PEOPLE OF SHAKYA KINGDOM

When the people of the Shakya kingdom realized that the prince intended to leave the palace they requested the king to arrange a marriage for him in the hope that this would cause him to change his mind.

The king agreed and soon found him a suitable bride, the daughter of a respected Shakya family, called Yasodhara. Prince Siddhartha, however, had no attachment to worldly pleasures because he realized that objects of attachment are like poisonous flowers, which initially appear to be attractive but eventually give rise to great pain.

His resolve to leave the palace and to attain enlightenment remained unchanged, but to fulfill his father’s wishes and to bring temporary benefit to the Shakya people, he agreed to marry Yasodhara.

However, even though he remained in the palace as a royal prince, he devoted all his time and energy to serving the Shakya people in whatever way he could.

When he was twenty-nine years old, the prince had a vision in which all the Buddhas of the ten directions appeared to him and spoke in unison saying, “Previously you resolved to become a Conqueror Buddha so that you could help all living beings trapped in the cycle of suffering. Now is the time for you to accomplish this.”

The prince went immediately to his parents and told them of his intention: “I wish to retire to a peaceful place in the forest where I can engage in deep meditation and quickly attain full enlightenment. Once I have attained enlightenment I shall be able to repay the kindness of all living beings, and especially the great kindness that you have shown me. Therefore I request your permission to leave the palace.”

When his parents heard this they were shocked, and the king refused to grant his permission. Prince Siddhartha said to his father “Father, if you can give me permanent freedom from the sufferings of birth, sickness, ageing and death I shall stay in the palace; but if you cannot I must leave and make my human life meaningful.”

The king tried all means to prevent his son from leaving the palace. In the hope that the prince might change his mind, he surrounded him with a retinue of beautiful women, dancers, singer, and musicians, who day and night used their charms to please him; and in case the prince might attempt a secret escape he posted guards around the palace walls.

However, the prince’s determination to leave the palace and enter a life of meditation could not be shaken. One night he used his miracle powers to send the guards and attendants into a deep sleep while he made his escape from the palace with the help of a trusted aide.

After they had traveled about six miles, the prince dismounted from his horse and bade farewell to his aide. He then cut off his hair and threw it into the sky, where it was caught by the gods of the Land of the Thirty-three Heavens. One of the gods then offered the prince the saffron robes of a religious mendicant.

The prince accepted these and gave his royal garments to the god in exchange. In this way he ordained himself as a monk.

The Shakya were probably Tibeto-Burman in ethnic origin, but were Indo-Aryan and Hindu in culture and religion. These Shakya people
had long been living in the Himalayan foothills and uplands of ancient northern India and present day southern Nepal at least as far back as, I think, 1000 B.C.

It has long been debated by scholars whether these Shakya people were part of or closely related to the great invading hordes of nomadic Iranian steppe peoples from central Asia - broadly called Sakai by the ancient Greeks, Śaka by the ancient vedic Indians, and Scythians by modern historians - who swept over present day Afghanistan, Pakistan and north western India in several waves approximately between 200 B.C. and 400 A.D. [?]. (Note that the Shakya people were known to have existed in the Himalayan regions several centuries before 200 B.C.)

Linguists will say that the closeness of the names 'Shakya' and 'Sakai'/'Śaka' certainly suggests, at the very least, a connection, and this hypothesis is strengthened by evidence of the closeness of certain rituals and religious statuary between the Indo-Scythians, i.e. the Indianised branch of the Scythian invaders, and the Shakya people. Here is a relevant excerpt from a Wikipedia entry on the Shakya people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakya) quoting the scholars J.P. Mallory and V. H. Mair on the similarity "between [Buddhist] stupas and the tumulus funerary mounds of the Scythian steps, and the identity of the Śākyas with the Saka Scythians":

"The stupa was one of the most characteristic architectural remains of the Buddhist world; they are not found in Hinduism at all. In function we may view them as a specialized type of tumulus: they were circular in shape with a domed top, and they were built to cover the relics of the Buddha, his early followers, or some other essential symbol of the Buddhist religion. It might be recalled that the Buddha was Śākyamuni ("Sage of the Śākyas" i.e. the Sakas) and, within an Indic context, Buddhism was a kind of "Iranian heresy"".

 

we are proud to be decendents of relative of Lord Buddha, and follow buddhism as a cause of our ancestral relativity to Lord Buddha. But let's not limit our devotion to Lord Buddha just for the cause of our relativity, but for the truth that Lord buddha has illuminated for the good of human Kind.

Now, lets share something about the origination of The SHAKYA Clan.

As per Lalit Bistara Sutra, 1st Chapter.

