Heavenly Messages

~ By Ajahn Amaro ~

These are frightening times. The uncertainty and stress in the air on account of the coronavirus pandemic is palpable and, at least for our human family, life as we know it has been radically disrupted. Furthermore, the menace of that disruption continuing is like an ominous fog ahead of us on the road – we have no idea how thick it really is and for how long it will continue.

The Buddha called such threats – specifically those of ageing, sickness and death – ‘Devaduta’, ‘Heavenly Messengers’, which might seem a very odd name to use for them. Surely these form a hellish prospect, rather than their optimistic opposite… So, what did he mean by this?

The ‘heavenly’ aspect comes from a fourth member of the group. In the stories of the Buddha’s life, before his enlightenment and while still a prince, it was the sight of an old person, a sick person and a dead person that filled him with fear and dread as he was told that all living beings were subject to such shocking states. However, following the witnessing of these three, the sight of a religious seeker then filled him with hope – there was a way to relate to this universal condition that led to a quality of well-being that transcended the bounds of human life as he had known it.

He considered:

‘Why, being myself subject to birth, aging, ailment, death, sorrow and defilement, do I seek after what is also subject to these things? Suppose, being myself subject to these things, seeing danger in them, I sought after the unborn, unageing, unailing, deathless, sorrowless, undefiled supreme release from bondage, Nibbāna?’
(M 26.13)

This reflection led him to leave the household life and to seek, and realize, enlightenment. It was a search and a realization that countless beings have benefitted from since that time.

So why did the Buddha refer to them all as ‘heavenly’, and not just the fourth one?...

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To read the full text, please visit Amaravati Monastery website.

Photograph: 'Prince Siddhattha’s Excursion through City Streets: His First Exposure to Hardship and Misery' (sculpture at BIA).

Photograph: 'Prince Siddhattha’s Excursion through City Streets: His First Exposure to Hardship and Misery' (sculpture at BIA).

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Illness is Ordinary and Natural

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The Dhammic Life Which Is Still a Secret