Anathapindika is a lay student of the Nikāya Buddha. He has been a dedicated follower of the master for forty-two years. You might recognise his name, because many suttas open with these words, “I have heard that one time the flourishing one was staying at Sāvatthi, in Jeta’s grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery…” You might remember that the Bāhiya sutta, which we looked at closely, begins that way.
Anathapindika is a rich merchant in the royal town of Sāvatthi, a place where the Nikāya Buddha spends a lot of time – especially on retreat in the rainy season. The land for the monastery was donated to the Buddha’s mendicant community by Anathapindika. The monastery gets its dual name from the fact that Anathapindika purchased it from Prince Jeta for the community’s use. And, now Anathapindika is dying.
He doesn’t have much in the way of pain management, of course. He’s doing it tough. He knows he’s dying, and he sends homage to the Buddha, through someone else. It has been a tradition for centuries, in Buddhism, that when a person is dying, they take into their heart the ‘thought’ or ‘feel’ of the presence of a being of great wisdom – their teacher, or some other great being who, to them, represents all goodness. Anathapindika thinks of the Buddha at this point.
He also has had a close relationship with Sariputta, the chief student and right-hand man of the Nikāya Buddha. To Sariputta, Anathapindika not only sends homage, but he sends a request that out of compassion Sariputta might come to Anāthapiṇḍika’s home. The layman is seeking objective support for his dying process. Ānanda, the Nikāya Buddha’s attendant, goes with Sariputta. (I often visualise these two together, and Ānanda, too, no doubt, has a great love for Anathapindika.)
They arrive and enquire after his health. How bad it is? Are the pains getting better, or has Anāthapiṇḍika’s time come? No, not better; the pains are getting worse. It doesn’t look good, at this stage. So, Sariputta, out of compassion, does something very unusual.
The Nikāya Buddha’s deepest teachings – those on emptiness – are usually only shared with the mendicants, and not so much with the lay people. If lay people pursue such teachings, then such teachings are, of course, shared, if that lay-person is ready, but it isn’t usual. Mostly, lay people just want to know where they’ll be reborn – hopefully it’ll be a good destination.
But Sariputta, out of his care for Anathapindika, leads the layman through a guided process, wherein Anathapindika dis-identifies with all that he would normally take himself to be, starting with his six sense organs and their functioning. And, he doesn’t cling to sense contact; or the feeling-tones that arise dependent on the contact. And, during the guided meditation, he doesn’t cling to the five elements (which are another way to experience ourselves). Next, with Sariputta’s help, Anathapindika doesn’t cling to his five sentient processes, either. Gradually, every kind of ‘content’ of consciousness is ruled out as being a foundation for consciousness. Anathapindika, doesn’t perch on anything that comes and goes.
Such a level of detachment (non-clinging) naturally give rise to subtle meditative experience, so Sariputta guides Anathapindika, so that he doesn’t to cling to: infinite space; then infinite consciousness; then (getting subtler and subtler) the experience of nothingness; then the experience of neither perception nor non-perception. “That’s how you should train yourself,” says Sariputta. And not to cling to any world – this world, or a world beyond.
At this stage Anathapindika weeps, and Ānanda, thinking that the layman must be despairing, asks if anything is wrong. “No,” he said, “There is nothing wrong, esteemed Ānanda. It’s just that: I have served the master and the community for many years, and I have never received such a wonderful instruction as Sariputta has given me, just now.” His tears were the tears of his release.
Ānanda said, “These teachings aren’t usually given to lay people.”
So, Anathapindika said, out of his great heart, “Then let them be given to lay people, because many lay people are ready for these teachings on non-self.” And, he died happy, his citta radiant.