There was once a Great Chakkravati Suryavanshi King Called Sakkha at the Republican Kingdom of Ayodhya, he might had been the decendent of Rama- of Ayodhya or not, no body knows. (No body even knows if Ramayana was a truth or just a novel)

He was very strong, when he used to breath, fire came through his nostrils, he was bravest of the brave, such a great warrior. He had many many wives, and one of his wives made trick on other most deserving children to make them leave the kingdom into exile.

To make their father happy and as an act of sacrifice, leaving the kingdom to their step brothers and sisters, 2 brothers, 2 sisters went into exile, they went into jungles, seeking refuge to saints, and one they they reached the plains of Terai which was the home of Great Saint Kapil Muni. He was so kind and seeing the great charisma and aura of the four siblings, he taught them all the knowledge he had and told them to start a new republican kingdom in his plains. They did as their teacher told and later named the Republic- Kapil vasti - or Kapil Vastu.

And the decendents of Sakkha of Ayodhaya became the Shakyas , and the decendents of the four siblings became the Shakya Clan that exists now.

And after some thousands of years, the greatest gem there could ever be was born in the same clan.- Homage to the Greatest teacher. Namo Buddhaya.

There were 16 Mahājanapada("great village") in the first millennium before Christ in northern region of India and western Tarai of Nepal. Among them four Magadha, Koshal, Vamsa and Avanti were kingdoms. Remaining twelve were Republic, namely: Kashi, Anga, Vajji (Vaishali), Malla, Cedi, Kuru, Pancala, Matsya, Shurasena, Assaka, Gandhara and Kamboja. Among them clans of Shakyas, Koliyas as well as Videhas were in Nepal Terai. If we try to find etymologies of place names of South Asian countries, we find one of system of topographical names originated from the abundance of any trees and plant of the place. Thus, we find names of Shakya, Koliya and Maurya from Shaka 'teak tree', Koli 'Jujube tree' and Mura "a fragrant plant" ( Apte,1986) Shakya, Maurya are adjectival forms of them and they are known in Pali as Sakiya, Koliya and Mauriya, These city-states, seems to be established in 700 BC . In course of time, Shakya became synonym to Shakya Republic, inhabitant of the Shakya country. After Buddha (BC 624-544/someone follows Buddha's life time as BC 563-483) took birth in the clan, Shakya became again synonym to Buddha. People used Shakya as relating to Buddhism also. Compound words with the word Shakya became popular to glorify the clan.

The word Shakya was used for the first time in Ashokan Pillar inscription of Lumbini, established when Emperor Ashok (BC 273-232) came to Lumbini on the 20th year of his coronation (BC 249). There it is inscribed:

.....hida budhe jāte sakyamuniti..........
(Here Shakyamuni Buddha was born.)

Siddharha was born at Lumbini on the way to his mother's country Devadaha, another minor Shakya state of the time. He was a prince of the Head of the Shakya state-Shuddhodana. He married own maternal elder Uncle Suprabuddha Shakya's daughter-Yashodhara from Devadaha. Shakya capital was in Kapilavastu (Tilaurakot) named after the sage Kapila, the preceptor of Shakyas. The state was destroyed by the king Bidudabha/Virudhaka of Koshal in BC 546, two years before Buddha liberated from existence (Pradhan 1983:57) Licchavi republic was ended by the emperor of Magadh-Ajatashatru (BC 551-519) (Mahajan 1973:2). Lord Buddha was born at Lumbini in Shakya state, enlightened at Uruvela in Magadh kingdom, preached first at Mṛgadāvana in Kashi and liberated from existence at Kushinara in Malla Republic.

It is seen from inscription of ancient Nepal (185-879) that people migrated to Kathmandu valley since Buddha’s time to early centuries of AD from Buddhist region of south western Nepal Terai and northern India. Record from inscriptions like words of Varman, Gupta, Vṛjikarathyā, Mallapurī, Koligrāma, Licchavivaṃśa proves this ideology. There are 15 percent inscriptions estimated related to Buddhism and several compounds words with Shakya are recorded in ancient inscriptions: Śākyamuni (AD 605-621), Śākyayati (n.d.), Śākyabhiksu (n.d.), Śākyabhikṣuni (AD 691). Ancient period of Nepalese history is also called Licchavi period, named after migrated people from Vajji/Vaishali of modern Mujaffarpur district, Bihar state of northern India.

