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Supplemental materials gathered primarily from The Pali Text Society's Dictionary of Pali Proper Names and The Psalms of the Early Buddhists, used with permission.
[235] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who have been here a long time (rattannanam) is Mahapajapati Gotami.
(DPPN: An eminent Theri. She was born at Devadaha in the family of Suppabuddha as the younger sister of Mahamaya. At the birth of each sister, interpreters of bodily marks prophesied that their children would be cakkavattins (wheel turners = movers and shakers). King Suddhodana married both the sisters, and when Mahamaya died, seven days after the birth of the Buddha, Pajapati looked after the Buddha and nursed him. She was the mother of Nanda, but it is said that she gave her own son to nurses and herself nursed the Buddha. The Buddha was at Vesali when Suddhodana died, and Pajapati decided to renounce the world, and waited for an opportunity to ask the permission of the Buddha. [Footnote: Pajapati was already a sotapanna.] Her opportunity came when the Buddha visited Kapilaavatthu to settle the dispute between the Sakyans and the Koliyans as to the right to take water from the river Rohini. When the dispute had been settled, the Buddha preached the Kalahavivada Sutta (Sn.vv.862ff), and five hundred young Sakyan men joined the Order. Their wives, led by Pajapati, went to the Buddha and asked leave to be ordained as nuns. This leave the Buddha refused, and he went on to Vesali. But Pajapati and her companions, nothing daunted, had barbers to cut off their hair, and donning yellow robes, followed the Buddha to Vesali on foot. They arrived with wounded feet at the Buddha’s monastery and repeated their request. The Buddha again refused, but Ananda interceded on their behalf and their request was granted, subject to eight strict conditions.
After her ordination, Pajapati came to the Buddha and worshipped him. The Buddha preached to her and gave her a subject for meditation. With this topic she developed insight and soon after won arahantship, while her five hundred companions attained to the same after listening to the Nandakovada Sutta. Later, at an assembly of monks and nuns in Jetavana, the Buddha declared Pajapati chief of those who had experience (rattannunam). Not long after, while at Vesali, she realized that her life had come to an end. She was one hundred and twenty years old; she took leave of the Buddha, performed various miracles, and then died, her five hundred companions dying with her. It is said that the marvels which attended her cremation rites were second only to those of the Buddha.
It is said that once Pajapati made a robe for the Buddha of wonderful material and marvelously elaborate. But when it came to be offered to the Buddha he refused it, and suggested it should be given to the Order as a whole. Pajapati was greatly disappointed, and Ananda intervened. But the Buddha explained that his suggestion was for the greater good of Pajapati, and also as an example to those who might wish to make similar gifts in the future. This was the occasion for the preaching of the Dakkhinavibhanga Sutta (M.iii. 253ff) The Buddha had a great love for Pajapati, and when she lay ill, as there were no monks to visit her and preach to her -- that being against the rule -- the Buddha amended the rule and went himself to preach to her.
[Note: We, as laymen today, should note especially this explanation of the power of gifts in that it provides us even today with the ability to make powerful good kamma. A gift made to the Order, is of greater power than a gift made to a living Buddha. To make such a gift, one must find an initiated member of the Order and make the gift with these words, or words to this effect: "May the Good Sir accept from me this gift to the Order of Bhikkhus."]
From the Psalms:
Buddha the Wake, the Hero, hail! All hail!
Supreme o’er every being that hath life,
Who from all ill and sorrow hast released
Me and so many, many stricken folk.
Now have I understood how Ill doth come.
Craving, the Cause, in me is dried up.
Have I not trod, have I not touched the End
Of Ill -- the Ariyan, the Eightfold Path?
Oh! But ‘tis long I’ve wandered down all time.
Living as mother, father, brother, son,
And as grandparent in the ages past --
Not knowing how and what things really are,
And never finding what I needed sore.
But now mine eyes have seen th’Exalted One’
And now I know this living frame’s the last,
And shattered is th’unending round of births.
No more Pajapaati shall come to be!
Behold the company who learn of him --
In happy concord of fraternity,
Of strenuous energy and resolute,
From strength to strength advancing toward the Goal --
The noblest homage this to Buddhas paid.
Oh! Surely for the good of countless lives
Did sister Maya bring forth Gotama,
Dispeller of the burden of our ill,
Who lay o’erweighted with disease and death!
[236] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who is of great wisdom (mahapannanam) is Khema (Serenity).
(DPPN: An arahant, chief of the Buddha’s women disciples. She was born in a ruling family at Sagala in the Madda country, and her skin was the color of gold. She became the chief consort of King Bimbisara. She would not visit the Buddha who was at Veluvana, lest he should speak disparagingly of her beauty with which she was infatuated. The king bade poets sing the glories of Veluvana and persuaded Khema to go there. She was then brought face to face with the Buddha, and he conjured up, for her to see, a woman like a celestial nymph who stood facing him. Even as Khema gazed on the nymph, whose extraordinary beauty far excelled her own, she saw her pass gradually from youth to extreme old age, and so fall down in the swoon of death. Seeing that Khema was filled with dismay at the sight, the Buddha preached to her on the vanity of lust, and we are told that at that moment she attained arahantship. [Here an example of a lay female attaining Arahantship.] With the consent of Bimbisara she entered the Order, and was ranked by the Buddha foremost among his women disciples for her great insight (mahapannanam).
Once when Khema was at Toranavatthu, between Savatthi and Saketa, Pasenadi, who happened to spend one night there, heard of her presence and went to see her. He questioned her as to whether or not the Buddha existed after death. She explained the matter to him in various ways, and Pasenadi, delighted with her exposition, related it to the Buddha. She is mentioned in several places as the highest ideal of womanhood worthy of imitation, and is described as the nun par excellence.
From PTS, Woodward, trans., The Book of the Kindred Sayings IV: The Salayatana Book X: Kindred sayings about the Unrevealed I: Sister Khema the Elder, pp265ff
Once the Exalted One was staying near Savatthi at Jeta Grove in Anathapindika’s Park.
Now on that occasion the sister Khema, after going her rounds among the Kosalans, took up her quarters at Toranavatthu, between Savatthi and Saketa.
Now the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala was journeying from Saketa to Savatthi, and midway between Saketa and Savatthi he put up for one night at Toranavatthu.
Then the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala called a certain man and said: ‘Come thou, good fellow! Find out some recluse or brahmin such that I can wait upon him to-day.’
‘Even so, your majesty,’ said that man in reply to the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala, and after wandering through all Toranavatthu he saw not anyone, either recluse or brahmin, on whom the rajah Pasenadi might wait.
Then that man saw the sister Khema, who had come to reside at Toranavatthu. And on seeing her he went back to the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala, and said: --
‘Your majesty, there is no recluse or brahmin in Toranavattthu such that your majesty can wait upon him. But your majesty, there is a sister named Khema, a woman disciple of that Exalted One, who is Arahant, an All-enlightened One. Now of this lady a lovely rumor has gone abroad, that she is sage, accomplished, shrewd, widely learned, a brilliant talker, of goodly ready wit. Let your majesty wait upon her.’
So the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala went to visit the sister Khema, and on coming to her saluted and sat down at one side. So seated he said to her:--
‘How say you, lady? Does the Tathagata exist after death?’
‘That the Tathagata exists after death, maharajah, is not revealed by the Exalted One.’
‘How say you, lady? So the Tathagata does not exist after death.’
‘That also, maharajah, is not revealed by the Exalted One.’
‘What then, lady? Does the Tathagata both exist and not exist after death?’
‘That also, maharajah, is not revealed by the Exalted One.’
