What did Buddha prepare before the Great Dying?VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.

According to Theravāda Buddhist tradition, Vesak is a celebration of three important events associated with the life of the Buddha: the day of Buddha's Birth, the Buddha's enlightenment, and the Buddha's passing into Nirvana. Because of the combination of these three important events, the Vesak ceremony is also known as the Feast of the Threefold. The Memorial of the Three Gorges, also an occasion to remind us of the teachings of the guru. For Buddhists, to welcome Buddha's birthday and to appreciate Buddha is nothing more than to apply his teachings and instructions into the life of study and practice. On the occasion of the 2557 Buddha's Birthday season, NSGN would like to introduce readers to the article by Hoang Quang, revolving around the event of the Buddha's passing away and his last earnest teachings, for monks and nuns. as well as at home.  Buddha is a complete autonomy of life and death. Whether he wants to live for a long time or leave at any time, the Buddha can decide for himself. That is the truth recorded when the Buddha foretold his disciples and opposing forces about the time he would die. Above all, with the truth that he was enlightened with:  There is nothing born without aging or death (1) , the abandonment of the body of the four elements is also an affirmation and clarification, of the rules. The basic law that Buddha worked hard to discover.

It can be said, from the time he declared:  After three months starting today Tathagata will die. Ananda, today at the temple of Ca-pàla, Tathagata is mindful, aware, renouncing life, onions  (not maintaining life for much longer) ⁽²⁾ , there are many things that Buddha carefully prepared. for your great return.
Through the investigation of the  Great Nirvana Sutta , the related sutras and equivalent offerings in the Sutta Pitaka, important details about the Buddha's preparation for the Great Dying event were discovered. Among the textual details, the writer only focuses on four main focuses. Firstly, strengthen the Sangha organization; second conviction Kinh, Law making guideline; the third embodiments the ideal of service and finally appoints the lay person in charge of the funeral.

Consolidate the organization of the Sangha

After the comments for Brahmin Vassakara, the great minister of Magadha, regarding solutions for national security, the term is often called the  seven rotten legal measures ; On that occasion, the Buddha showed his deep concern for the existence and steady development of the Sangha community.
He had the Venerable Ananda summon the Sangha near Rajagaha and teach the basic principles for the stability and sustainable development of the monastic organization. According to statistics, only in the first chanting of the  Great Nirvana Sutta,  the Buddha lists up to 35 indestructible dharma and six basic principles for the harmony of the Sangha ⁽³⁾ .
In the 35 rotten legal and six principles of living intimately related to the life essence of the Sangha. According to the Buddha, the Sangha's living being is internal witness, meditation, and discipline. Living up to school, practicing Satipa xứ xứhāna, losing consciousness, managing impermanence, egolessness, impure and falsehood, etc., the Sangha group will be firm in life. In particular, the effort of transforming oneself according to the methods taught by the Buddha, is a basic condition to contribute to the strengthening of the Sangha organization.
Besides, the power of the Sangha is the combined power of individuals living in unions. To gain that power, the principles of living together must be respected. The respect, respect for the elders, chastity, respect, not gathering and useless gossip, preserving the six glasses of glass, living together in harmony like water with milk ... are the principles and the standard makes the Sangha community flourish.
The interest in living together and the standards of conduct among monks as the name, the form of communication between small people and adults and vice versa are also taught by the Buddha in detail ⁽⁴⁾ . Not stopping there, the Buddha had an interest in particular individuals in the Sangha organization. The attempt to transform Channa-bhikkhu committed a foul ⁽⁵⁾ at the end of life, is a living testimony of the Buddha, to the stability, solidarity and development of the Sangha.
From the reality of the disciples of the sect Nigantha Nathaputta not respect each other, fighting and devouring each other after the rabbi died in Pava, from Kushinagar about 15km to the east, are recorded in the trading  Phung proceedings ⁽⁶⁾ , the Sutta of  Purification ⁽⁷⁾ , has made the matter of strengthening the Sangha organization one of the most important and pressing issues. The seven rotten legal methods are constantly being developed in five aspects, plus six glass mediations, one of the bases to justify this view.

