{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn35.132/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn35.132","id":"suttacentral_sn35.132","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn35.132/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At one time Venerable Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na was staying in the land of the Avantis in a wilderness hut near Makkaraka\u1e6da. Then several students, pupils of the brahmin Lohicca, approached Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na\u2019s wilderness hut while collecting firewood. They walked and wandered all around the hut, making a colossal racket and all kinds of jeers: \u201cThese shavelings, fake ascetics, primitives, black spawn from the feet of our kinsman, the Lord! They\u2019re honored, respected, revered, venerated, and esteemed by so-called inheritors of Vedic culture.\u201d Then Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na left his dwelling and said to those young students, \u201cYoung students, stop being so noisy. I will speak to you on the teaching.\u201d When this was said, the young students fell silent. Then Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na recited these verses for them: \u201cFor the brahmins of old, ethics were the highest; they remembered the ancient legends. Their sense doors were guarded, well protected, and they had mastered anger. Those brahmins who remembered <j>the ancient legends enjoyed virtue and absorption. But these have lost their way. <j>Saying, \u2018We must pray\u2019, they live out of balance, judging by clan. Mastered by anger, they take up many arms, indifferent to those with craving and without. All is vain for someone <j>who doesn\u2019t guard the sense doors, like the wealth a person finds in a dream. Fasting, sleeping on bare ground, bathing at daybreak, the three Vedas, rough hides, dreadlocks, and mud, hymns, precepts and observances, <j>and fervent austerities, fawning, bent staffs, and sipping water. These emblems of the brahmins are only used to generate profits. A mind that\u2019s serene, clear and unclouded, kind to all creatures: that\u2019s the path to attainment of divinity!\u201d Then those young students, offended and upset, went to the brahmin Lohicca and said to him, \u201cPlease, master, you should know this. The ascetic Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na condemns and rejects outright the hymns of the brahmins!\u201d When they said this, Lohicca was offended and upset. Then he thought, \u201cBut it wouldn\u2019t be appropriate for me to abuse or insult the ascetic Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na solely because of what I\u2019ve heard from these young students. Why don\u2019t I go and ask him about it?\u201d Then the brahmin Lohicca together with those young students went to Venerable Mah\u0101kacc\u0101na and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to him, \u201cMaster Kacc\u0101na, did several young pupils of mine come by here collecting firewood?\u201d \u201cThey did, brahmin.\u201d \u201cBut did you have some discussion with them?\u201d \u201cI did.\u201d \u201cBut what kind of discussion did you have with them?\u201d \u201cThis is the discussion I had with these young students.\u201d And he repeated the verses in full. \u201cWorthy Kacc\u0101na spoke of someone who doesn\u2019t guard the sense doors. How do you define someone who doesn\u2019t guard the sense doors?\u201d \u201cBrahmin, take someone who sees a sight with their eyes. If it\u2019s pleasant they hold on to it, but if it\u2019s unpleasant they dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body unestablished and their heart stunted. And they don\u2019t truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder. When they hear a sound with their ears \u2026 When they smell an odor with their nose \u2026 When they taste a flavor with their tongue \u2026 When they feel a touch with their body \u2026 When they know an idea with their mind, if it\u2019s pleasant they hold on to it, but if it\u2019s unpleasant they dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body unestablished and their heart stunted. And they don\u2019t truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder. That\u2019s how someone doesn\u2019t guard the sense doors.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s incredible, worthy Kacc\u0101na, it\u2019s amazing! How accurately you\u2019ve explained someone whose sense doors are unguarded! You also spoke of someone who does guard the sense doors. How do you define someone who does guard the sense doors?\u201d \u201cBrahmin, take a mendicant who sees a sight with their eyes. If it\u2019s pleasant they don\u2019t hold on to it, and if it\u2019s unpleasant they don\u2019t dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body established and a limitless heart. And they truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder. When they hear a sound with their ears \u2026 When they smell an odor with their nose \u2026 When they taste a flavor with their tongue \u2026 When they feel a touch with their body \u2026 When they know an idea with their mind, if it\u2019s pleasant they don\u2019t hold on to it, and if it\u2019s unpleasant they don\u2019t dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body established and a limitless heart. And they truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder. That\u2019s how someone guards the sense doors.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s incredible, worthy Kacc\u0101na, it\u2019s amazing! How accurately you\u2019ve explained someone whose sense doors are guarded! Excellent, worthy Kacc\u0101na! Excellent! As if he were righting the overturned, or revealing the hidden, or pointing out the path to the lost, or lighting a lamp in the dark so people with clear eyes can see what\u2019s there, the worthy Kacc\u0101na has made the teaching clear in many ways. I go for refuge to the Buddha, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Sa\u1e45gha. From this day forth, may the worthy Kacc\u0101na remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life. Please come to my family just as you go to the families of the lay followers in Makkaraka\u1e6da. The brahmin boys and girls there will bow to you, rise in your presence, and give you a seat and water. That will be for their lasting welfare and happiness.\u201d","title":"With Lohicca","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":968}