‘Then, lady, the Tathagata neither exists nor not-exists after death.’
‘That also, maharajah, is not revealed by the Exalted one.’
‘How then, lady? When asked, "Does the Tathagata exist after death?" you reply, "That is not revealed by the Exalted One," and, when I ask . . . the other questions, you make the same reply. Pray, lady, what is the reason, what is the cause why this thing is not revealed by the Exalted One?’
‘Now in this matter, maharajah, I will question you. Do you reply as you think fit. Now how say you, maharajah? Have you some accountant, some ready-reckoner or calculator, able to count the sand in Ganges, thus: There are somany thousand grains, or so many hundreds of thousands of grains of sand?’
‘No indeed, lady.’
‘Then have you some accountant, ready-reckoner or calculator, able to reckon the water in the mighty ocean, thus: There are so many gallons of water, so many hundred, so many thousand, so many hundreds of thousand gallons of water?’
‘No indeed, lady.’
‘How is that?’
‘Mighty is the ocean, lady, deep, boundless, unfathomable.’
‘Even so, maharajah, if one should try to define the Tathagata by his bodily form, that bodily form of the Tathagata is abandoned, cut down at the root, made like a palm-tree stump, made something that is not, made of a nature not to spring up again in future time. Set free from reckoning as body, maharajah, is the Tathagata. He is deep, boundless, unfathomable, just like the mighty ocean. To say, "The Tathagata exists after death," does not apply. To say, "The Tathagata exists not after death," does not apply. To say, "The Tathagata both exists and exists not, neither exists nor not-exists after death," does not apply.
If one should try to define the Tathagata by feeling, -- that feeling of the Tathagata is abandoned, cut down at the root. . . . Set free from reckoning as feeling is the Tathagata, maharajah, deep, boundless, unfathomable like the mighty ocean. To say, "The Tathagata exists after death . . . exists not after death," does not apply.
So also if one should try to define the Tathagata by perception, by the activities (sankhara), by consciousness . . . set free from reckoning by consciousness is the Tathagata, maharajah, deep, boundless, unfathomable as the mighty ocean. To say, "The Tathagata exists after death . . . exists not after death," does not apply.’
Then the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala was delighted with the words of the sister Khema, and took pleasure therein. And he rose from his seat, saluted her by the right and went away.
Now on another occasion the rajah . . . went to visit the Exalted One, and on coming to him saluted him and sat down at one side. So seated he said to the Exalted One:--
‘Pray, lord, does the Tathagata exist after death?’
‘Not revealed by me, maharajah, is this matter.’
‘Then, lord, the Tathagata does not exist after death.’
‘That also, maharajah, is not revealed by me.’
(He then asks the other questions and gets the same reply.)
‘How then, lord? When I ask the question, "Does the Tathagata exist? . . . does he not exist after death?" you reply, "It is not revealed by me." Pray, lord, what is the reason, what is the cause why this thing is not revealed by the Exalted One?’
‘Now, maharajah, I will question you. Do you reply as you think fit. Now what say you, maharajah? Have you some accountant . . .’ (the rest is exactly as before).
‘Wonderful, lord! Strange it is, lord, how the explanation both of Master and disciple, both in spirit and in letter, will agree, will harmonize, will not be inconsistent, --that is, in any word about the highest.
On a certain occasion, lord, I went to visit the sister Khema, and asked her the meaning of this matter, and she gave me the meaning in the very words, in the very syllables used by the Exalted One. Wonderful, lord! Strange it is, lord, how the explanation both of Master and disciple will agree, will harmonize, in spirit and in letter, how they will not be inconsistent, -- that is, in any word about the highest.
Well, lord, now we must be going. We are busy folk. We have many things to do.’
‘Do now what you think it time for, maharajah.’
Thereupon the rajah Pasenadi of Kosala was delighted with the words of the Exalted One and welcomed them. And he rose from his seat, saluted the Exalted One by the right and went away.
From the Psalms:
[This is what we are told was what Khema was told by Gotama as she watched the phantom figure of the Nymph age in front ofher eyes.]
"They who are slaves to lust drift down the stream,
Like to a spider gliding down the web
He of himself has wrought. But the released,
Who all their bonds have snapt in twain,
With thoughts elsewhere intent, forsake the world,
And all delight in senses put far away."
[ Did you remember to SNAP FINGERS? This is also Dhammapada, ver. 347]
[One time thereafter] And as she sat one day in siesta under a tree, Mara the Evil One, in youthful shape, drew near, tempting her with sensuous ideas:
MARA: ‘Thou art fair, and life is young, beauteous Khema!
I am young, even I, too -- Come, O fairest lady!
While in our ear fivefold harmonies murmur melodious.
Seek we our pleasure.’
KHEMA: Through this body vile, foul seat of disease and corruption,
Loathing I feel, and oppression. Cravings of lust are uprooted.
Lusts of the body and sense-mind [?Footnote says: i.e., the Khandas] cut like daggers and javelins.
Speak not to me of delighting in aught of sensuous pleasure!
Verily all such vanities now no more may delight me.
Slain on all sides is the love of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Rent asunder the gloom of ignorance once that beset me.
Know this, O Evil One! Destroyer, know thyself worsted!
Lo! Ye who blindly worship constellations of heaven,
Ye who fostering fire in cool grove, wait upon Agni [God of fire],
Ignorant are ye all, ye foolish and young, of the Real,
Deeming ye thus might find purification from evil.
Lo! As for me I worship th’Enlightened, the Uttermost Human,
Utterly free from all sorrow, doer of Buddha’s commandments.’
[237] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who are of great Mental Power (iddhimantanam) is Uppalavanna.
(DPPN: One of the two chief women disciples of the Buddha. She was born in Savatthi as the daughter of a banker, and she received the name of Uppalavanna because her skin was the color of the heart of the blue lotus. When she was come of age, kings and commoners from the whole of India sent messengers to her father, asking for her hand. He, not wishing to offend any of them, suggested that Uppalavanna should leave the world. . . . she very willingly agreed and was ordained a nun. Soon it came to her turn to perform certain services in the uposatha-hall. Lighting the lamp, she swept the room. Taking the flame of the lamp as her visible object, she developed tejokasina [the firelight concentration device], and attaining to jhana, became an arahant possessed of the four special attainments (patisambhida -- "the four branches of logical analysis"). She became particularly versed in the mystic potency of transformation (iddhivikubbana = IDDHI = the power; VI = re; kubbana>karoti = to weave, to build, form, make; American Indian (and StarTreck) Shape Shift, The power to re-make the form). When the Buddha arrived at the Gandamba-tree to perform the Twin Miracle (A fantastic story: --also from DPPN: The miracle of the "double appearances." When the Buddha laid down a rule forbidding the exercise of supernatural powers by monks -- following on the miracle performed by Pindola-Bharadvaja (see above) -- the heretics went about saying that henceforth they would perform no miracles except with the Buddha. [This is not stated well: they would not perform any miracles unless the Buddha also performed a miracle -- a challenge they hoped they would not have to meet and which would put them on equal footing with the Bhikkhus, since then neither group would be able to prove superiority in the ability to perform magic feats.] Bimbisara reported this to the Buddha, who at once accepted the challenge, explaining that the rule was for his disciples and did not apply to himself. He, therefore, went to Savatthi, the place where all Buddhas perform the Miracle. In reply to Pasenadi, the Buddha said he wold perform the miracle at the foot of the Gandamba-tree on the full-moon day of Asalha (asajha=june/july; in the seventh year after the Enlightenment). The heretics therefore [desperate] uprooted all mango-trees for one league around, but, on the promised day, the Buddha went to the king’s garden, accepted the mango offered by Ganda [as his food offering for the full moon day meal], and caused a marvelous tree to sprout from its seed. The people, discovering what the heretics had done, attacked them, and they had to flee helter-skelter. The multitude, assembled to witness the miracle, extended to a distance of thirty-six leagues. The Buddha created a jewelled walk in the air by the side of the Gandamba. When the Buddha’s disciples knew what was in his mind, several of them offered to perform miracles and so refute the insinuations of the heretics. Among such disciples were Gharani, Culla Anathapindika [first I have heard that he had any supernormal powers], Cira, Cunda, Uppalavanna and Moggallana. The Buddha refused their offers . . . Then, standing on the jeweled walk, he proceeded to perform the Yamakaptihariya (Twin Miracle), so called because it consisted in the appearance of phenomena of opposite character in pairs -- e.g., producing flames from the upper part of the body and a stream of water from the lower, and then alternatively. Flames of fire and streams of water also proceeded alternatively from the right side of his body and from the left. From every pore of his body rays of six colors darted forth. . .[I heard it slightly differently described as: with the body divided into quarters, one half of the upper body would face, while the other half would face to the side, and the same with the lower half of the body; water would spout from the ear facing to the side, while flames would spout from the mouth facing to the front. This would happen while "pacing back and forth" (and switching the sides from which the water and flames would spout) while preaching Dhamma.]), Upppalavanna offered to perform certain miracles herself, if the Buddha would give his consent, but this he refused. Later, at Jetavana, in the assembly of the Sangha, he declared her to be the chief of the women possessed of iddhi-power. . .
