Shakyamuni and Devadatta—Good and Evil
Published by Soka Spirit Editor
Posted on April 05, 2012
After Shakyamuni Buddha attained enlightenment in India around 2,500 years ago, he began teaching others what he had realized, and the first Buddhist Order was founded. Among the many disciples who followed the Buddha was his cousin Devadatta. Eventually, Devadatta succumbed to his own weakness, and he turned against Shakyamuni. These are the highlights of his tale.
- Devadatta was a man of supreme evil, who conspired to take Shakyamuni’s life and divide the Buddhist order. This was due to arrogance and jealousy.
- Devadatta committed the three cardinal sins.
- Causing disunity in the Buddhist Order. (He deceived 500 disciples into leaving the Buddhist Order.)
- Injuring the Buddha. (He rolled a huge boulder down on Shakyamuni, drawing blood.)
- Killing an arhat or member of the Order. (Devadatta had the nun Utpalavarna beaten to death.)
- The Devadatta chapter explains the relationship between Shakyamuni and Devadatta in the past. When Shakyamuni was the king in a past existence, he resigned the throne and served a seer named Asita, attaining enlightenment. Devadatta is an incarnation of Asita.
- The Devadatta chapter expounds the “enlightenment of evil persons” through the victory of “Shakyamuni’s good.”
- It is expounded that Shakyamuni was able to attain enlightenment and save living beings because of his “good friend” Devadatta. Therefore, although Devadatta fell into the state of hell, Shakyamuni predicted that he would attain enlightenment in the distant future as a Buddha named Heavenly King. Shakyamuni was able to triumph as a Buddha because of Devadatta’s appearance.
- Because Shakyamuni won in his struggle against Devadatta, Devadatta’s “evil” helped prove the power of Shakyamuni’s “good” and Devadatta became a “good friend” in Shakyamuni’s victory. On the other hand, if Devadatta had won in this struggle, then it certainly would not have been possible to say that Devadatta had become a “good friend.”
- If evil functions to reveal ultimate good, then the function of evil becomes good. This is the oneness of good and evil. However, evil cannot turn into good if we simply allow it to run its course. The oneness of good and evil is realized only when we thoroughly challenge and conquer evil.
- The “enlightenment of evil people” presented in the Devadatta chapter is proof of the victory of great good by Shakyamuni. Because of this victory, the Devadatta chapter was born and the enlightenment of all living beings was expounded.
Shakyamuni and Devadatta
The following story of Devadatta’s betrayal is adapted from a dialogue between SGI President Ikeda and leaders of the Soka Gakkai study department in The Wisdom of the Lotus Sutra, Vol. III, “Devadatta Chapter.”
In an attempt to kill Shakyamuni Buddha, one of his top disciples, Devadatta, sent assassins to set loose wild elephants upon him, and, finally, rolled a huge boulder down upon him, injuring the Buddha, but failing again to kill him.
Unlike persecutions coming from without, this incident arose from within the Buddhist community. It was all the more serious because the traitor had conspired with the ruler of the land, King Ajatashatru, to do away with Shakyamuni.
And yet, the “Devadatta” (12th) chapter of the Lotus Sutra explains that even this great scoundrel will attain Buddhahood. On the face of it, this seems a most peculiar contradiction.
Devadatta is thought to have been younger than Shakyamuni, and to have renounced secular life about 15 years after Shakyamuni attained enlightenment. At first, Devadatta earnestly exerted himself in his Buddhist practice as a disciple of Shakyamuni. And because of his talent and ability, he gradually gained distinction in the Buddhist Order. Later, however, it is related that he approached King Ajatashatru in order to gain backing, and came to harbor the ambition of trying to replace Shakyamuni as the head of the order.
It would appear that Devadatta was quite intelligent. Nichiren says that he had “committed to memory…eighty thousand jeweled teachings” (The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 342). That may be why he grew arrogant.
The Buddha’s Cousin Seeks to Replace Him
When Shakyamuni was advanced in years, Devadatta approached him with the request that the Buddha turn over control of the Buddhist order to Devadatta. The reason he gave was Shakyamuni’s age. It is said that even though Shakyamuni immediately refused, Devadatta repeated his demand three times.
Shakyamuni rebuked him to his face, calling him “a fool who licks the spit of others” (WND-1, 245), referring to the fact that he had put himself under the protection of Ajatashatru. Outraged, Devadatta left the order. Shakyamuni immediately instructed his disciples to spread the word that Devadatta was harboring evil intentions, so as to prevent even one person from being led astray by him. An evil person has to be clearly identified as evil. If measures to deal with such a person are halfhearted, many may be confused.
The reason Shakyamuni scolded Devadatta in front of others was so they would thoroughly understand what was at stake. Devadatta’s reaction is said to have been one of profound humiliation at having been put to shame in front of others. He no longer possessed the humble spirit of a student-disciple. His petty pride outstripped his seeking spirit.
It may be that in private Shakyamuni had previously warned Devadatta and that he only took the step of a public reprimand because Devadatta had not heeded the Buddha’s earlier warnings.
