A section from the journey
The Dhamma Goes Abroad
Ashoka became a follower of the Buddha, and he wished to share the path of peace far and wide. He sent teachers out from his capital, to Sri Lanka, to the northwest, and even toward the Greek kingdoms. His own son Mahinda is remembered as carrying the teaching to Sri Lanka. In his edicts Ashoka names faraway Greek kings he hoped to reach. By sending the dhamma abroad, this Indian king helped turn the Buddha's teaching into a religion for much of the world.
We have watched Ashoka care for the people of his own land. Now we watch him do something even larger. He sent his ideal of peace out beyond his borders, into the wide world.
Ashoka himself had become a follower of the Buddha, a lay devotee. Yet remember his great rule of tolerance: even as a Buddhist, he asked respect for every faith. He was honest, too, about his own slow start on the path. He had it carved plainly, in words that feel very human.
"I have been a devotee [upasaka] for more than two and a half years, but for a year I did not make much progress."
There is something endearing in that. A great emperor admitting, in stone, that for a whole year he had not done very well at his own faith. It is the voice of a real person trying, and stumbling, and trying again.
Now, being so changed himself, Ashoka wished to share the path of non-harm far and wide. So he sent out teachers and messengers from his capital, like seeds scattered on the wind, to carry the teaching to distant lands.
The most famous of these journeys is remembered in tradition as the work of his own son. A prince named is said to have carried the teaching across the sea to the island of Sri Lanka, to the south. There it took deep root, and there it has lived, without a break, all the way to our own day.
Other teachers went elsewhere. To the northwest, to the land called Gandhara, near today's Afghanistan and Pakistan. Up into the Himalayan mountains. And westward, toward the kingdoms the Greeks had founded after Alexander. The reach was astonishing for its time.
And here is a wonder that ties Ashoka's stones to the wider world. In one of his great edicts, he actually names distant Greek kings whom he hoped his message of dhamma had reached, rulers living far across the sea, in the lands around the Mediterranean. Because we know when those Greek kings lived, these names also help us fix Ashoka firmly in time, a gift to every historian since.
Think of what this means for the whole world's story. A teaching born here, in this land, by the Buddha, began through Ashoka's missions to travel outward, until in time it became a great faith for much of Asia. An Indian emperor's change of heart sent ripples that crossed mountains and seas.
One gentle word before we go on. The Buddha's path is its own tradition, with its own dignity, walking beside the Hindu story as a near and beloved cousin, not folded into it. We honour it as a friend in the room. Ashoka, the great king of our era, happened to be the one who opened the door and let that friend walk out into the world.
Ashoka could not have known that the seeds he scattered would still be growing two thousand years later. We rarely see where our own good acts will travel. Has a kindness or an idea you passed on ever reached further than you ever imagined? How does it feel to plant what you cannot follow to the end?
We have seen Ashoka care for his own people. Now we see him do something larger still. He sent his ideal of peace out into the world. Ashoka himself became a lay follower of the Buddha, though, as we have learned, he still asked respect for every faith. And being so changed, he longed to share the path of non-harm beyond his own borders. So he sent out teachers and messengers, like seeds carried on the wind. Tradition remembers that his own son, Mahinda, carried the teaching across the water to the island of Sri Lanka, where it took deep root and lives to this day. Other missions went to the northwest, to Gandhara, into the Himalayas, and toward the Greek-ruled lands. Most striking of all, in his own edict Ashoka names distant kings of the Greek world whom he hoped his message had reached, rulers far across the sea. He even confessed, simply and humanly, that his own progress on the path had been slow at first. Through these missions, a teaching born in this land began its long journey to become a faith for much of Asia and the world. We honour it here as a near cousin walking beside our own story, not as a part of it.
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