The books give several episodes connected with Uppalavanna. Once a young man named Ananda, who was her cousin and had been in love with her during her lay-life, hid himself in her hut . . . and in spite of her protestations, deprived her of her chastity. It is said that he was swallowed up by the fires of Avici (A General Term for Hell = Uninterupted Pain). . . It is said that this incident gave rise to the question whether even arahants enjoyed the pleasures of love and wished to gratify their passions: "Why should they not? For they are not trees nor ant-hills, but living creatures with moist flesh." The Buddha most emphatically declared that thoughts of lust never entered the hearts of the saints. . .
According to the Dhammapada Commentary, the miracle which Uppalavanna volunteered to perform at the Gandamba-tree, was the assumption of the form of a cakkavatti (a female wheel-turner (mover and shaker)) with a retinue extending for thirty-six leagues and the paying of homage to the Buddha, with all the cakkavatti’s followers, in the presence of the multitude.
From the Psalms:
How erst I lived I know; the Heavenly Eye,
Purview celestial, have I clarified;
Clear too the inward life that others lead;
Clear too I hear the sounds ineffable;
Powers supernormal have I made mine own;
And won immunity from deadly Drugs.
These, the six higher knowledges are mine.
Accomplished is the bidding of the Lord.
(She works a marvel before the Buddha with his consent and records the same:)
With chariot and horses four I came,
Made visible by supernormal power,
And worshipped, wonder working, at his feet,
The wondrous Buddha, Sovran of the world.
[With this as evidence, I might guess that the miracle mentioned here was the miracle she offered to perform at the Gandamba tree, and that cakkavatti might actually refer to arriving by chariot.]
(She is disturbed by Mara in the Sal-tree Grove, and rebukes him:)
MARA: Thou that art come where fragrant the trees stand crowned with blossoms,
Standest alone in the shade, maiden so (fair and) foolhardy,
None to companion thee -- feaarest thou not the wiles of seducers?
UPPALAVANNA: Were there an hundred thousand seducers e’en such as thou art,
Ne’er would a hair of me stiffen or tremble -- alone what canst thou do?
Here though I stand, I can vanish and enter into thy body.
See! I stand ‘twixt thine eyebrows, stand where thou canst not see me.
For all my mind is wholly self-controlled,
And the four Paths to Potency are thoroughly learnt,
Yea, the six Higher Knowledges are mine,
Accomplished is the bidding of the Lord.
Like spears and juav’lins are the joys of sense,
That pierce and rend the mortal frames of us.
These that thou speak’st of as the joys of life --
Joys of that ilk to me are nothing worth.
On every hand the love of pleasure yields,
And the thick thu gloom of ignorance is rent
In twain. Know this, O Evil One, avaunt!
Here, O Destroyere! Shalt thou not prevail.
[238] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who carries on the Rules (vinayadharanam) is Patacara.
From the Psalms (the story is better told here than in DPPN -- and it is a great story):
. . . in this Buddha-era [she] was reborn in the Treasurer’s house at Savatthi. Grown up, she formed an intimacy with one of the serving-men of her house. When the parents fixed a day on which to give her hand to a youth of her own rank, she took a handful of baggage, and with her lover left the town by the chief gate and dwelt in a hamlet. When the time for her confinement was near, she said: ‘Here there’s none to take care of me; let us go home, husband.’ And he procrastinated, saying: ‘We’ll go to-day; we’ll go to-morrow’ til she said: ‘The foolish fellow will never take me there’; and setting her affairs in order while he was out, she told her neighbors to say she had gone home, and set forth alone. When he came back and was told this, he exclaimed: ‘Through my doing a lady of rank is without protection,’ and hurrying after her, overtook her. Midway the pains of birth came upon her, and after she was recovered, they turned back again to the hamlet. At the advent of a second child things happened just as before, with this difference: when midway the winds born of Karma blew upon her, a great storm broke over them, and she said, ‘Husband, find me a place out of the rain!’ While he was cutting grass and sticks in the jungle, he cut a stake from a tree standing in an ant-hill. And a snake came from the ant-hill and bit him, so that he fell there and died. She, in great misery, and looking for his coming, while the two babies cried at the wind and the rain, placed them in her bosom, and, prone over them on the ground, spent the night thus. At dawn, bearing one babe at her breast, and saying to the other, ‘Come, dear, father has left thee,’ she went and found him seated, dead, near the ant-heap. ‘Oh!’ she cried, ‘through me my husband is dead,’ and wept and lamented all the night. Now, from the rain, the river that lay across her path was swollen knee-deep, and she, being distraught and weak, could not cross the water with both babies. So she left the elder on the hither side, and crossed over with the other. Then she spread out a branch she had broken off, and laid the babe on her rolled head cloth. But she was loath to leave the little creature, and turned round again and again to see him as she went down to the river. Now, when she was half-way over, a hawk in the air took the babe for a piece of flesh, and though the mother, seeing him, clapped her hands, shouting, ‘Soo! Soo!’ the hawk minded her not, because she was far from him, and caught the child up into the air. Then the elder, thinking the mother was shouting because of him, got flustered, and fell into the river; so she lost both, and came weeping to Savatthi. And, meeting a man, she asked him: ‘Where do you dwell?’ And he said: ‘At Savatthi, dame.’ ‘There is at Savatthi such and such a family in such and such a street. Know you them, friend?’ ‘I know them, dame; but ask not of them; ask somewhat else.’ ‘I am not concerned with aught else. ‘Tis about them I ask, friend.’ ‘Dame, can you not take on yourself to tell? You saw how the god rained all last night?’ ‘I saw that, friend. On me he rained all night long. Why, I will tell you presently. But first, do you tell me of how it goes with that Treasurer’s family.’ ‘Dame, last night the house broke down and fell upon them, and they burn the Treasurer, his wife, and his son on one pyre. Dame, the smoke of it can be seen.’ Thereat grief maddened her, so that she was not aware even of her clothing slipping off. Wailing in her woe . . .
