools down.
If a bhikkhu is not attached to the three types of feeling—suffering, pleasure, and neutrality—then only pure equanimity remains. With this pure equanimity, the bhikkhu can enter the realm of infinite space, the realm of infinite consciousness, the realm of nothingness, and the realm of neither-perception-nor-non-perception—just like a goldsmith hammers gold into a soft and shiny sheet, which can then be crafted into various beautiful ornaments.
If the bhikkhu further realizes that even these states—realm of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception—are conditioned, impermanent, and unsatisfactory, and thus does not cling to them, then through non-attachment, he attains liberation. It’s like an oil lamp: as long as there is oil and a wick, the flame continues. But if no more oil is added and the wick is not maintained, the flame goes out once the oil is exhausted.
In this way, a liberated bhikkhu, having eradicated all suffering and affliction, is endowed with supreme wisdom; by abiding firmly in unshakable truth, he is endowed with supreme truth; by letting go from the root all possessions of the past, he is endowed with supreme renunciation; by extinguishing at the root all greed, hatred, and delusion, he is endowed with supreme cessation.
Bhikkhu! The view of ‘I’ is just delusion: ‘I am this’, ‘I should be like this’, ‘I should not be like this’, ‘I should be corporeal’, ‘I should be incorporeal’, ‘I should be perceptive’, ‘I should be non-perceptive’, ‘I should be neither-perceptive-nor-non-perceptive’—all these views are delusions. One who can overcome all delusions is a silent sage, unborn, unaging, undying, unmoving, and fearless.”
After hearing the Buddha’s teaching, Venerable Vakkali immediately removed dust and defilement from his mind and attained the pure Dharma eye—entry into the first stage of enlightenment. He thought: “This person before me must be the teacher I have long admired—it must be the World-Honored One.”
So he quickly rose from his seat, bowed to the Buddha, sincerely repented for having just addressed the Buddha as “friend”, and hoped to receive full ordination from the Buddha.
Since Venerable Vakkali had not yet prepared the robes and alms bowl required for full ordination, the Buddha told him to go prepare them. But before he could finish, he was gored to death by a charging cow.
The Buddha later said that at the time of his death, he had already severed the five lower fetters.
