Buddhist Stories: “The Buddha's Past Life and His First Five Disciples” (Part 2 of 2) Aug 2, 2015

There are many in the Buddhist sutras; there are many nice stories. This is one of them. One time, the Buddha in maybe Varanasi, at that time, the Buddha was staying in that garden. Ananda kneeled in front of the Buddha and asked, “Please, World Honored One, how come the five persons have such a great merit to become your first disciples?” So the Buddha said, “At one time, a long, long time ago they were almost starving to death and I, myself - the Buddha – because of compassion, I cut my vein and gave them the blood so that they could drink and save their lives. Therefore at this time, they can be my five disciples. Because I promised them to enlighten them first.” There are other longer stories that recounted many more of the Buddha’s great deeds of compassion and offering. Many, many countless lifetimes. So that he can accumulate all this merit in order to attain Buddhahood. And something for the thought. To remind us that we have to be more diligent, more compassionate, more considerate to other people, if we want to be worthy of a human, not to talk about elevation into the heavenly kingdom.