‘My children both are gone, and in the bush
Dead lies my husband; on one funeral bier
My mother, father, and my brother burn,’
She wandered around from that day forth in circles, and because her skirt-cloth fell from her she was given the name ‘Cloak-walker’ (Pata = cloak; acara = walker) And people, seeing her, said: ‘Go, little mad-woman!’ And some threw refuse at her head, some sprinkled dust, some pelted her with clods. The Master, seated in the Jeta Grove, in the midst of a great company, teaching the Dhamma, saw her wandering thus round and round, and contemplated the maturity of her knowledge. When she came towards the Vihara he also walked that way. The congregation, seeing her, said: ‘Suffer not that little lunatic to come hither.’ The Exalted One said: ‘Forbid her not,’ and standing near as she came round again, he said to her: ‘Sister, recover thou presence of mind.’ (Footnote: Sati is memory plus consciousness, in a reasonable being, of what one is now doing. -- [Here I sense Mrs. Rhys Davids attempt to broaden the meaning of sati from the standard "memory" or "mind" to a meaning which would more adequately explain what happened here. I see in the Buddha’s command the attempt to direct Patacara’s mind to the perfect symmetry of the events in her life as they stood at that precise moment when one of her circling’s round caused her to come face to face with the Buddha: her life, at that moment, being a complex series of similes for the rounds of rebirth and the escape.]) She, by the sheer potency of the Buddha regaining presence of mind, discerned her undressed plight, and shame and conscience arising, she fell crouching to earth. A man threw her his outer robe, and she put it round her, and drawing near to the Master worshipped at his feet, saying: ‘Lord, help me. One of my children a hawk hath taken, one is borne away by water; in the jungle my husband lied dead; my parents and my brother, killedby the overthrown house, burn on one pyre.’ So she told him why she grieved. The Master made her see, thus: ‘Patacara, think not thou art come to one able to become a help to thee. Just as now thou art shedding tears because of the death of children and the rest, so hast thou, in the unending round of life, been shedding tears, because of the death of children and the rest, more abundant than the waters of the four oceans:
‘Less are the waters of the oceans four
Than all the waste of waters shed in tears
By heart of man who mourneth touched by Ill
Why waste thy life brooding in bitter woe?
Thus, though the Master’s words touching the way where no salvation lies, the grief in her became lighter to bear. Knowing this, he went on: ‘O Patacara, to one passing to another world no child nor other kin is able to be a shelter or a hiding place or a refuge. Not here, even, can they be such. Therefore, let whoso is wise purify his own conduct, and accomplish the Path leading even to Nibbana.’ Thus he taught her, and said:
‘Sons are no shelter, nor father, nor any kinsfolk
O’ertaken by death, for thee blood-bond is no refuge.
Discerning this truth, the wise man, well ordered by virtue,
Swiftly makes clear the road leading on to Nibbana
When he had finished speaking, she was established in the fruit of a Stream-winner, and asked for ordination. The Master led her to the Bhikkhunis, and let her be admitted.
She, exercising herself to reach the higher paths, took water one day in a bowl, and washing her feet, poured away some of the water, which trickled but a little way and disappeared. She poured more, and it went farther. And the third time the water went yet farther before it disappeared. Taking this as her basis of thought, she pondered: ‘Even so do mortals die, either in childhood, or in middle age, or when old.’ And the Master, seated in the ‘Fragrant Chamber,’ shed glory around, and appeared as if speaking before her, saying: ‘Even so, O Patacara, are all mortals liable to die; therefore is it better to have so lived as to see how the five khandhas come and go, even were it but for one day -- ay, but for one moment -- than to live for a hundred years and not see that.
‘The man who, living for an hundred years,
Beholdeth never how things rise and fall,
Had better live no longer than one day,
So, in that day, he sees the flux of things.’
And when he had finished, Patacara won Arahantship, together with thorough grasp of the Norm in letter and in spirit. Thereafter, reflecting on how she had attained while yet a student, and magnifying the advent of this upward change, she exulted thus:
With ploughshares ploughing up the field, with seed
Sown in the breast of earth, men win their crops,
Enjoy their gains and nourish wife and child.
Why cannot I, whose life is pure, who seek
To do the Master’s will, no sluggard am,
Nor puffed up, win to Nibban’s bliss?
One day, bathing my feet, I sit and watch
The water as it trickles down the slope.
Thereby I set my heart in steadfastness,
As one doth train a horse of noble breed.
Then going to my cell, I take my lamp,
And seated on my couth I watch the flame.
Grasping the pin, I pull the wick right down
Into the oil. . .
Lo! The Nibbana of the little lamp!
Emancipation dawns! My heart is free!
[239] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who Teach Dhamma (dhammakathikanam) is Dhammadinna.
(DPPN: An eminent Theri, ranked foremost among nuns who possessed the gift of preaching. She was the wife of Visakha of Rajagaha [not Migara’s Mother], and when he, having heard the Budddha preach, became an anagamin, she left the world with the consent of her husband who sent her to the nunnery in a golden palanquin. Dwelling in solitude, she soon attained arahantship with the four patisambhida. She later returned to Rajagaha to worship the Buddha, and there Visakha asked her questions on the Dhamma, which she answered "as easily as one might cut a lotus-stalk with a knife.’ The questions and answers are given in the Cula Vedalla Sutta (M.i.299f). Visakha reported this interview to the Buddha, who praised her great wisdom and commended her eloquence.
[The Culavedalla Sutta is too long to quote here. It is very detailed and well worth a look -- see. Middle Length Sayings, I, #44]
[240] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who has mastered The Burnings (jhayinam) is Nanda.
(DPPN: AKA Sundari-Nanda)
From the Psalms:
. . . she took birth in this Buddha-epoch in the reigning family of the Sakiyas. Named Nanda, she became known as Beautiful Nanda, the Bell of the country. And when our Exalted One had acquired all knowledge, had gone to Kapilavatthu, and caused the princess Nanda and Rahula to join the Order; when too King Suddhodana died, and the Great Pajapati entered the Order, then Nanda thought: ‘My elder brother has renounced the heritage of empire, has left the world, and is become a Buddha, a Superman (aggapuggalo). His son too, Rahula, has left the world, so has my brother, King Nanda, my mother, Maha Pajapati, and my sister, Rahula’s mother. But I now, what shall I do at home? I will leave the world.’ Thus she went forth, not from faith, but from love of her kin. And thus, even after her renunciation, she was intoxicated with her beauty, and would not go into the Master’s presence, lest he should rebuke her. But it fared with her even as with Sister Abhirupa-Nanda, with this difference: When she saw the female shape conjured up by the Master growing gradually aged, her mind, intent on the impermanence and suffering of life, turned to meditative discipline. And the Master, seeing that, taught her suitable doctrine, thus:
Behold, Nanda, the foul compound, diseased,
Impure! Compel thy heart to contemplate
What is not fair to view. So steel thyself
And concentrate the well-composed mind.
As with this body, so with thine; as with
Thy beauty, so with this -- thus shall it be
With this malodorous, offensive shape.
Wherein the foolish only take delight.
So look thou on it day and night with mind
Unfalteringly steadfast, till alone,
By thine own wit, delivered from the thrall
Of beauty, thou dost gain vision serene.
Then she, heeding the teaching, summoned up wisdom and stood firm in the fruition of the First Path. And, to give her an exercise for higher progress, he taught her, saying: ‘Nanda, there is in this body not even the smallest essence. ‘Tis but a heap of bones smeared with flesh and blood under the form of decay and death.’ As it is said in the Dhammapada:
‘Have made a citadel of bones besmeared
With flesh and blood, where ever reign decay
And death, and where conceit and fraud is stored.
