The Buddha and the Serial Killer

I gave this talk Sunday, August 12, 2012, at the Grand Rapids Buddhist Temple. It was the first Dharma talk I gave.

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I’m going to tell you an ancient Buddhist story. It’s from the Angulimala Sutra in the Majjhima Nikaya.

It’s the story of a man, who at his birth, was named Ahimsaka (the Harmless One or the Non-Violent One). But, as he entered adulthood he became known as Angulimala (Finger Garland or Finger Necklace).

He was given that name because he was a serial killer and he wore a trophy necklace made of fingers of his victims. When we first encounter him in our story he’s having trouble adding more fingers to his mala, his necklace. He’s having difficulty in finding more victims. People were avoiding the area he prowled.

I’ll tell you now he doesn’t get anymore fingers. Because the story of Angulimala is a story of redemption. It’s a story that teaches no one is beyond redemption.

We learn many lessons from this Sutra but two main points you may consider as you hear this tale are the importance of looking for the root cause of violence, and the importance of finding peaceful means to end violence.

There’re two versions of the possible reasons for the violence of the man called Angulimala.

The version found outside of scripture tells us Ahimsaka, Harmless, was born as an outcaste, an untouchable. A member of the Vedic tradition who was so unworthy that even his shadow polluted others. He becomes a rebel and uses violence to seek power and to gain some control.

The Sutra version explains how Ahimsaka was born into a prominent Brahmin family. The stories that have grown up around this version tell us at his birth Ahimsaka’s horoscope said the babe would become a robber. His father considered killing him but was advised against that cruel act. The babe was named Ahimsaka, Harmless, Non-Violence, in the hopes it might guide him away from the course his horoscope foretold.

At school he was a very bright student. He became a favorite of his teachers. This led his fellow students to first feel jealousy towards him, then hatred. They spread rumors about him. The fruit of those rumors, the damage the hate and the rumors caused, was a serial killer named after a rotting and stinking necklace.

The Sutra begins:

I have heard on one occasion the Blessed one was staying near Savatthi…. And at that time in King Pasenadi’s realm there was a bandit named Angulimala; brutal, bloody-handed, devoted to killing and slaying, showing no mercy to living beings. He turned whole villages into non-villages, towns into non-towns, settled countryside into unsettled countryside. Having repeatedly killed human beings, he wore a garland made of fingers.

The king had sent out many solders to find and kill Angulimala. They always failed.

We only know of Angulimala, of his brutality and his ability to stay one step ahead of the authorities because early one morning the Buddha went with his alms bowl in hand to Savatthi. After the Buddha had eaten he went walking down a path that led into Angulimala’s forest.

People saw the Buddha going into the forest and they tried to dissuade him from taking that deadly path. But, the Buddha did not turn back. He walked into the shadows of the ancient trees.

The Sutra tells us Angulimala saw the Buddha coming and said to himself: “Isn’t it amazing! Isn’t it astounding! Groups of ten, twenty, thirty, and forty men have gone along this road, and even they have fallen into my hands, and yet now this contemplative comes…alone and without a companion. Why don’t I kill him?”

Angulimala was a fast runner. It’s said he could outrun a man and run down a galloping horse or a running deer. But, the Sutra tells us when he got on the path behind the Buddha he couldn’t catch up with him. The Buddha walked and Angulimala ran, and still he couldn’t catch up.

Angulimala stopped and yelled to the Buddha to also stop. The Buddha answered he had stopped and he told Angulimala to stop. Angulimala was bewildered because he knew renunciants and contemplatives like the Buddha always spoke the truth.

The Sutra records this conversation between the Buddha and the Serial Killer.

[Angulimala]

“While walking, contemplative,

you say, ‘I have stopped’.

But when I have stopped

you say I haven’t.

I ask you the meaning of this:

How have you stopped?

How haven’t I?”

[The Buddha answered]

“I have stopped, Angulimala,

once and for all,

having cast off violence

toward all living beings.

You, though,

are unrestrained towards beings.

That’s how I’ve stopped

and you haven’t.”

[Angulimala responds]

“At long last a greatly revered great seer

for my sake

has come to the great forest.

Having heard your verse

in line with the Dharma,

I will go about

having abandoned evil.”

Listen to the killer’s words: “…for my sake...”

Angulimala realized the Buddha had come looking for him, to help him, to help him find healing. Someone cared. I think whatever the anger and whatever the resentment that had driven him to this bloody-cruel life was now, at long last soothed and cooled by the knowledge that someone did care.

Amazingly, the Sutra tells us Angulimala asked the Buddha to ordain him. The Buddha agreed. The Sutra records the Buddha said two words, “Come, [Monk].” And Angulimala was ordained.

A few days later, King Pasenadi, with his soldiers, was out searching for Angulimala. The king stopped to pay his respects to the Buddha. The Buddha asked him why he was traveling with so many solders. He asked if there was a danger of invasion or rebellion. The king replied he was searching for the bloody bandit, Angulimala.

The Buddha asked the king what he would do if he saw Angulimala with his hair and beard shaved off wearing the saffron robe of a monk.

The king replied he would bow and pay respects to the monk.

The Buddha pointed to a monk sitting near by, “That, great king, is Angulimala.”

The king became very frightened. The Sutra says the king’s hair stood on end. Other stories say the king actually fainted from fear.

However strong was the king’s reaction, when the Buddha told him of the healing of Angulimala, the sutra says the king replied to the Buddha, “What we have tried to do by force and with weapons you have done with neither force nor weapons.”

It may be surprising to learn that in Buddhist countries Angulimala is looked upon almost as a patron saint of women in childbirth.

Once, as a monk, Angulimala saw a woman in very painful labor. He felt great compassion for the woman and reported her situation to the Buddha. The Buddha told him to return to the woman and recite a verse. Angulimala did as instructed and the woman had an easy childbirth. Those words are now very often recited to Buddhist women during their labor.

This, in short, is the story of Angulimala. We don’t know how or where he died. But we know how he lived. We know how he found healing. Many people believe meeting the Buddha when and how he did helped him to instantly see the unimaginable misery in which his life had become entangled. He suddenly understood the sorrow and suffering that awaited for him when his evil karma came to flower.

He realized he had become as much a victim of his violence as those he had killed. He now understood the only way to escape the darkness that surrounded him, that hung over him, was to conquer his own self-delusion.

Often we confuse ignorance and evil. That’s part of the story of Angulimala. He wasn’t an evil man, but a man driven by the enemies within himself. He became known as a tamer of his inner enemies. Those enemies are greed, hatred, and delusion; enemies we all know. He saw the poisons, recognized them for what they were, and overcame them.

It might be the job of the government to punish wrong-doers, but the calling of the Bodhisattvas, our calling, is to help guide the troubled so they may transform themselves, awaken themselves, and liberate themselves from ignorance.

If you’re interested, there are many video’s on YouTube from Buddhist countries telling the story of Angulimala. Most are in non-English languages, some have subtitles. All are very colorful.

---Reverend Bup Jih---