{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/thag/thag12.htm","path":"bud/thag/thag12.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/thag/thag12.htm","text":"Note: Unless otherwise indicated, these suttas were translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.\nIn a lowly family I was born,\npoor, with next to no food.\nMy work was degrading:\nI gathered the spoiled,\nthe withered flowers from shrines\nand threw them away.\nPeople found me disgusting,\ndespised me, disparaged me.\nLowering my heart,\nI showed reverence to many.\nThen I saw the One Self-awakened,\narrayed with a squadron of monks,\nthe Great Hero, entering the city,\nsupreme, of the Magadhans.\nThrowing down my carrying pole,\nI approached him to do reverence.\nHe -- the supreme man -- stood still\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 out of sympathy\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 just\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 for me.\nAfter paying homage\nto the feet of the teacher,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I stood to one side\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 & requested the Going Forth from him,\nsupreme among all living beings.\nThe compassionate Teacher,\nsympathetic to all the world, said:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Come, monk.\"\nThat was my formal Acceptance.\nAlone, I stayed in the wilds,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 untiring,\nI followed the Teacher's words,\njust as he, the Conqueror, had taught me.\nIn the first watch of the night,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I recollected previous lives;\nin the middle watch,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 purified the divine eye;\nin the last,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 burst the mass of darkness.\nThen, as night was ending\n& the sun returning,\nIndra & Brahma came to pay homage to me,\nhands palm-to-palm at their hearts:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Homage to you, O thoroughbred of men,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Homage to you, O man supreme,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 whose fermentations are ended.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You, dear sir, are worthy of offerings.\"\nSeeing me, arrayed with a squadron of devas,\nthe Teacher smiled & said:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"Through austerity, celibacy,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 restraint, & self-control:\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That's how one is a brahmin.\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He is a brahmin supreme.\"","title":"Theragatha XII","type":"page"}