We've now reached the Maha Sihanada Sutta, which is number 12 in the Majjhima Nikaya. This is the larger Lion's Roar Sutra. This sutra includes the Buddha talking about his supernatural powers and also about his past practice of asceticism.
It's presented as a conversation between the Buddha and his disciple Shariputra. Occurring sometime near to the end of the life of the Buddha. This conversation is apparently provoked by the fact that Shariputra has overheard Sunakkhatta criticizing the Buddha, saying that the Buddha has no supernatural powers and just teaches a clever system, that he's made up for himself about getting rid of suffering.
So the sutta also has some bearing on the relationship between Sunakkhatta and the Buddha and we find out a bit more about this relationship in two other sutras: . Sutta 24 in the Dignikaya and Sutta 105 in the Majjhima Nikaya.
It seems that Sunakkhatta came to the Buddha for teaching, in due course became a monk, and even perhaps a close assistant to the Buddha. He went traveling with the Buddha, but Sunakkhatta's mind was always going off on other tracks and he didn't really take in the Dharma of Buddha.
Eventually he left the Sangha discontented and then went about criticizing the Buddha as in this sutra. Well, it's perhaps inevitable that some people will be like this. They will follow a teacher for a time, but their minds are already full of other ideas and notions and, in due course, they become dissatisfied with the teacher because he doesn't fit their preconceived ideas. There are some people who become real disciples and transmit the teacher's Dharma to future generations and other people who come for a while, pick up some ideas, but basically are on a different track.
When we look at the histories of the great teachers in the Buddhist past, they mostly only had a very few real disciples. Bodhidharma only had four, for instance, and he's one of the great figures in the history. This is why we say that the transmission of the Dharma hangs by a thread.
Actually, the sutra cannot really be a transcript of a real conversation. It contains long, detailed descriptions of things that Shariputra, as the Buddha's leading disciple, would already have known perfectly well for many years, so, unless the Buddha had become senile or something, he simply wouldn't have talked in this way.
Probably, the account has been considerably augmented by editors in order to provide extra information to the reader. Apart from a eulogy about the Buddha's supernatural powers and a description of the extremity of his earlier ascetic practices, the main thing that we learn from this sutra is about the Buddha's remarkable ability to understand the disposition of the faculties of other people and hence to be able to foresee their destiny according to their deeds. The Buddha could see who was on a downward path, who was on an upward path, who would end up in hell, who would find a way to heaven, and even who would enter nirvana.
Presumably, he was able to do this because his own ego didn't get in the way. He could discern the trajectory of a person's life. He was a good listener and so, he could help them into a better path. Sunakkhatta, however, had rejected this opportunity, and he was not alone.
Not everybody is ready for the Dharma. Those who are ripe are few. The best disciple is clean, sound, and open to receive the Dharma.
Namo Amida Bu. Thank you very much.
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