How Asanga Came to See the Future Buddha

Louise Omoto Kessel

This is a story from Tibet. Once there was a man named Asanga who had his heart set on attaining great inner wisdom. He left his home and family to live alone, high in the mountains, in a small cave. There, he meditated in retreat for many years. He spent his time in solitude and simplicity. The greatest

wish of Asanga was to see Champa, the Buddha of the future, who resides in heaven, awaiting descent to earth. Asanga believed that if he could enter a state of meditation so powerful as to receive the vision of Champa, that his life would be changed forever, that he would have great power and insight,

that he'd be able to be of great service to the world. Asanga was a determined man, and he was completely devoted to his longing to see Champa. But after many years of intense meditation, even Asanga, this devoted student, started to feel an undercurrent of frustration. He so longed to attain the wisdom he desired and yet years of meditation did not seem to be bringing him closer to his goal. One day, while taking a walk outside his cave, Asanga came to a

rock outside his cave. Asanga came to a rocky outcropping, where a flock of birds made their home. Asanga watched the birds landing on a nearby rock. Where the birds’ wings brushed the rock as they landed, Asanga noticed that the rock had been worn smooth. Asanga smiled and reflected in wonder on the countless numbers of years it must have taken for the soft brushing of birds’ wings to make the rock smooth. When he returned to his cave, Asanga, his senses

sharpened by deep meditation, heard the soft drip of water over stone. As he looked to see where this sound was coming from he found a small rivulet of water running down the rock face and, looking again, he noticed that over the years the gentle dripping of the water had cut a deep pathway into the rock.

Asanga smiled again. If the brush of a bird's wings and the gentle drip of water can cut through stone, so too can I, through meditation, cut through the thought layers of the mind and attain great wisdom. So Asanga returned to his meditation with renewed energy. The years of devoted meditation continued but still without results. It seemed the more earnestly he sought wisdom, the more passionately he tried to invoke Champa, the more impossible it became.

Many years of mediation later, Asanga left his cave to search for food. Again at this time, a sense of futility had overtaken him. On this day Asanga came upon a man who was rubbing a stout iron bar with a piece of cotton. Asanga asked, "What are you doing?" The man said that he was making a needle. Asanga

laughed that the man should think it possible to make a needle by rubbing soft cotton over a thick iron bar. And when he said so, the man replied "When a human being is really determined to do something, when they put all of their life energy behind it they will not be met with failure. Even if the task is seemingly impossible."

Once again Asanga's strength was renewed. His task was surely no harder than that of the man making the needle. And so he returned to his cave and aspired to continue with his meditation and devoted himself again, this time even more completely, to his task. But after Asanga had been meditating for twelve

years and still without results, Asanga finally decided to leave his retreat, to give up his meditation on Champa. He thought that perhaps he was not capable of achieving that level of meditation and clarity. For the future Buddha would not appear to him even after so many years of trying. As Asanga

walked down the mountain, leaving his cave, he came upon a dog who was writhing and whimpering with pain. As Asanga approached the dog with great concern, he saw that the dog had a wound in its side that was infected and infested with maggots. Asanga felt great compassion for the dog and wished to relieve its

suffering, and he thought immediately of cleaning the wound. But then he thought, "if I clean the wound of maggots, the maggots will surely die. They will have no food; they will have no place to live." Considering this, Asanga determined that he would remove the maggots to clean the dog's wound, and he would place the maggots on his own body so they could continue to live. Asanga

reached out to do this and then stopped again. If I remove the maggots with my fingers, he thought, I might crush them. Asanga, then, without hesitation, acted on his next thought. Closing his eyes, Asanga leaned forward to lick the wound clean. Just as his tongue touched the dog the dog disappeared, and in

its place, bathed in a pool of brilliant light, appeared Champa, the future Buddha. Asanga spoke to Champa. “Here you are. For years I lived in a cave on the mountain, alone. For years I meditated for hours each day with only the desire to see you. For so many years and in so many ways I have tried to see you. Why do you come now? Now that I have left my retreat and given up my meditation? Why now do you appear before me?" Champa replied, “It is only now through your great act of compassion that your mind is pure and you are able to see me. In truth, I have been here the whole time."

Then Champa asked Asanga to carry him on his back into the city, so that other people might see him. And so Asanga entered the city with the future Buddha on his back, but the people, their minds clouded by impure thoughts, they could not see Champa. When Asanga cried out with joy, "Look, look and see, Champa is here, I am carrying him on my back," they thought Asanga was crazy. Yet, even so, there were a few that could see. One kind old woman looked and thought

she saw a puppy on Asanga's back, and, even seeing this much, she was immediately given great riches. A poor but generous servant caught a glimpse of Champa's toes and from that moment onward attained great power and tranquility of mind. Champa then took Asanga to the heavens, where Asanga gained the teaching and insight that he had wanted for so many years. He attained great wisdom through his compassion for the smallest of creatures.