Then she, as he finished, attained Arahantship. And when she pondered on her victory, she exulted in the Master’s words, and added:
I, even I, have seen, inside and out,
This body as in truth it really is,
Who sought to know the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of it,
With zeal unfaltering and ardor fired.
Now for the body care I never more,
And all my consciousness is passion-free.
Keen with unfettered zeal, detached,
Calm and serene I taste Nibbana’s peace.
[241] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who has firmly established energetic effort (araddhaviriyanam) is Sona.
(DPPN: A Theri. She was declared foremost among nuns for capacity of effort (araddhaviriyanam). She belonged to the family of a clansman of Savatthi, and because, after marriage, she had ten sons and daughters, she came to be called Bahuputtika (many-child-ed). When her husband renounced the world, she distributed her wealth among her children, keeping nothing for herself.
Her children soon ceased to show her any respect, and she entered the Order in her old age. She waited on the nuns and studied most of the night. Soon her strenuous energy became known to the Buddha, and he, sending forth a ray of glory, spoke to her. Then she attained arahantship.
The Anguttara Commentary says that after she became an arahant she wished her colleagues to know this because they had been in the habit of constantly finding fault with her for various things, and she did not wish them to continue doing so and thereby commit a sin. She therefore filled a vessel with water, which she heated by her iddhi-power, using no fire. When the nuns came to look for water she told them that if they wanted warm water they cold have it from the vessel. They found the water hot, and understood. Then they begged her forgiveness.
From the Psalms:
Ten sons and daughters did I bear within
This heap of visible decay. Then weak
And old I drew near to a Bhikkuni
She taught to me the Norm, wherein I learnt
The factors, organs, bases of this self,
Impermanent compound. Hearing her words,
And cutting off my hair, I left the world.
Then as I grappled with the threefold course,
Clear shone for me the Eye Celestial.
I know the ‘how’ and ‘when’ I came to birth
Down the long past, and where it was I lived.
I cultivate the signless, and my mind
In uttermost composure concentrate.
Mine is the ecstasy of freedom won
As Path merges in Fruit, and Fruit in Path.
Holding to naught, I in Nibbana live.
This five-grouped being have I understood.
Cut from its root, all onward growth is stayed.
I too am stayed, victor on basis sure,
Immovable. Rebirth comes never more.
[242] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who has The Power of the Divine Eye (dibbacakkhukanam) is Sakula.
(DPPN: She belonged to a brahmin family of Savatthi and became a believer on seeing the Buddha accept Jetavana. Later she heard an arahant monk preach, and, being agitated in mind, joined the order. Having developed insight, she won arahantship. Afterwards the Buddha declared her foremost among nuns in dibbacakkhu.
From the Psalms:
While yet I dwelt as matron in the house,
I heard a Brother setting forth the Norm.
I saw that Norm, the Pure, the Passionless,
Track to Nibbana, past decease and birth.
Thereat I left my daughter, left my son,
I left my treasures and my stores of grain;
I called for robes and razors, cut my hair,
And gat me forth into the homeless life.
And first as novice, virtuous and keen
To cultivate the upward mounting Way,
I cast out lust and with it all ill-will,
And therewith, one by one, the deadly Drugs.
Then to the Bhikkuni of ripening power
Rose in a vision mem’ries of the past,
Limpid and clear the mystic vistas grew,
Expanding by persistent exercise.
Act, speech and thought I saw as not myself,
Children of cause, fleeting, impermanent.
And now, with every poisonous Drug cast out,
Cool and serene I see Nibbana’s peace.
[243] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who has speedy intuitive powers (khippabhinnanam) is Bhadda Kundalakesa.
(DPPN: She was foremost among nuns, of swift intuition, and was born in the family of a treasurer of Rajagaha. On the same day, a son was born to the king’s chaplain under a constellation favorable to highwaymen, and was therefore called Sattuka. One day, through her lattice, Bhadda saw Sattuka being led by the city guard to execution on a charge of robbery. She fell at once in love with him and refused to live without him. Her father, out of his love for her, bribed the guard to release Sattuka, let him be bathed in perfumed water, and brought him home, where Bhadda, decked in jewels, waited upon him. Very soon, Sattuka began to covet her jewels and told her that he had made a vow to the deity of the Robbers’ Cliff that, should he escape, he would bring him an offering. She trusted him and, making ready an offering, went with him arrayed in all her ornaments. On arriving at the top of the cliff, he told her of his purpose, and she, all undaunted, begged of him to let her embrace him on all sides. He agreed to this, and then, making as if to embrace him from the back, she pushed him over the cliff. The deity of the mountain praised her presence of mind saying that men were not in all cases wiser than women.
[The Deity of the Mountain:
Not in every case is Man the wiser ever
Woman, too, when swift to reckon, may ever prove as clever
Not in every case is Man the wiser reckoned
Woman, too, we’d reckon clever, if’n ever’d think a second.
--MO, vas him dar?]
Unwilling to return home after what had happened, she joined the Order of the white-robed Niganthas. As she wished to practice extreme austerities, they dragged out her hair with a palmyra comb. Her hair grew again in close curls, and so they called her Kundalakesa [Curlylocks]. Dissatisfied with the teaching of the Niganthas, she left them, and going to various teachers, became very proficient in discussion and eager for debate. She would enter a village and, making a heap of sand at the gate, set up the branch of a rose-apple saying, "Whoever wishes to enter into discussion with me, let him trample on this bough." [We have examples where a stick and a broom were similarly used.] One day, Sariputta, seeing the bough outside Savatthi, [inquired as to it’s purpose and] ordered some children to trample on it. Bhadda then went to Jetavana accompanied by a large crowd whom she had invited to be present at the discussion. Sariputta suggested that Bhadda should first ask him questions; to all of these he replied until she fell silent. It was then his turn, and he asked "One . . . what is that?" [Eka Nama Kim? -- Who can answer? -- The Psalms gives a long footnote attempting to understand how the question was not answered with reference to the Vedas: "In the beginning there was one only. . .. He is one, he becomes three. . . all things become one in prajna. . . etc." hearing the question as "What is The One?", a Christian interpretation of the Pali. I suggest that what is heard here, as well as the surface question "One Name-a What-um?" is: HereShit KnowMake What-um? "What is the #1 thing here known as?" Or "Name that which is First and Foremost." If we remember that these are beggars, not Monks, "#1" is always Food -- It is the first thing any baby mammal seeks out. Offering food is the first thing one does for a guest. It is the only thing on the mind of a hungry man. It is the First Lesson of Life. All Beings Live On On Food. Etc. -- It becomes a Buddhist path to Nibbana as a consequence of its nature as a basic fundamental universal when seen in it’s broadest definition and to it’s deepest roots and is let go. All that comes after. What Sariputta is demonstrating is not that Curly did not know the Buddhist Doctrine, but that she was essentially still far removed from the most basic aspects of real life. -- mo ] She, unable to answer, asked him to be her teacher. But Sariputta sent her to the Buddha, who preached to her that it were better to know one single stanza bringing calm and peace then one thousand verses bringing no profit. At the end of this sermon, Bhadda attained arahantship, and the Buddha himself ordained her.
Here is her stanza from the Psalms:
Hairless, dirt-laden and half-clad -- so fared
I formerly, deeming that harmless things
Held harm, nor was I ‘ware of harm
In many things wherein, in sooth, harm lay.
Then forth I went from siesta in the shade
Up to the Vulture’s Peak, and there I saw
The Buddha, the Immaculate, begirt
And followed by the Bhikkhu-company.