Shakyas are supposed to be of higher caste in Newar community. They strongly believe in Triratna (three jewels): Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. They made hundreds of Buddhists monasteries in Nepalmandal. Besides, being Buddhist layman, they worked as priest being Vajracharya, upgraded Shakyas, having Vajra initiation. These people made Nepalmandal a centre of Mahayan Buddhism creating Sanskrit Buddhist literature like Navagrantha ("nine treaties"). Shakyamuni is considered seventh and present one among seven human Buddhas. It is in tradition in Kathmandu valley as mentioned in Sugatāvadana. The earliest Newari document of AD 1114 on palm leaf is about regulations of the associations of Maṇidharajīva Mahāvihāra. In early modern Nepalese history (1768-1846), it is seen that Shakyas were named Vandya "venerable" (Nepali Bāṃdā, Newari Bare). B.H.Hodgson’s residency pundit Amritananda Vandya and his younger brother litterateur of Nepali, pundit Sundarananda Banda were famous in their time.

Though Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana in particular, flourished in ancient and medieval period of Nepalese history in Nepalmandal, Shakyamuni Buddha was one of seven or five Buddhas of them. Shakyas were and are leading Buddhist laymen in all time. Theravadin Buddhism, which follows singly Shakyamuni Buddha, entered Nepal from Srilanka in last century and now it has been one of the three sects of Buddhism in Nepal. Dharmodaya Sabha, the National Buddhist Association of Nepal has managed to be chairperson of the Association by turn of Theravadin, Vajrayani and Himalayan (Tibetan) Buddhism. Now a day’s S

hakyas of Kathmandu valley are famous for their Buddhist art creation.

There were 16 Mahājanapada("great village") in the first millennium before Christ in northern region of India and western Tarai of Nepal. Among them four Magadha, Koshal, Vamsa and Avanti were kingdoms. Remaining twelve were Republic, namely: Kashi, Anga, Vajji (Vaishali), Malla, Cedi, Kuru, Pancala, Matsya, Shurasena, Assaka, Gandhara and Kamboja. Among them clans of Shakyas, Koliyas as well as Videhas were in Nepal Terai. If we try to find etymologies of place names of South Asian countries, we find one of system of topographical names originated from the abundance of any trees and plant of the place. Thus, we find names of Shakya, Koliya and Maurya from Shaka 'teak tree', Koli 'Jujube tree' and Mura "a fragrant plant" ( Apte,1986) Shakya, Maurya are adjectival forms of them and they are known in Pali as Sakiya, Koliya and Mauriya, These city-states, seems to be established in 700 BC . In course of time, Shakya became synonym to Shakya Republic, inhabitant of the Shakya country. After Buddha (BC 624-544/someone follows Buddha's life time as BC 563-483) took birth in the clan, Shakya became again synonym to Buddha. People used Shakya as relating to Buddhism also. Compound words with the word Shakya became popular to glorify the clan.

The word Shakya was used for the first time in Ashokan Pillar inscription of Lumbini, established when Emperor Ashok (BC 273-232) came to Lumbini on the 20th year of his coronation (BC 249). There it is inscribed:

.....hida budhe jāte sakyamuniti..........
(Here Shakyamuni Buddha was born.)

Siddharha was born at Lumbini on the way to his mother's country Devadaha, another minor Shakya state of the time. He was a prince of the Head of the Shakya state-Shuddhodana. He married own maternal elder Uncle Suprabuddha Shakya's daughter-Yashodhara from Devadaha. Shakya capital was in Kapilavastu (Tilaurakot) named after the sage Kapila, the preceptor of Shakyas. The state was destroyed by the king Bidudabha/Virudhaka of Koshal in BC 546, two years before Buddha liberated from existence (Pradhan 1983:57) Licchavi republic was ended by the emperor of Magadh-Ajatashatru (BC 551-519) (Mahajan 1973:2). Lord Buddha was born at Lumbini in Shakya state, enlightened at Uruvela in Magadh kingdom, preached first at Mṛgadāvana in Kashi and liberated from existence at Kushinara in Malla Republic.

It is seen from inscription of ancient Nepal (185-879) that people migrated to Kathmandu valley since Buddha’s time to early centuries of AD from Buddhist region of south western Nepal Terai and northern India. Record from inscriptions like words of Varman, Gupta, Vṛjikarathyā, Mallapurī, Koligrāma, Licchavivaṃśa proves this ideology. There are 15 percent inscriptions estimated related to Buddhism and several compounds words with Shakya are recorded in ancient inscriptions: Śākyamuni (AD 605-621), Śākyayati (n.d.), Śākyabhiksu (n.d.), Śākyabhikṣuni (AD 691). Ancient period of Nepalese history is also called Licchavi period, named after migrated people from Vajji/Vaishali of modern Mujaffarpur district, Bihar state of northern India.

