{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn16.11/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn16.11","id":"suttacentral_sn16.11","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn16.11/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At one time Venerable Mah\u0101kassapa was staying near R\u0101jagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels\u2019 feeding ground. Now at that time Venerable \u0100nanda was wandering in the Southern Hills together with a large Sa\u1e45gha of mendicants. And at that time thirty of \u0100nanda\u2019s mendicant prot\u00e9g\u00e9s resigned the training and returned to a lesser life. Most of them were youths. When Venerable \u0100nanda had wandered in the Southern Hills as long as he pleased, he set out for R\u0101jagaha, to the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels\u2019 feeding ground. He went up to Venerable Mah\u0101kassapa, bowed, and sat down to one side. Mah\u0101kassapa said to him: \u201cReverend \u0100nanda, for how many reasons did the Buddha lay down a rule against eating in groups of more than three among families?\u201d \u201cSir, the Buddha laid down that rule for three reasons. For keeping difficult individuals in check and for the comfort of good-hearted mendicants. To prevent those of corrupt wishes from taking sides and dividing the Sa\u1e45gha. And out of consideration for families. These are the three reasons why the Buddha laid down that rule.\u201d \u201cSo what then are you doing, wandering together with these junior mendicants? They don\u2019t guard their sense doors, they eat too much, and they\u2019re not committed to wakefulness. It\u2019s like you\u2019re wandering about wrecking crops and ruining families! Your following is falling away, Reverend \u0100nanda, and those just getting started are falling apart. Yet this boy knows no limit!\u201d \u201cThough there are grey hairs on my head, I still can\u2019t escape being called a boy by Venerable Mah\u0101kassapa.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s because you wander with these junior mendicants. \u2026 Your following is falling away, Reverend \u0100nanda, and those just getting started are falling apart. Yet this boy knows no limit!\u201d The nun Thullanand\u0101 heard a rumor that the venerable Mah\u0101kassapa had rebuked the venerable \u0100nanda the Videhan sage by calling him a boy. She was upset and blurted out, \u201cHow can the venerable Mah\u0101kassapa, who formerly followed another religion, presume to rebuke the venerable \u0100nanda the Videhan sage by calling him a boy?\u201d Mah\u0101kassapa heard Thullanand\u0101 say these words, and he said to \u0100nanda, \u201cIndeed, Reverend \u0100nanda, the nun Thullanand\u0101 spoke rashly and without reflection. Since I shaved off my hair and beard, dressed in ocher robes, and went forth from the lay life to homelessness, I don\u2019t recall dedicating myself to any other teacher apart from the Blessed One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha. Formerly when I was still a layman, I thought: \u2018Life at home is cramped and dirty, life gone forth is wide open. It\u2019s not easy for someone living at home to lead the spiritual life utterly full and pure, like a polished shell. Why don\u2019t I shave off my hair and beard, dress in ocher robes, and go forth from the lay life to homelessness?\u2019 After some time I made an outer robe of patches and, in the name of the perfected ones in the world, I shaved off my hair and beard, dressed in ocher robes, and went forth from the lay life to homelessness. When I had gone forth, I traveled along the road between R\u0101jagaha and N\u0101\u1e37and\u0101, where I saw the Buddha sitting at the Many Sons Shrine. Seeing him, I thought: \u2018Were I ever to see a Teacher, it would be this Blessed One! Were I ever to see a Holy One, it would be this Blessed One! Were I ever to see a fully awakened Buddha, it would be this Blessed One!\u2019 Then I bowed with my head to the Buddha\u2019s feet and said: \u2018Sir, the Buddha is my Teacher, I am his disciple! The Buddha is my Teacher, I am his disciple!\u2019 The Buddha said to me, \u2018Kassapa, if anyone was to say to such a wholehearted disciple that they know when they don\u2019t know, or that they see when they don\u2019t see, their head would explode. But Kassapa, when I say that I know I really do know; and when I say that I see I really do see. So you should train like this: \u201cI will set up a keen sense of conscience and prudence for seniors, juniors, and those in the middle.\u201d That\u2019s how you should train. And you should train like this: \u201cWhenever I hear a teaching connected with what\u2019s skillful, I will pay attention, apply the mind, concentrate wholeheartedly, and actively listen to that teaching.\u201d That\u2019s how you should train. And you should train like this: \u201cI will never neglect mindfulness of the body that is full of pleasure.\u201d That\u2019s how you should train.\u2019 And when the Buddha had given me this advice he rose from his seat and left. For seven days I ate the nation\u2019s almsfood as a debtor. On the eighth day I became enlightened. And then the Buddha left the road and went to the root of a certain tree. So I spread out my outer robe of patches folded in four and said to him, \u2018Sir, sit here. That would be for my lasting welfare and happiness.\u2019 The Buddha sat down on the seat spread out and said to me, \u2018Kassapa, this outer robe of patches is soft.\u2019 \u2018Sir, please accept my outer robe of patches out of sympathy.\u2019 \u2018In that case, Kassapa, will you wear my worn-out hempen rag robe?\u2019 \u2018I will wear it, sir.\u2019 And so I presented my outer robe of patches to the Buddha, and the Buddha presented me with his worn-out hempen rag robe. For if anyone should be rightly called the Buddha\u2019s bosom son, born from his mouth, born of the teaching, created by the teaching, heir to the teaching, and receiver of his worn-out hempen rag robes, it\u2019s me. Whenever I want, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, I enter and remain in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected. \u2026 (The nine progressive meditations and the five insights should be told in full.) I have realized the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom. And I live having realized it with my own insight in this very life due to the ending of defilements. Reverend, you might as well think to hide a bull elephant that\u2019s three or three and a half meters tall behind a palm leaf as to hide my six insights.\u201d But the nun Thullanand\u0101 fell from the spiritual life.","title":"Robes","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":1069}