Low on my knees I worshipped, with both hands
Adoring. ‘Come, Bhadda’ the Master said!
Thereby to me was ordination given.
Lo! Fifty years have I a pilgrim been,
In Anga, Magadha and in Vajji,
In Kasi and the land of Kosala,
Naught owing, living on the people’s alms.
And great the merit by that layman gained,
Sagacious man, who gave Bhadda a robe --
Bhadda who now (captive once more to gear)
Is wholly free from bondage of the mind.
[244] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who is able to recall prior habitations (pubbenivasam anussarantinam) is Bhadda-kapilani.
(DPPN: The daughter of a Kosiyagotta brahmin of Sagala, in the Madda country. When the messengers sent by the parents of Pipphali-manava (Maha Kassapa) were wandering about seeking for a wife for him to resemble the image they carried with them, they discovered Bhadda and informed Pipphali’s parents. The parents arranged the marriage without the knowledge of the young people and Bhadda went to Pipphali’s house. There they lived together, but, by mutual consent, the marriage was never consummated. It was said that she brought with her, on the day of her marriage, fifty thousand cartloads of wealth. When Pipphali desired to leave the world, making over to her his wealth, she wished to renounce it likewise, and together they left the house in the guise of recluses, their hair shorn, unobserved by any. In the village, however, they were recognized by their gait, and the people fell down at their feet. They granted freedom to all their slaves, and set forth, Pipphali leading and Bhadda following close behind. On coming to a fork in the road, they agreed that he should takethe right and she the left. In due course she came to the Titthiyarama (near Jetavana), where she dwelt for five years, women not having yet been admitted to the Buddha’s Order. Later, when Pajapati Gotami had obtained the necessary leave, Bhadda joined her and received ordination, attaining arahantship not long after. Later in the assembly, the Buddha declared her foremost of nuns who could recall former lives.
[245] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who have attained Great Intuitive Powers (mahabhinnappattanam) is Bhadda Kaccana.
(DPPN: Rahulamata -- The name, generally given in the texts, of Rahula’s mother and Gotama’s wife. She is also called Bhaddakacca, and, in later texts, Yasodhara, Bimbadevi and, probably, Bimbasundari. The Northern texts seem to favor the name of Yasodhara, but they call her the daughter of Dandapani. It is probable that the name of Gotama’s wife was Bimba, and that Bhaddakacca, Subhaddaka, Yosadhara and the others, were descriptive epithets applied to her, which later became regarded as additional names. It is also possible that in Gotama’s court there was a Yasodhara, daughter of Dandapani, and that there was a later confusion of names. The Commentarial explanation, that she was called Bhaddakaccana because her body was the color of burnished gold, is probably correct. To suggest that the name bears any reference to the Kaccanagotta seems to be wrong, because the Kaccana was a brahmin gotta and the Sakyans were not brahmins. [Interesting side note: In a dispute between himself and some brahmins about which was the higher cast, the Nobles or the Brahmins, Gotama won the dispute by pointing to the fact that while it was permissible for a Brahmin to merry a Brahmin or a Noble and still be accepted within the Brahmin cast, it was not permitted for a Noble to marry outside the Nobility and still be accepted within the cast of Nobles.]
Rahulamata was born on the same day as the Bodhisatta. She married him (Gotama) at the age of sixteen, and was placed at the head of forty thousand women, given to Gotama by the Sakyans, after he had proved his manly prowess to their satisfaction. Gotama left the household life on the day of the birth of his son Rahula. It is said that just before he left home he took a last look at his wife from the door of her room, not daring to go nearer, lest he should awake her [and lose his will to depart]. When the Buddha paid his first visit to Kapilavatthu after the Elightenment, and on the second day of that visit, he begged in the street for alms. This news spread, and Rahulamata looked out of her window to see if it were true. She saw the Buddha, and was so struck by the glory of his personality that she uttered eight verses in its praise. These verses have been handed down under the name of Narasihagatha; on that day, after the Buddha had finished his meal in the palace, which he took at the invitation of Suddhodana, all the ladies of the court, with the exception of Rahulamata, went to pay him obeisance. She refused to go, saying that if she had any virtue in her the Buddha would come to her. The Buddha went to her with his two chief Disciples and gave orders that she should be allowed to greet him as she wished. She fell at his feet, and clasping them with her hands, put her head on them. Suddhodana related to the Buddha how, from the time he had left home, Rahulamata had herself abandoned all luxury and had lived in the same manner as she had heard that the Buddha lived -- wearing yellow robes, eating only once a day, etc. And the Buddha then related the Candakinnara Jataka to show how, in the past, too, her loyalty had been supreme.
On the seventh day of the Buddha’s visit, when he left the palace at the end of his meal, Rahulamata sent Rahula to him saying "Thatis your father, go and ask him for your inheritance." Rahula followed the Buddha, and, at the Buddha’s request, was ordained by Sariputta.
Later, when the Buddha allowed women to join the Order, Rahulamata became a nun under Mahapajapati Gotami.
Buddhaghosa identifies Rahulamata with Bhaddakaccana who, in the Anguttara Nikaya, is mentioned as chief among nuns in the possession of supernormal powers (mahabhinnappattanam). She was one of the four disciples of the Buddha who possessed such attainment, the others being Sariputta, Moggallana and Bakkula.
In this account Bhaddakaccana is mentioned as the daughter of the Sakyan Suppabuddha and his wife Amita. She joined the Order under Pajapati Gotami in the company of Janapadakalyani (Nanda), and in the Order she was known as Bhaddakaccana Theri. Later, she developed insight and became an arahant. She could, with one effort, recall one asankheyya [incalculable period] and one hundred thousand kappas [evolutions and devolution’s of the world system].
In the Theri Apadana an account is found of a Theri, Yasodhara by name, who is evidently to be identified with Rahulamata, because she speaks of herself as the Buddha’s pajapati [wife] before he left the household and says that she was the chief of ninety thousand women [must be 50,000 were hers -- I take these figures to be rounded numbers, but roughly accurate. The Buddha on several occasions describes the utter luxury of his former life, and other descriptions of what was considered luxury in those days boggles the mind.]
[246] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who is a Rag-Robe wearer (lukhacivaradharanam) is Kisagotami.
(DPPN: She was declared chief among women disciples with respect to the wearing of coarse robes (lukhacivaradharanam).
Her famous story, from The Psalms:
In this Buddha-era she was reborn at Savatthi, in a poor family. Gotami was her name, and from the leanness of here body she was called Lean Gotami. And she was disdainfully treated when married, and was called a nobody’s daughter. But when she bore a son, they paid her honor. Then, when he was old enough to run about and play, he died, and she was distraught with grief. And, mindful of the change in folk’s treatment of her since his birth, she thought: ‘They will even try to take my child and expose him. [in the charnel field]’ So, taking the corpse upon her hip, she went, crazy with sorrow, from door to door, saying: ‘Give me medicine for my child!’ And people said with contempt: ‘Medicine! What’s the use?’ She understood them not. But one sagacious person thought: ‘Her mind is upset with grief for her child. He of the Tenfold Power will know of some medicine for her.’ And he said: ‘Dear woman, go to the Very Buddha, and ask him for medicine to give your child.’ She went to the Vihara at the time when the Master taught the Doctrine, and said: ‘Exalted One, give me medicine for my child!’ The Master, seeing the promise in her, said: ‘Go, enter the town, and at any house where yet no man hath died, thence bring a little mustard-seed.’ ‘Tis well, lord!’ she said, with mind relieved; and, going to the first house in the town, said: ‘Let me take a little mustard, that I may give medicine to my child. If in this house [I do not have the Pali, buy my guess would be that the word here was ‘family’ -- even in those days, when people stayed put, there must have been new houses now and again.] no man hath yet died, give me a little mustard.’ ‘Who may say how many have not died here?’ ‘With such mustard, then, I have naught to do.’ So she went on to a second and a third house, until, by the might of the Buddha, her frenzy left her, her natural mind was restored, and she thought: ‘Even this will be the order of things in the whole town. The Exalted One foresaw this out of his pity for my good.’ And, thrilled at the thought, she left the town and laid her child in the charnel-field, saying:
‘No village law is this, no city law,
No law for this clan, or for that alone;
For the whole world -- ay, and the gods in heav’n --
This is the Law: All is Impermanent!’