Confidence Kinh, Law  making guideline

After the Buddha's extinction, who do they depend on and who is the leader of the Sangha? This is not only a concern of Mr. Ananda but also of most Buddhist disciples. The Buddha cleared that question with a strong affirmation:  Ananda, be yourself a lamp to yourself, rely on yourself, not on something else. Use the Dharma as a lamp, use the Dharma as a refuge, do not rely on anything else ⁽⁸⁾ . Not only that, in the final words, the Buddha returned this affirmation:  Hey Ananda, Dharma and Law, I have taught and presented, after I am finished, that Fa and Law will be the master. of you ⁽⁹⁾ .
The Buddha's teaching was very clear when it was convinced that the teachings were a guide, a basis for every motto and action of the Buddha's followers later. However, a fact that was posed is that in the time of Buddha, the scriptures were not recorded in writing, so it is easy to happen the inadequacy of the content. Here, the question of how to ascertain the teachings or transmissions given by the Buddha himself, is also an important issue, pointed out by the Buddha.
According to the Buddha, the basis for distinguishing what is the true teaching of the Buddha needs to refer to two factors, namely the Sutta and the Law.
According to the  Great Nirvana Sutta,  the Buddha cited four cases concerning the conviction of the authenticity of the text ^(10).. In all four cases, whether claiming to hear from the Blessed One himself or hear from a monk or many venerable monks on the canon ... don't be in a hurry. and affirmed that it was a Buddhist text. According to the Buddha, it is necessary to rely on the Sutta and the Law to be able to determine whether or not it is the teaching of the Buddha. This is also the concern that the Buddha previously taught the Kalama people in the Sutta of  Kesaputta ⁽¹¹⁾ .
Along with strengthening the base of the Sutta and the Law, due to his back pain, Buddha appointed Venerable Sariputta to summarize the main points of the Dharma. Notably, before the beginning of the discourse, Venerable Sariputta also narrated the story of the disciple's controversy after the death of the Nigantha Nathaputta. The urgency of the matter was strongly presented by Venerable Sariputta: The  Sages, this dharma was cleverly taught by The Blessed One, an effective Dharma guidance, leading to peace, by the Right perception presented. Here, all people need to chant together, not quarrel each other, so that this virtue is enduring, sustained for a long time, for the sake of beings, for the sake of beings, for mercy ideas for life, for the sake, for the welfare of the gods and humans⁽¹²⁾ .
There is a remarkable thing, because before long, in urban Campa, venerable Sariputta spoke to them monks sermon with the last ten similar legal texts of  Low ⁽¹³⁾ . In this time, with the basic contents, profound, dynamic, the sermon of Venerable Sariputta can be considered as the first classic sutta when Buddha was still alive.

Embodying the ideal of service

Since his enlightenment, the Buddha spent the rest of his life with only one purpose: to educate sentient beings to realize the truth that he had enlightened. Most moving, in the final and final stages of the journey, the silver eagle on each of his footprints still fills the aspiration of being born.
In the story of the last feast in Pava, offered by the blacksmith Cunda, is a tragic song about the will of the Blessed One ⁽¹⁴⁾ . According to the text, Cunda offered the Blessed One a meal with the finest and best food in his possible conditions. Beijing  School of the  record that there are dishes  sukara-maddave (a type of fungus). It was extremely unfortunate that the meal was not in keeping with the current state of the Blessed One, to be more precise that the food was accidentally poisoned, but Cunda did not realize it. With the sincerity of Cunda, the Blessed One rejoiced to use life, and to protect everyone, the Buddha quietly told Cunda to immediately bury the remaining wooden ear food, because no one  in Heaven, Human, In Maa, in Brahma, none of them Sa and Brahmin, among the Heavenly and Human, eat this wood ear that can be digested, except Tathagata ^(15). .
It should be seen, with the thesis:  the Tathagatas enter into Infinite Nirvana without harm ⁽¹⁶⁾, therefore, all the influence of external factors does not affect the life of the Blessed One. Even so, with the responsibility of a supreme master, the Buddha feared that, after his passing, the Cunda blacksmith would forever regret the meal offerings, considering that one of the reasons for the Blessed One. soon passed away, so he instructed Venerable Anan:  There are two offerings of eating one karmic, one heterosexual result, bigger karmic retribution, more beneficial than other eating offerings? how is two? One is the meal before the Tathagata witnesses the supreme Dharma of awareness, the other is the meal before the Tathagata destroys the level of Nirvana, no longer having the influence of birth and death. These two meals have one karmic retribution, one heterogeneous result, bigger karmic retribution, more beneficial than other food offerings.
It can be said that, although he knew that the food was poisonous, but because he wanted to benefit the sentient beings, namely, to bring great blessings to the blacksmith Cunda, the Buddha did not hesitate to use the last meal. The image of Buddha's last meal has many similarities with the poison glass that the sage Socrate (469-399) had leisurely drank, out of compassion for life, for the happiness of man and all species .
Also on the eve of the Great Dying, with the devotion of the pagan Subhadda, the Buddha consented to the lecture, he made his vow of ordination, was ordained and soon, attained A- la-drought. The transformation of Subhadda wandering in the night of the Great Dying, the Buddha embodied the ideal of being born tirelessly, even though it was the last minute of his life.

