Sujata and the bowl of milk rice
For years, Siddhartha lived with a few companions on the edge of a forest near Uruvela. He ate almost nothing and pushed his body to its limits, hoping that hardship would lead to understanding. He grew so thin that his ribs showed.
One day he realised that his mind had become weak too. He saw that neither a life of comfort nor a life of harsh denial had given him what he sought. He decided that he needed to nourish himself in order to keep going.
A village woman named Sujata came to the tree where he sat. She carried a bowl of rice cooked in milk, which she had prepared as an offering. She offered it to him with respect. He accepted it and ate. Strength returned. His companions, seeing him eat, felt that he had given up the path and walked away.
After washing and resting, he went to a large fig tree, the bodhi tree, and sat down. The story of his awakening begins there: see the awakening.
The episode is often called the teaching of the middle way: balance between indulgence and severity. It is also a quiet story about food and generosity. A simple meal, given freely, made a difference at a turning point. Tellings differ on small details, such as the name of the offering, whether Sujata was a wealthy woman, or what she thought he was. The page keeps to the outline that most traditions share. The idea is echoed in the basics under the Eightfold Path.
Related pages
- The Buddha's awakeningPrince Siddhartha sits beneath the bodhi tree and awakens: a short story about Bodhi Day.
- Buddhist basics in plain wordsThe Three Jewels, the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the Five Precepts, and karma and rebirth, explained briefly and neutrally for people who are new to Buddhism.
- Two Jataka talesJataka tales recount the Buddha's earlier lives. Two short ones: the hare, and the golden deer.
- Offerings: what flowers, fruit, water, lamps and incense meanWhat the common offerings at a Vietnamese Buddhist altar stand for: flowers, fruit, clean water, a lamp and incense, and how the four gifts in the online temple relate to them.
Keep reading
- Buddhist basics in plain words
- Layout of a Vietnamese Buddhist temple
- The altars of a Vietnamese temple
- How to pay respects at a Vietnamese temple
- Buddhist calendar
- Uposatha, full-moon and new-moon days
- Buddhist glossary for temple visitors
- Avalokiteshvara (Quan Thế Âm), the one who listens
- The Buddha's awakening
- Two Jataka tales
- Maudgalyayana and filial gratitude
- Visiting a Vietnamese temple: common questions
- Temple etiquette: how to behave in a Vietnamese temple
- Offerings: what flowers, fruit, water, lamps and incense mean
- Festivals in Vietnamese Buddhist temples
- Kisa Gotami and the mustard seed
- The blind men and the elephant
- The poisoned arrow
- Angulimala, the road back
- Ksitigarbha (Địa Tạng) and the vow