So saying, she went to the Master. And he said: ‘Gotami, hast thou gotten this little mustard?’ And she said: ‘Wrought is the work, lord, of the little mustard. Give thou me confirmation.’ Then the Master spoke thus:
‘To him whose heart on children and on goods
Is centered, cleaving to them in his thoughts,
Death cometh like a great flood in the night,
Bearing away the village in its sleep.’
When he had spoken, she was confirmed in the fruition of the First (the Stream-entry) Path, and asked for ordination. He consented, and she, thrice saluting by the right, went to the Bhikkhunis, and was ordained. And not long afterwards, studying the causes of things, she caused her insight to grow. Then the Master said a Glory-verse:
‘The man who, living for an hundred years,
Beholdeth never the Ambrosial Path,
Had better live no longer than one day,
So he behold within that day the Path.’
When he had finished, she attained Arahantship. And becoming pre-eminent in ascetic habits, she was wont to wear raiment of triple roughness. Then the Master, seated in the Jeta Grove in conclave, and assigning rank of merit to the Bhikkhunis, proclaimed her first among the wearers of rough raiment. And she, reflecting on what great things she had won, uttered this Psalm before the Master, in praise of friendship with the elect:
Friendship with noble souls throughout the world
The Sage hath praised. A fool, in sooth, grows wise
If he but entertain a noble friend.
Cleave to the men of worth! In them who cleave
Wisdom doth grow; and in that pious love
From all your sorrows shall ye be released.
Mark Sorrow well; mark ye how it doth come,
And how it passes; mark the Eightfold Path
That endeth woe, the Four great Ariyan Truths.
Woeful is woman’s lot! Hath he declared,
Tamer and Driver of the hearts of men:
Woeful when sharing home with hostile wives,
Woeful when giving birth in bitter pain,
Some seeking death, or e’er they suffer twice,
Piercing the throat; the delicate poison take.
Woe to when mother-murdering embryo
Comes not to birth, and both alike find death.
‘Returning home to give birth to my child,*
I saw my husband in the jungle die.
Nor could I reach my kin ere travail came.
My baby boys I lost, my husband too.
And when in misery I reached my home,
Lo! Where together on a scanty pyre,
My mother, father, and my brother burn!’
O wretched, ruined woman! All this weight
Of sorrows has thou suffered, shed these tears
Through weary round of many thousand lives.
I too have seen where, in the charnel-field,
Devoured was my baby’s tender flesh.**
Yet she, her people slain, herself outcast,
Her husband dead, hath thither come
Where death is not!
Lo! I have gone
Up on the Ariyan, on the Eightfold Path
That goeth to the state ambrosial
Nibbana have I realized, and gazed
Into the Mirror of the holy Norm.
I, even I, am healed of my hurt,
Low is my burden laid, my task is done,
My heart is wholly set at liberty.
I, sister Kisa-gotami, have uttered this!
*A footnote here explains that Kisa-Gotami is here incorporating and speaking from the point of view of Patacara in expanding on her theme of the woes of woman’s lot.
**"Bloated, black and blue, and rotting; being pecked at by crows and ravens and vultures, being eaten by dogs and jackals and various small creatures. . . "
[247] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Female Beggars who are freed through faith (saddhadhimuttanam) is Sigalamata.
(DPPN: She belonged to a setthi’s family in Rajagaha, and, after marriage, had a son called Sigalaka. She heard the Buddha preach and entered the Order. She was full of faith, and, when she went to hear the Buddha preach, would gaze at his beauty of personality. The Buddha, realizing her nature, preached so that her faith might reach its culmination, and, in due course, she became an arahant. Later she was declared chief of nuns who had attained release by faith (saddhadhimuttanam).
According to the Apadana, she was the mother of Sigala, to whom the Buddha preached the sutta regarding the worship of the directions. . . She heard the sermon and became a sotapanna.
Highly Edited down version of The Sigalovada Suttanta, from PTS; T.W. and C.A.F Rhys Davids, The Dialogues of the Buddha, Part III, #31, pp173 (Sacred Books of the Buddhists, T.W. Rys Davids, ed., Published under the Patronage of His Majesty the King of Siam, First Published by The Oxford University Press in 1921)
This very famous Sutta is one of the most extensive in terms of counseling the layman.
(Irrelevant Note of Nostalgia: I noticed at the front of my copy of this volume a small sticker reading: Samuel Weiser, 845 B’way (bet. 13 & 14 St.) N.Y.C. -- where I got this, my first copy of my first PTS translation of the Pali. [The Buddha tells us to always remember the place one became a Sotapanna and an Arahant; I suggest a couple of other spots for recollection are: 1. The Place one first heard of The Pali, 2. The Time and Place one first began sitting meditation] One of only three places in Manhattan during the early 60s where you could get such a book (used -- 3 vol set $20) [the two others were Paragon Books and Orientalia -- all three still in existence, I believe, although Weiser’s has moved and Paragon has moved several times] this was when Weiser’s was still in that musty walk down basement just shy of14th and you could really feel you were in a place of Power. My gratitude to Lenny Levinson for introducing me to that place.)
Thus have I heard: The Exalted One was once staying near Rajagaha in the Bamboo Wood at the Squirrels Feeding ground.
Now at this time young Sigala, a householders son, rising betimes, went forth from Rajagaha, and with wet hair and wet garments and clasped hands uplifted, paid worship to the several quarters of earth and sky: -- to the east, south, west, and north, to the nadir and the zenith.
And the Exalted One early that morning dressed himself, took bowl and robe and entered Rajagaha seeking alms. Now he saw young Sigala worshipping and spoke to him thus: --
Why, young householder, do you . . . worship the several quarters of earth and sky?
Sir, my father, when he was a-dying, said to me: Dear son, you should worship the quarters of earth and sky. So I, sir, honoring my father’s word, reverencing, revering, holding it sacred . . .worship on this wise.
But in the religion of an Ariyan, young householder, the six quarter should not be worshipped thus.
How then, sir, in the religion of an Ariyan, should the six quarters be worshipped?
Hear then, young householder, give ear to my words and I will speak.
So be it sir:
Inasmuch, young householder, as the Ariyan disciple has put away the four vices in conduct, inasmuch as he does no evil actions from the four motives, inasmuch as he does not pursue the six channels for dissipating wealth, he thus, avoiding these fourteen evil things is a coverer of the six quarters; he has practiced so as to conquer both worlds; he tastes success both in this world and in the next. At the dissolution of the body, after death, he is reborn to a happy destiny in heaven. What are the four vices of conduct that he has put away? The destruction of life, the taking what is not given, licentiousness, and lying speech. These are the four vices of conduct that he has put away.
By which four motives does he do no evil deed? Evil deeds are done from motives of partiality, enmity, stupidity and fear.
And which are the six channels for dissipating wealth? The being addicted to intoxicating liquors, frequenting the streets at unseemly hours, haunting fairs, the being infatuated by gambling, associating with evil companions, the habit of idleness.
