{"collection":"Majjhima Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_mn50/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_mn50","id":"suttacentral_mn50","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/mn50/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Majjhima Nikaya"],"text":"So I have heard. At one time Venerable Mah\u0101moggall\u0101na was staying in the land of the Bhaggas at Crocodile\u2019s Bellow, in the deer park at Bhesaka\u1e37\u0101\u2019s Wood. At that time Moggall\u0101na was walking mindfully in the open air. Now at that time M\u0101ra the Wicked had got inside Moggall\u0101na\u2019s belly. Moggall\u0101na thought, \u201cWhy now is my belly so very heavy, like I\u2019ve just eaten a load of beans?\u201d Then he stepped down from the walking path, entered his dwelling, sat down on the seat spread out, and investigated inside himself. He saw that M\u0101ra the Wicked had got inside his belly. So he said to M\u0101ra, \u201cCome out, Wicked One, come out! Do not harass the Realized One or his disciple. Don\u2019t create lasting harm and suffering for yourself!\u201d Then M\u0101ra thought, \u201cThis ascetic doesn\u2019t really know me or see me when he tells me to come out. Not even the Teacher could recognize me so quickly, so how could a disciple?\u201d Then Moggall\u0101na said to M\u0101ra, \u201cI know you even when you\u2019re like this, Wicked One. Do not think, \u2018He doesn\u2019t know me.\u2019 You are M\u0101ra the Wicked. And you think, \u2018This ascetic doesn\u2019t really know me or see me when he tells me to come out. Not even the Teacher could recognize me so quickly, so how could a disciple?\u2019\u201d Then M\u0101ra thought, \u201cThis ascetic really does know me and see me when he tells me to come out.\u201d Then M\u0101ra came up out of Moggall\u0101na\u2019s mouth and stood against the door. Moggall\u0101na saw him there and said, \u201cI see you even there, Wicked One. Do not think, \u2018He doesn\u2019t see me.\u2019 That\u2019s you, Wicked One, standing against the door. Once upon a time, Wicked One, I was a M\u0101ra named D\u016bs\u012b, and I had a sister named K\u0101\u1e37\u012b. You were her son, which made you my nephew. At that time Kakusandha, the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha arose in the world. Kakusandha had a fine pair of chief disciples named Vidhura and Sa\u00f1j\u012bva. Of all the disciples of the Buddha Kakusandha, none were the equal of Venerable Vidhura in teaching Dhamma. And that\u2019s how he came to be known as Vidhura. But when Venerable Sa\u00f1j\u012bva had gone to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut, he easily attained the cessation of perception and feeling. Once upon a time, Sa\u00f1j\u012bva was sitting at the root of a certain tree having attained the cessation of perception and feeling. Some cowherds, shepherds, farmers, and passers-by saw him sitting there and said, \u2018Oh lord, how incredible, how amazing! This ascetic passed away while seated. We should cremate him.\u2019 They collected grass, wood, and cow-dung, heaped it all on Sa\u00f1j\u012bva\u2019s body, set it on fire, and left. Then, when the night had passed, Sa\u00f1j\u012bva emerged from that attainment, shook out his robes, and, since it was morning, he robed up and entered the village for alms. Those cowherds, shepherds, farmers, and passers-by saw him wandering for alms and said, \u2018Oh lord, how incredible, how amazing! This ascetic passed away while seated, and now he has come back to life!\u2019 And that\u2019s how he came to be known as Sa\u00f1j\u012bva. Then it occurred to M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b, \u2018I don\u2019t know the course of rebirth of these ethical mendicants of good character. Why don\u2019t I take possession of these brahmins and householders and say, \u201cCome, all of you, abuse, attack, harass, and trouble the ethical mendicants of good character. Hopefully by doing this we can upset their minds so that M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b can find a vulnerability.\u201d\u2019 And that\u2019s exactly what he did. Then those brahmins and householders abused, attacked, harassed, and troubled the ethical mendicants of good character: \u2018These shavelings, fake ascetics, primitives, black spawn from the feet of our kinsman, say, \u201cWe practice absorption meditation! We practice absorption meditation!\u201d Shoulders drooping, downcast, and dopey, they meditate and concentrate and contemplate and ruminate. They\u2019re just like an owl on a branch, which meditates and concentrates and contemplates and ruminates as it hunts a mouse. They\u2019re just like a jackal on a river-bank, which meditates and concentrates and contemplates and ruminates as it hunts a fish. They\u2019re just like a cat by an alley or a drain or a dustbin, which meditates and concentrates and contemplates and ruminates as it hunts a mouse. They\u2019re just like an unladen donkey by an alley or a drain or a dustbin, which meditates and concentrates and contemplates and ruminates. In the same way, these shavelings, fake ascetics, primitives, black spawn from the feet of our kinsman, say, \u201cWe practice absorption meditation! We practice absorption meditation!\u201d Shoulders drooping, downcast, and dopey, they meditate and concentrate and contemplate and ruminate.\u2019 Most of the people who died at that time\u2014when their body broke up, after death\u2014were reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. Then Kakusandha the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, addressed the mendicants: \u2018Mendicants, the brahmins and householders have been possessed by M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b. He told them to abuse you in the hope of upsetting your minds so that he can find a vulnerability. Come, all of you mendicants, meditate spreading a heart full of love to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, spread a heart full of love to the whole world\u2014abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will. Meditate spreading a heart full of compassion \u2026 Meditate spreading a heart full of rejoicing \u2026 Meditate spreading a heart full of equanimity to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, spread a heart full of equanimity to the whole world\u2014abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.