Thereafter, Devadatta, having resolved to turn against Shakyamuni, incited Ajatashatru to kill his own father, King Bimbisara, and assume the throne. Then, availing himself of King Ajatashatru’s power, Devadatta devised all kinds of schemes to kill Shakyamuni. All of these attempts failed.
Five Hundred of the Buddha’s Disciples Deceived
Devadatta also plotted to destroy the sangha, or community of Buddhist believers. On the one hand, he tried to kill his mentor; on the other, he tried to undermine Shakyamuni’s bond with his disciples. In terms of precepts, Devadatta advocated monastic rules even stricter than those upheld in Shakyamuni’s order, and so tried to make himself appear superior to the Buddha.
In fact, five hundred of the Buddha’s disciples were deceived by Devadatta’s words and became his followers. But most of them later returned to Shakyamuni after Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, two of Shakyamuni’s senior disciples, reasoned with them.
The strict precepts proposed by Devadatta must have sounded good. Indeed they were so austere that Shakyamuni might have seemed decadent by comparison.
That was probably Devadatta’s intention. An evil person definitely does not present a face that says, “I am evil.” Rather the person will use evil wisdom and cunning to make him or herself appear otherwise. At a time when many people were carrying out extreme practices, it would have been easy to criticize Shakyamuni’s practice of the Middle Way as lacking strictness.
In short, Devadatta desperately wanted to be respected more highly than Shakyamuni. He was motivated by jealousy; and it was for this reason that he thought up his extreme precepts.
Devadatta saw only that Shakyamuni was widely respected; he did not attempt to understand Shakyamuni’s spirit. How Shakyamuni, unbeknownst to others, must have agonized day and night over the question of how to lead people to happiness and make them aware of the treasure of their own lives!
Why couldn’t he see this? Most likely it’s because he himself had given up his own internal struggle. If we perceive our “inner evil” but neglect making efforts to conquer it, then our lives are stained with evil. In that sense, a “good person” is someone who struggles against evil. By fighting the evil around us, we eradicate the evil within our lives and so purify them.
For Shakyamuni at the time, Devadatta was an “evil friend.” He had tried to kill Shakyamuni and disrupted the unity of Shakyamuni’s followers, creating a schism in the Buddhist order, and had a follower of Shakyamuni beaten to death. Shakyamuni reveals that in a past life, this man of great evil had been a good friend. Good and evil are thus completely reversed.
More to the point, Shakyamuni explains that, incredible as it might seem, in the past Devadatta had also been his teacher. In terms of common sense, the notion that a villain like Devadatta could have been the teacher of the Buddha is virtually unthinkable.
There is No Good in Isolation from Evil
The line in the “Devadatta” chapter where Shakyamuni explains his attaining Buddhahood, “The fact that I have attained impartial and correct enlightenment and can save living beings on a broad scale is all due to Devadatta, who was a good friend” (LSOC, 223), seems to offer a clue. In other words, had it not been for Devadatta, then even Shakyamuni could not have become a Buddha.
The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai of China says in the fifth volume of The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra: “Good exists in response to evil. There is no good in isolation from evil” and “Evil supports good. Without evil there would also be no good.”
Good and evil are not substances. They are relative concepts. Therefore, it cannot be said that a particular person is intrinsically good or intrinsically evil.
Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, the first Soka Gakkai president, said: “Even a good person, if he opposes great good, immediately becomes a person of great evil. Even an evil person, if he opposes great evil, immediately becomes a person of great good.” The true entity of life embodies the oneness of good and evil. Both good and evil exist in life. For precisely this reason, in terms of practice, we have to base ourselves on the nature of enlightenment and strive for good.
Buddhism is concerned with victory or defeat. It is a boundless struggle. Because Shakyamuni defeated Devadatta, Devadatta’s “evil” helped prove Shakyamuni’s “good.” On the other hand, had Shakyamuni been defeated by evil, it certainly would not have been possible for him to call Devadatta a “good friend.”
President Toda clarified this matter as follows:
“Devadatta was the slanderer in Shakyamuni’s lifetime; he cut all the roots of goodness in the world. The pre-Lotus Sutra teachings say: ‘Without the existence of evil, wise actions of good cannot be manifested. For this reason, Devadatta had for immeasurable kalpas always been together with Shakyamuni, and when Shakyamuni practiced the Buddha way, Devadatta practiced injustice. In this way, they mutually inspired each other.’ However, once good is completely revealed, evil in its entirety becomes good. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra teaches the oneness of good and evil, the oneness of the erroneous and the true, and the oneness of a reverse relationship and a positive relationship. This is the inner doctrine that had not been revealed in the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings” (Toda Josei Zenshu, vol. 6, pp. 360–61).
If evil functions to reveal good, then evil can be transformed into good. This is truly the oneness of good and evil. But if evil is simply allowed to run its course, then it does not become good. Only when evil is thoroughly challenged and conquered does it become an entity of the oneness of good and evil. In that sense, the enlightenment of evil people presented in the “Devadatta” chapter is great proof of the victory won by Shakyamuni.
The oneness of good and evil does not mean that good and evil are the same. Such a way of thinking amounts to an affirmation of evil. The Lotus Sutra’s doctrine of the oneness of good and evil is about constantly striving to create good and even changing evil into good.