There are, young householder, these six dangers through the being addicted to intoxicating liquors:-- actual loss of wealth, increase of quarrels, susceptibility to disease, loss of good character, indecent exposure, impaired intelligence.
Six, young householder, are the perils from frequenting the streets at unseemly hours: -- he himself is without guard or protection and so also are wife and children; so also is his property; he moreover becomes suspected of crimes and false rumors fix on him, and many are the troubles he goes out to meet.
Six, young householder, are the perils from the haunting of fairs -- He is always thinking: Where is there dancing? Where is there singing? Where is there music? Where is there recitation? Where are the cymbals? Where the tam-tams?
Six, young householder, are the perils for him who is infatuated with gambling: as winner he begets hatred; when beaten he mourns his lost wealth; his actual substance is wasted; his word has no weight in a court of law; he is despised by friends and officials; he is not sought after by those who would give or take in marriage, for they would say that a man who is a gambler cannot afford to keep a wife.
Six, young householder, are the perils from associating with evil companions: any gambler, any libertine, any tippler, any cheat, any swindler, any man of violence is his friend and companion.
Six, young householder, are the perils of the habit of idleness:-- he says, it is too cold, and does no work. He says, it is too hot, and does no work; he says, it is too early . . . too late, and does no work. He says, I am too hungry and does no work . . . too full, and does no work. And while all that he should do remains undone, new wealth he does not get, and such wealth as he has dwindles away.
Four, O young householder, are they who should be reckoned as foes in the likeness of friends; to wit, a rapacious person, the man of words not deeds, the flatterer, the fellow-waster.
Of these the first is on four grounds to be reckoned as a foe in the likeness of a friend:-- he is rapacious; he gives little and asks much; he does his duty out of fear; he pursues his own interests.
On four grounds the man of words, not deeds, is to be reckoned as a foe in the likeness of a friend: -- he makes friendly profession as regards the past; he makes friendly profession as regards the future; he tries to gain your favor by empty sayings; when the opportunity for service has arisen he avows his disability.
On four grounds the flatterer is to be reckoned as a foe in the likeness of a friend: -- he both consents to do wrong [Footnote: --to whatever you propose to do, he consents--], and dissents from doing right; he praises you to your face; he speaks ill of you to others.
On four grounds the fellow-waster companion is to be reckoned as a foe in the likeness of a friend:-- he is your companion when you indulge in strong drinks; he is your companion when you frequent the streets at untimely hours; he is your companion when you haunt shows and fairs; he is your companion when you are infatuated with gambling.
Four, O young householder, are the friends who should be reckoned as sound at heart: -- the helper; the friend who is the same in happiness and adversity; the friend of good counsel; the friend who sympathizes.
On four grounds the friend who is a helper is to be reckoned as sound at heart: -- he guards you when you are off your guard, he guards your property when you are off your guard; he is a refuge to you when you are afraid; when you have tasks to perform he provides a double supply.
On four grounds the friend who is the same in happiness and adversity is to be reckoned as sound of heart: -- he tellsyou his secrets; he keeps secret your secrets; in your troubles he does not forsake you; he lays down even his life for your sake.
On four grounds the friend who declares what you need to do is . . . sound of heart: -- he restrains you from doing wrong; he enjoins you to do right; he informs you of what you had not heard before; he reveals to you the way to heaven.
On four grounds the friend who sympathizes is to be reckoned as sound at heart: -- he does not rejoice over your misfortunes; he rejoices over your prosperity; he restrains anyone who is speaking ill of you; he commends anyone who is praising you.
And how, O young householder, does the Ariyan disciple protect the six quarters? The following should be looked upon as the six quarters: -- parents as the east [Footnote: The symbolism is deliberately chosen: as the day in the East, so life begins with parents care; teachers’ fees and the South are the same word: dakkhina; domestic cares follow when the youth becomes man, as the West holds the later daylight; North is ‘beyond,’ so by help of friends, etc., he gets beyond troubles. -- Here Rhys Davids makes a point I have been making for years now with those who would say that what is meant by the saying that the Buddha taught with an open hand means that there is nothing hidden in these teachings: -- These teachings have hidden meanings of this sort in every line!] teachers as the south, wife and children as the west, friends and companions as the north, servants and work people as the nadir, religious teachers and brahmins as the zenith.
In five ways a child should minister to his parents as the eastern quarter: -- Once supported by them I will now be their support; I will perform duties incumbent on them; I will keep up the lineage and tradition of my family; I will make myself worthy of my heritage.
In five ways parents thus ministered to, as the eastern quarter, by their child, show their love for him:-- they restrain him from vice, they exhort him to virtue, they train him to a profession, they contract a suitable marriage for him, and in due time they hand over his inheritance.
Thus is this eastern quarter protected by him and made safe and secure.
In five ways should pupils minister to their teachers as the southern quarter: by rising, by waiting upon them, by eagerness to learn, by personal service, and by attention when receiving their teaching.
And in five ways do teachers, thus ministered to as the southern quarter by their pupils, love their pupil: -- they train him in that wherein he has been well trained [this is a little hard to understand. I take it to mean something like encourages his strengths]; they make him hold fast that which is well held; they thoroughly instruct him in the lore of every art; they speak well of him among his friends and companions. They provide for his safety in every quarter.
Thus is this southern quarter protected by him and made safe and secure.
In five ways should a wife as western quarter be ministered to by her husband: -- by respect, by courtesy, by faithfulness, by handing over authority to her, by providing her with adornment.
In these five ways does the wife, ministered to by her husband as the western quarter, love him: -- her duties are well performed, by hospitality to the kin of both, by faithfulness, by watching over the goods he brings, and by skill and industry in discharging all her business.
Thus is the southern quarter protected by him and made safe and secure.
In five ways should a clansman minister to his friends and familiars as the northern quarter:-- by generosity, courtesy and benevolence, by treating them as he treats himself, and by being as good as his word.
In these five ways thus ministered to as the northern quarter, his friends and familiars love him:-- they protect him when he is off his guard, and on such occasions guard his property; they become a refuge in danger, they do not forsake him in his troubles, and they show consideration for his family.
Thus is the northern quarter protected by him and made safe and secure.
In five ways does an Ariyan master minister to his servants and employees as the nadir: -- by assigning them work according to their strength; by supplying them with food and wages; by tending them in sickness; by sharing with them unusual delicacies; by granting leave at times.
In these ways ministered to by their master, servants and employees love their master in five ways: -- they rise before him, they lie down to rest after him; they are content with what is given to them; they do their work well; and they carry about his praise and good fame.
Thus is the nadir protected by him and made safe and secure.
In five ways should the clansman minister to recluses and brahmins as the zenith: -- by affection in act and speech and mind; by keeping open house to them, by supplying their temporal needs.
Thus ministered to as the zenith, recluses and brahmins show their love for the clansman in six ways:-- they restrain him from evil, they exhort him to good, they love him with kindly thoughts; they teach him what he had not heard, they correct and purify what he has heard, they reveal to him the way to heaven.
Thus is the zenith protected by him and made safe and secure.
When the Exalted One had thus spoken, Sigala the young householder said this: -- Beautiful, lord, beautiful! As if one should set up again that which had been overthrown, or reveal that which had been hidden, or should disclose the road to one that was astray, orshould carry a lamp into darkness, saying They that have eyes will see! Even so hath the Truth been manifested by the Exalted One in many ways. And I, even I, do go to him as my refuge, and to the Truth and to the Order. May the Exalted One receive me as his lay-disciple, as one who has taken his refuge in him from this day forth as long as life endures.
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