Shakyas are supposed to be of higher caste in Newar community. They strongly believe in Triratna (three jewels): Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. They made hundreds of Buddhists monasteries in Nepalmandal. Besides, being Buddhist layman, they worked as priest being Vajracharya, upgraded Shakyas, having Vajra initiation. These people made Nepalmandal a centre of Mahayan Buddhism creating Sanskrit Buddhist literature like Navagrantha ("nine treaties"). Shakyamuni is considered seventh and present one among seven human Buddhas. It is in tradition in Kathmandu valley as mentioned in Sugatāvadana. The earliest Newari document of AD 1114 on palm leaf is about regulations of the associations of Maṇidharajīva Mahāvihāra. In early modern Nepalese history (1768-1846), it is seen that Shakyas were named Vandya "venerable" (Nepali Bāṃdā, Newari Bare). B.H.Hodgson’s residency pundit Amritananda Vandya and his younger brother litterateur of Nepali, pundit Sundarananda Banda were famous in their time.

Though Mahayana Buddhism, Vajrayana in particular, flourished in ancient and medieval period of Nepalese history in Nepalmandal, Shakyamuni Buddha was one of seven or five Buddhas of them. Shakyas were and are leading Buddhist laymen in all time. Theravadin Buddhism, which follows singly Shakyamuni Buddha, entered Nepal from Srilanka in last century and now it has been one of the three sects of Buddhism in Nepal. Dharmodaya Sabha, the National Buddhist Association of Nepal has managed to be chairperson of the Association by turn of Theravadin, Vajrayani and Himalayan (Tibetan) Buddhism. Now a day’s Shakyas of Kathmandu valley are famous for their Buddhist art creation. 

I am in my humble residence in a remote area of Kathmandu, where I hope no one can find me and I cannot find anyone, packing and tidying my things which are currently still spread over the tables and the floor. I thought I could take a break, but I still find myself busy packing and unpacking. I guess this is the boring story of my life. Then on the table, I saw a book that says "Buddha's Life Story", and when I flipped through the pages, I ran into the story of the massacre of the Shakya Clan, a story that I want to share with you.

Buddha's own kingdom, Kapilavastu, has a very powerful neighbour, Kosala kingdom. Both kingdoms historically had been in conflicts. An interesting incident happened before Buddha got enlightened. King Prasenajit of Kosala sent an ambassador to Kapilavastu, the kingdom of Shakya clan, to propose to one of the princesses. But Shakya people generally looked down on Kosala people and saw them as barbarians, so the Buddha's father not wishing to upset the king of Kosala, married a slave girl who was disguised as a princess to him. The Buddha at that time did not agree to this idea, because it was not respecting Kosala kingdom and it was a bad deed to lie. His father did not listen and slave girl from Shakya clan became the Queen of Kosala.

Ten years after Buddha renounced his kingdom and 4 years after his enlightenment, he went back to his kingdom to teach. The Shakya people were so excited they built a beautifully ornamented altar for the Buddha. By this time, the King and Queen of Kosala had a son, Prince Virudhaka, who was 8 years old, and he was sent back to Kapilavastu to learn weaponry. The soldiers caught the young prince playing in the holy altar and their commander told the prince he was the son of a slave, therefore he had dirtied the altar. Prince Virudhaka became very insulted and angry, after knowing that Buddha's father tricked his father into marrying a slave, he vowed to take revenge against the Shakya clan.

There was peace at least for a while since King and Queen of Kosala were disciples of the Buddha. But after Prince Virudhaka forcefully seized power from his father, he declared war on the Shakyas. The Buddha stopped him three times, but by the fourth time the Buddha was suffering from a headache and could not stop the prince, the prince who had become the new king of Kosala, successfully marched towards Kapilavastu. Maha-Maudgalyayana, Buddha's disciple who was well-known for performing miracles, thought he could save at least 500 Shakyas by covering them up in his begging bowl and taking them out of Kapilavastu, but when he opened the bowl, there was only blood. The Buddha had told him that the law of karma could not be avoided when the karma ripened, no one could stop, not even someone who could perform miracles.

After the tragedy, the Buddha's disciples could not understand why the Buddha could not help his own people, the people of Shakya. The Buddha told them a story of an ancient past. There was a village and next to the village was a pond. One time due to drought and famine, there was nothing to eat, so the villagers ate the fish, prawns, clams and crabs easily taken from the drying pond.  There was even a huge fish of 8 to 9 feet long. Everyone enjoyed the meat of other animals, except a 3 years old child. He saw the big fish opening its mouth and thought it was very funny, he beat the fish head 3 times with a branch.

