The Doors to the Immortal are Open

Now in order to understand this verse, we have to refer back to the whole episode in which it occurs.

I'll describe this episode just briefly because I've often had occasion to mention it in the past, in previous talks.

After his enlightenment, the Buddha felt inclined, apparently, according to the scriptures, not to say anything about it to anyone, to keep quiet.

The new man was not prepared to speak.

He realized that the truth that he had discovered, the reality which he had perceived, was very, very difficult, very abstruse, going far beyond the capacities of the vast majority of people.

In fact, he saw that people were immersed in craving and in ignorance, and they would not be able to understand the truth, even if he uttered it.

So he was inclined, we are told, to remain inactive and not to teach.

So this great being, Brahma, Brahma Sahampati, the lord of a thousand worlds, the sort of cosmic father figure, if you like, he became aware of what was passing in the Buddha's mind.

And he thought, he reflected, that this is terrible.

If the Buddha, if the new man does not speak, does not teach, then the whole world will perish.

It may progress materially, people may become prosperous, even happy after a fashion, but there'll be no value in it if the Buddha does not teach, if there's no spiritual element in their existence, if the way to the higher evolution is not made open, the human race will just rot, it'll just stagnate, it'll perish.

So Brahmasahampati thought that at all costs, the Buddha, the new man, must be induced to teach.

So he appeared in front of him like a great golden light.

And out of the great golden light there came the voice of Brahmasahampati begging the Buddha, begging the new man to teach, begging him to make known to humanity the truth which he had discovered.

And he said, it is true that the vast majority are sunk in craving and ignorance.

But there are just a few whose eyes are covered with only a little dust.

For their sake, teach the truth that you've realized.

So we're told that the Buddha, sitting there beneath the Bodhi tree, opened what is called his Buddha eye.

not an ordinary eye of flesh, but an eye of supranormal vision, an eye of intuitive insight.

And with that Buddha eye he looked out over the whole world and he saw the whole of humanity and he saw them just like lotus flowers growing in a lotus lake.

He saw that the vast majority were sunk in the mud, right down deep in the waters.

some had grown a little bit higher up.

They were just sprinkled with water, and there were just a very few, like lotuses standing completely free of water.

So he decided, out of compassion, that he would teach.

And he thereupon addressed to Brahma the verse already quoted.