The Buddha admiring the beauty of the sorrounding landscape

[Dhamma_Basti]

Hello everybody,
I am currently working on a small edition of a couple of lines from the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutta. It is about the moment when the Buddha is informing Ānananda that he is indeed capable to enhance is stay in this world for a couple more of Kalpas if someone would just ask him to do so. And this sequence starts with the well-known phrase 'how beautiful, oh Ānanda, is Vesālī', a sudden admiration of the nature which seems to be quite unrelated to the rest of the situation at the first look. I know that this is not the only case of such an admiration in the Suttas but I read it a couple of times at other places. I just thought it would be a nice thing to list these parallels as well and see whether there is (or is not) some kind of system behind this or whether the Buddha just from time to time, no matter what the current situation was, enjoyed it to draw attention to the beauty of nature. So has anybody here a suggestion in what Suttas else to look? That would be a great help, as I vaguely remember that we have such instances, but forgot at what places.
With best wishes,

Dhamma Basti

[samseva]

That is a really interesting question and find.

[tiltbillings]

There is a text, probably in the Vinaya (or possibly the suttas) of the Buddha, while standing on a hill with Ananda and looking down upon some rice paddies, telling Ananda to have the monks sew their robes to look like the rice paddies, which are very lovely visually. Vin Mv. Kh. 8 See Ven Nanamoli's The Life of the Buddha, 1978, page 165.

[bodom]

From the Theragatha:

The peacocks — with lovely feathers, lovely wings,
Lovely blue necks and lovely faces,
Call out — a lovely song with a lovely sound.
This great earth has lovely waters and grasses;
There are lovely clouds in the sky.

Meditating with a good sound body and a good mind,
It is good to go forth well
In the good teaching of the Buddha.
Experience that highest, unwavering state!
Most pure, subtle, most hard to see.

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[Dhamma_Basti]

Thank you all so far, that has already been very helpful.
There are mainly two theories why we have this phrase in the MPP (mahāparinirvāṇasutta):

1. Māra tried to catch the Buddha at a 'weak spot', while he was admiring the beauty of the landscape.
2. The Buddha as a human being was somebody who from time to time enjoyed to admire the beauty of the landscape.
According to Ernst Waldschmidt this could be a rare instance of a personal trait of the buddha, as it is quite extraordinary and not related to the usual teaching of the noble eightfold path. Similar to the old buddhist studies professor at our University, who was very determined and on topic when it came to teaching, but as soon as somebody would raise the topic of animals during the class he would loose his focus and start talking about the animals in the early buddhist canon.

I do not think that thesis (1) is very plausible, as this contradicts the overall picture of the Buddha after attaining full enlightenment. I do not think it makes sense to argue that he suddenly starts to admire landscape out of fear of dying or showing attachment to the manussaloka, therefore giving Māra an opportunity to seize control over the Buddha.

I would very much like to agree to Waldschmidt if it wasn't for this instance in the majjhimanikāya, mahāgosiṅgasutta:

Hie venerable Sariputta saw the venerable Revata and the
venerable Ananda coming in the distance and said to the vener-
able Ananda: "Let the venerable Ananda come, welcome to the
venerable Ananda, the Blessed One's attendant, who is always
in the Blessed One's presence. Friend Ananda, the Gosinga Sala-
tree Wood is delightful, the night is moonlit, the sala trees are all
in blossom, and heavenly scents seem to be floating in the air.
What kind of bhikkhu, friend Ananda, could illuminate the
Gosinga Sala-tree Wood?"

This is not the Buddha himself speaking, but Sāriputta. Interestingly the wording is very similar to the sequence in the MPP:

ramaṇīyā, ānanda, vesālī,

vs:

Ramaṇīyaṃ, āvuso ānanda, gosiṅgasālavanaṃ

And there are some related instances, for example in the meghiyasutta meghiyo uses the word ramaṇīyaṃ to describe the ambavana (mango-groove). But that instance is not such a striking parallel, as syntax and context are are slightly different.

I see two ways to solve this:
1. The phrase 'ramaṇīyaṃ, ānanda [...]' cannot be seen as characteristic language of the Buddha (therefore contradicting Waldschmidts idea), but was something that was common in the languge of those days, and furthermore admiration of the landscape was not limited to the Buddha himself, but also done by his disciples from time to time.
2. Something went wrong in the mahāgosiṅgasutta. Either it wasn't Sāriputta who spoke to Ānanda, or somehow a dialog originally uttered by the Buddha got misplaced and landed here in this sutta, attributed to Sāriputta.

To be honest I tend to prefer (2), as oral transmission is prone to such errors, especially in the very earliest stages, before the buddhist community settled down and could develop their own, professional tradition of recitation (which I assume was lacking in the earliest days).
On the other hand, the more non-Buddhas who uttered this or a similar phrase we are able to find in the Pāli-canon, the more we will have to accept (1).
Of course it is very difficult to clearly decide on thise issue, I guess I will just leave it open and make a big footnote on this question.
So thank again for the help!

[Kusala]

Ven. Dhammika: According to the Vinaya the Buddha asked Ananda to sow the pieces of cloth making up monk’s robes in the pattern of ‘the fields of Magadha’ (Magadhaketta, Vin.I,287). While in India in December I saw this scene as I looked out of the window of the vehicle I was travelling in, the identical pattern of the robe I was wearing.

The Fields Of Magadha



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