After many many lives, these villagers took rebirth as the people of Shakya clan. The huge fish took rebirth as Prince Virudhaka and his army were actually the fish, prawns, clams and crabs eaten cruelly by the villagers. The boy who beat the fish head was the Buddha himself. Even though the Buddha did not kill or eat any of the pond beings, he too had to suffer from headache because he beat the fish head 3 times. Together with the massacre of the entire Shakya clan, this is an example of collective karma.

This is interdependent origination, no one can escape the calculation of karma. When the conditions are suitable for the ripening karma, then whatever good or bad karma will come to show you the results of your past positive or negative deeds. There is a saying, the enlightened ones are afraid of the causes, the sentient beings are afraid of the results. There are two types of karma, one is the individual karma, one is the collective karma.

I am sorry for my long-windedness. Actually what made me tell you this story, among many others was because of an email I received from the chairperson of Drukpa Mexico. As you all know, there is a strange flu that is going around, I also just learned a new terminology "Swine Flu". At first, I thought, "Oh, not again, they are going to kill all the birds or chickens." But then I only realised that "swine" means "pig". So now if a pig gets a flu, he can pass the flu to us and then we can pass the pig flu to everyone. How frightening this is?

"You are what you eat" is something I always hear some of my friends say. So I don't know if there is anything to do with the food that some people are eating that they become easily affected by the disease of the animals they eat.

Going back to karma. To my feeling, the outbreak of "Swine Flu" is the ripening of a collective karma. There is no way to run away, whether it happens in Mexico, in Hong Kong, in America, in Europe, in Japan or even in Australia. Some people may say, "I have never killed a pig, I have never killed an animal, why should I go through this suffering?" Look at the story of the Shakya clan, aeons ago the villagers killed that many animals in the pond, and their collective karma happened many generations after. So even if you are a good person this life, you may still suffer if the conditions are there for your past negative karma to ripen. How many pigs, birds, chickens, fish and all these poor animals you have killed and eaten? You don't know.

Buddha Shakyamuni would call this collective karma. Even I myself, claiming as a reincarnate master and etc., I may also have to go through my own ripening karma because I could have done something bad or something wrong, millions of years ago, lives ago. So the results have to be experienced.

It doesn't mean that we have to suffer helplessly. We should see this as a lesson, as a teaching. From now onwards, we should try to behave very nicely. Even though we don't have love or compassion, at least we should be afraid to go through this sort of negative and painful experience. What is happening now is very unfortunate, but we should not go through this ignorantly, we should be seeing this as an alarm. This means that we as human beings have to find solutions to live harmoniously with each other, especially when it comes to animals and nature. We should not be abusing anyone in this universe, because sooner or later, we will be the ones suffering.

We cannot say these things to animals because they are not supposed to know or understand anything, at least they can't speak. We human beings who are supposed to be more intelligent should be the ones knowing how to live for a brighter future, this is where we should be using our smartness.

People have to practise more of Live to Love, not only behaving nicely, but we should try our best to liberate those beings who are going to be slaughtered out of our own human selfishness and also to help those beings who are suffering from "Swine Flu".

I am very happy that 600 of my monks and nuns can join together to do this Walking Pilgrimage, not only that I am also very thrilled that some friends and students have come up with such a creative idea to make our Walking Pilgrimage a charity event so that we are able to join together to help the children in different ways. This is a great and practical way to practise Live to Love and to offer help to less fortunate children.

In this kind of time, first we saw financial problems, now we see dangerous flu going around, this is a big alarm that we should not waste our time, not only because of this thing about collective karma ripening, but also about life being so impermanent. Instead we should try to spend more time together, we should find time to join together so that we can dedicate our collective energy to do good things, to practise together, to walk together and to support each other so that our collective good karma will bring tremendous happiness and joy to ourselves, then to our surrounding, then to our environment, gradually to the world and the bigger universe. I strongly encourage those of you who have the time and those who can find time to join us in the walking pilgrimage and those of you who don't have the time, you can always support the Charity Walk for the children.

I also have a big request for all of my friends and students. From today until 6th May, for 7 days, I would like to ask everyone to join me in the recitation of Vajra Guru Mantra and send this counting to my office email. Different centres should also be organising this and send the collection of mantra to my office. By 6th May, I am hoping that collectively we can accumulate 100 million Vajra Guru Mantra to dedicate to those suffering physically and morally because of "Swine Flu". I believe this mantra will help. We should also try to release 100,000 lives, not any live, but mainly those lives who will be slaughtered to satisfy our appetite. For those of you who are not vegetarians, at least try to be vegetarian for these 7 days. If we all can achieve this target, at least some help will be there.