Appointment of the laity takes care of the  funeral

For Buddha, the body is just a harmony of the four elements. After the Buddha entered Endless Nirvana, the four great bodies, though crystallized into relics, also followed the law of convergence, concur with time. Therefore, he chose the method of cremation and assigned the lay clergy in charge of the funeral.
Before Ananda's concern about the form of mourning and who is the person who presided over this important event, Buddha solemnly discerned :  Hey Ananda, do not worry about the respect of the body and relics. of Tathagata. Hey Ananda, you should strive, be diligent toward self-reliance, not distracted life, diligence, specializing in self-reliance. Hey Ananda, there are Sat-the-seat scholars, Brahmin scholars, the credible home scholars of Tathagata, who will take care of the reverence and offerings to the body of relics of Tathagata ⁽¹⁷⁾ .
This is an important teaching, meant to refer to all matters related to the post-ordination of monks, regardless of the age. Although present during the funeral, all three of the Buddha's great disciples such as Venerable Maha Kassapa, Venerable Anurudha and Venerable Ananda still stand outside all funeral developments. If there is a reasonable contribution, then only Venerable Maha Kassapa would light a fire into the pyre's pyre's body. Immediately after the Buddha just passed away, for the rest of the night, sitting near the Buddha's body, Venerable Ananda and Anurudha calmly discussed the Dharma and waited for the morning to enter Kusinagar and inform the people. Mala.
After being informed by Venerable Ananda, the lay people in Mala took care of the Buddha's funeral and they did what they needed to do to follow the instructions. In particular, the lay householder has the decisive influence in Buddha's funeral, Brahmin Dona ⁽¹⁸⁾ . This Brahmin himself prevented a conflict between the eight countries, when countries wished to request a part of the Blessed One's relics to build a worship tower. A Brahmin, who is not a renunciate, stands out to divide the relics of the Buddha and has the ability to convince all eight countries, then all has a solid, peculiar identity.
Read carefully the text, the identity of Brahmin Dona gradually clear. First of all, it was the Brahmin who discovered very strange footprints and followed them, to finally meet the Buddha on the road between Ukkatthà and Setabbya. From the audience, Brahmin went from surprise to surprise and finally realized that the person talking is a Buddha ⁽¹⁹⁾ . From predestined encounter with the Buddha initially, Brahmin Dona gradually admired Buddhism. In consultation on the five Brahmin classes, Mr. Dona asked for refuge with the Blessed One and officially became a lay householder in the Three Jewels of Faith ^(20).. Reportedly, there was a stupa built to worship the bowl that Brahmin Dona used to divide the relics of Buddha. Xuanzang confirmed in his diary and according to Indian tourism, the stupa still exists at a location near Kusinagar ⁽²¹⁾ .
Thus, although the funeral of the Buddha was appointed only by the laity, but, based on the reliable documents, it was a strong layperson, faithful to the Three Jewels, enough to be blessed. predestined to perform this very important virtue.

Instead of a conclusion or some thought about the aftermath of a renunciate

During the Buddha's time, the monks and nuns took the practice and directed themselves to liberation, considering it a major task and not too focused on funeral procedures. According to the recorded records, a few monks who fell down the mountain died, were bitten by snakes, died from illness and funerals were organized simply. As soon as the Buddha's high monk, Sariputta, his funeral was simple, only a few monks were next to him and after that, Sa-di Cunda cremated his body, collected the relics and put them in the bowl. and return to prospectus with the Blessed One ⁽²²⁾ .
Learning from the simplicity of the funeral of his predecessor, in the legend of Huyen Trang, he wished to be buried only ⁽²³⁾ . Closer, the sorcerer Thanh Nghiem also chose cremation and the remaining ashes scattered in the forest for lush trees⁽²⁴⁾ . In Viet Nam male In the past and present, there are also many senior monks who show a certain simplicity, in taking care of their rear.
Granted, depending on the cultural space, in each country, the region has ways to deal with the remains of the deceased. In the particular burial rituals of each region, especially for the monks and nuns, the increase in their own practice, in order to make it the merit of supporting the deceased, is as minimal as possible. funeral rituals ... are options that are similar to what our masters have done, thousands of years ago.  END=NAM MO SHAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=THICH CHAN TANH.AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.7/3/2020.