\u2019 When those mendicants were instructed and advised by the Buddha Kakusandha in this way, they went to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut, where they meditated spreading a heart full of love \u2026 compassion \u2026 rejoicing \u2026 equanimity. Then it occurred to M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b, \u2018Even when I do this I don\u2019t know the course of rebirth of these ethical mendicants of good character. Why don\u2019t I take possession of these brahmins and householders and say, \u201cCome, all of you, honor, respect, esteem, and venerate the ethical mendicants of good character. Hopefully by doing this we can upset their minds so that M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b can find a vulnerability.\u201d\u2019 And that\u2019s exactly what he did. Then those brahmins and householders honored, respected, esteemed, and venerated the ethical mendicants of good character. Most of the people who died at that time\u2014when their body broke up, after death\u2014were reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm. Then Kakusandha the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, addressed the mendicants: \u2018Mendicants, the brahmins and householders have been possessed by M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b. He told them to venerate you in the hope of upsetting your minds so that he can find a vulnerability. Come, all you mendicants, meditate observing the ugliness of the body, perceiving the repulsiveness of food, perceiving dissatisfaction with the whole world, and observing the impermanence of all conditions.\u2019 When those mendicants were instructed and advised by the Buddha Kakusandha in this way, they went to a wilderness, or to the root of a tree, or to an empty hut, where they meditated observing the ugliness of the body, perceiving the repulsiveness of food, perceiving dissatisfaction with the whole world, and observing the impermanence of all conditions. Then the Buddha Kakusandha robed up in the morning and, taking this bowl and robe, entered the village for alms with Venerable Vidhura as his second monk. Then M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b took possession of a certain boy, picked up a rock, and hit Vidhura on the head, cracking it open. Then Vidhura, with blood pouring from his cracked skull, still followed behind the Buddha Kakusandha. Then the Buddha Kakusandha turned to gaze back, the way that elephants do, saying, \u2018This M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b knows no limit.\u2019 And as he was gazing, M\u0101ra D\u016bs\u012b fell from that place and was reborn in the Great Hell. Now that Great Hell is known by three names: \u2018Related to the Six Fields of Contact\u2019 and also \u2018The Impaling With Spikes\u2019 and also \u2018Uniquely Painful\u2019. Then the wardens of hell came to me and said, \u2018When spike meets spike in your heart, you will know that you\u2019ve been roasting in hell for a thousand years.\u2019 I roasted for many years, many centuries, many millennia in that Great Hell. For ten thousand years I roasted in the annex of that Great Hell, experiencing the pain called \u2018this is emergence\u2019. My body was in human form, but I had the head of a fish. What kind of hell was that, where D\u016bs\u012b was roasted after attacking the disciple Vidhura along with the brahmin Kakusandha? There were 100 iron spikes, each one uniquely painful. That\u2019s the kind of hell where D\u016bs\u012b was roasted after attacking the disciple Vidhura along with the brahmin Kakusandha. Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. There are mansions that last an eon standing in the middle of a lake. Sapphire-colored, brilliant, they sparkle and shine. Dancing there are nymphs shining in all different colors. Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. I\u2019m the one who, urged by the Buddha, shook the stilt longhouse of Mig\u0101ra\u2019s mother with his big toe as the Sa\u1e45gha of mendicants watched. Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. I\u2019m the one who shook the Palace of Victory with his big toe owing to psychic power, inspiring deities to awe. Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. I\u2019m the one who asked Sakka in the Palace of Victory: \u2018V\u0101sava, I hope you recall the one who is freed <j>through the ending of craving?\u2019 And I\u2019m the one to whom Sakka admitted the truth when asked. Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. I\u2019m the one who asked the Divinity in the Hall of Clear Right before the assembly: \u2018Respectable sir, do you still have the same view that you had in the past? Or do you see the radiance surpassing the realm of divinity?\u2019 And I\u2019m the one to whom the Divinity truthfully admitted his progress: \u2018Good fellow, I don\u2019t have that view that I had in the past. I see the radiance surpassing the realm of divinity. So how could I say today that I am permanent and eternal?\u2019 Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. I\u2019m the one who touched the peak of Mount Meru using the power of meditative liberation. I\u2019ve visited the forests of the people who dwell in the land east of Videha. Dark One, if you attack a mendicant who directly knows this, a disciple of the Buddha, you\u2019ll fall into suffering. Though a fire doesn\u2019t think, \u2018I\u2019ll burn the fool!\u2019 Still the fool who attacks the fire gets burnt. In the same way, M\u0101ra, in attacking the Realized One, you\u2019ll only burn yourself, like a fool touching the flames. M\u0101ra\u2019s done a bad thing in attacking the Realized One. Wicked One, do you imagine that your wickedness won\u2019t bear fruit? Your deeds heap up wickedness that will last a long time, terminator! Give up on the Buddha, M\u0101ra! And hold no hope for the mendicants!\u201d That is how, in the Bheseka\u1e37\u0101 grove, the mendicant warned M\u0101ra. That spirit, downcast, disappeared right there.","title":"The Warning to M\u0101ra","tradition":"Majjhima Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":2003}