01.  FAVOURABLE BIRTH

                  Castle Street just before 1900, birthplace of Arthur Easton

The word "birth" refers to the arising of the mistaken idea "I," "myself". It does not refer to physical birth, as generally supposed. The mistaken assumption that this word "birth" refers to physical birth is a major obstacle to comprehending the Buddha's teaching.

A favorable birth then for a newly emerging life is that which forms the stage upon which Identity will find it difficult to maintain a hold. Being born into wealth and power, as was Buddha, is not in and of itself a favorable birth. What was favorable was the sensitivity of his mother and his education together with the Dharma genetic component of an inherited "aversive" temperament  from his father.

So in conditions of relative poverty in Plymouth in the Barbican at 2 Castle Street, previously called Damnation Alley, was born Arthur Easton. Here, teeming with local life described by observers at the time as "disgusting by day" with a "second community rendering the district hideous by night - a population of the destitute and dissolute who inhaled their own pestilential odors and vanished with the night".

However, the author of this article was delivered in favorable circimstances at Castle Street with an intelligent father of aversive temperament and a sensitive mother.

But why tell this tale at all? It is hoped that those who read, still in the teeming mass of a stained Samsara, can take it as a lesson that all human creatures -whatever their station, race, education or unfortunate circumstances- can advance upon a natural and correct path.

The truth is garnered not from books nor even the sutras which can be a great help, but from the experiences every day that form the necessary base for advance. For the author it began at birth, but for others at forty or more a new birth within stained Samsara can begin with daily vigilance and an awareness of the lessons readily available

Arthur the father, a proud hard-working non-drinking fisherman, had at this time his own very small fishing boat, which he named "My Delight" with the registration no. PH 57. Yes, My Delight! I remember it well and it was his delight. His wife and child were also his delight.

He declared, when the child was  born, I have been told, "No child of mine will live in such a place" and so we moved as soon as possible to Smeaton Terrace, with a view of Plymouth Hoe with Smeaton's tower, the old Eddystone lighthouse was rebuilt there, and the magic sea of the Plymouth Sound.

The child, fit and heathy, was given the father's name, Arthur, and thereafter called "Little Arthur," as was the custom. The second name was Montague, after the grandfather on the father's side, then William after the grandfather on the mother's side. So Little Arthur was forever identified in these early years with these noble names.

So the illusion that this body/mind captured as "me" together with all that was "mine" stepped into the world of Samsaric Duality.

Arthur Frederick Easton, Fisherman, Plymouth 1946