{"collection":"Khuddaka Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_thag20.1/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_thag20.1","id":"suttacentral_thag20.1","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/thag20.1/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Khuddaka Nikaya"],"text":"\u201cLiving in the wilderness, eating only almsfood, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us tear apart the army of death, while remaining serene within. Living in the wilderness, eating only almsfood, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us crush the army of death, as an elephant a hut of reeds. Living at the foot of a tree, persistent, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us tear apart the army of death, while remaining serene within. Living at the foot of a tree, persistent, happy with the scraps in our bowls, let us crush the army of death, as an elephant a hut of reeds.\u201d \u201cYou hut, made of a chain of bones, sewn together with flesh and sinew; curse you mortal frame, you stink, you cherish the parts of others! You sack of dung swathed in skin! You demoness with horns on your chest! O body, you have nine streams that are flowing all the time. With its nine streams, your body stinks, full of dung. A monk seeking purity would avoid it like excrement. If they knew you like I do, they\u2019d keep far away, like a cesspit in the monsoon.\u201d \u201cSo it is, great hero! As you say, ascetic! But some founder here like an old bull stuck in a bog.\u201d \u201cWhoever might think of making the sky yellow, or some other color, would only trouble themselves. This mind is like the sky: serene inside itself. Evil-minded one, don\u2019t attack me, you\u2019ll end up like a moth in a mass of fire.\u201d \u201cSee this fancy puppet, a body built of sores, diseased, obsessed over, in which nothing lasts at all. See this fancy figure, with its gems and earrings; it is bones swathed in skin, made pretty by its clothes. Rouged feet and powdered face may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore. Hair in eight braids and eyeshadow may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore. A rotting body all adorned like a freshly painted makeup box may be enough to beguile a fool, but not a seeker of the far shore. The hunter laid his snare, but the deer didn\u2019t spring the trap. I\u2019ve eaten the bait and now I go, leaving the trapper to lament. The hunter\u2019s snare is broken, but the deer didn\u2019t spring the trap. I\u2019ve eaten the bait and now I go, leaving the deer-hunter to grieve.\u201d \u201cThen there was terror! Then they had goosebumps! When S\u0101riputta, <j>endowed with many fine qualities, became quenched. Oh! Conditions are impermanent, their nature is to rise and fall; having arisen, they cease; their settling is such bliss.\u201d \u201cThose who see the five aggregates as other, not as self, penetrate a subtle thing, like a hair-tip with an arrow. Those who see conditions as alien, not as self, pierce a fine thing, like a hair-tip with an arrow.\u201d \u201cLike they\u2019re struck by a sword, like their head was on fire, a mendicant should wander mindful, to give up sensual desire. Like they\u2019re struck by a sword, like their head was on fire, a mendicant should wander mindful, to give up desire for rebirth.\u201d \u201cUrged by the developed one, who bore his final body, I shook the stilt longhouse of Mig\u0101ra\u2019s mother with my big toe.\u201d \u201cNot by being slack, or with little strength may this be realized\u2014extinguishment, the release from all ties.\u201d \u201cThis young monk, this best of men, bears his final body, having vanquished M\u0101ra and his legions.\u201d \u201cLightning flashes down on the cleft of Vebh\u0101ra and Pa\u1e47\u1e0dava. But in the mountain cleft he is absorbed in jh\u0101na\u2014 the son of the Buddha, inimitable and unaffected.\u201d \u201cCalm and still, the sage in his remote lodging, the heir to the best of Buddhas, is honored even by the Divinity. Calm and still, the sage in his remote lodging, is heir to the best of Buddhas: Brahmin, you should honor Kassapa! Even if someone were to be born again and again a hundred times in the human realm, and always as a brahmin, a student accomplished in the Vedas; and if he were to become a reciter, a master of the three Vedas: honoring such a person isn\u2019t worth a sixteenth of that. One who attains the eight liberations forwards and backwards before breakfast, and then goes on almsround\u2014 don\u2019t attack such a mendicant! Don\u2019t ruin yourself, brahmin! Let your heart have trust in the perfected one, the unaffected; quickly venerate him with cupped palms: don\u2019t let your head explode!\u201d \u201cIf you prioritize transmigration, you don\u2019t see the true teaching. You\u2019re following a twisted path, a bad path that will lead you down. Like a worm smeared with dung, he is besotted with conditions. Consumed by gain and honor, Po\u1e6d\u1e6dhila goes on, hollow.\u201d \u201cSee S\u0101riputta coming! It is good to see him; he is freed in both ways, serene inside himself; free of thorns, with yoking ended, master of the three knowledges, <j>conqueror of death; worthy of offerings, a supreme field of merit for the people.\u201d \u201cThese many gods, powerful and glorious, all 10,000 of them, are priests of Divinity. They stand with cupped palms honoring Moggall\u0101na: \u2018Homage to you, O thoroughbred! Homage to you, supreme among men! Since your defilements are ended, you, good fellow, are worthy of teacher\u2019s offerings.\u2019 Venerated by the lordly god, he has arisen, the master of death. He is unsmeared by conditions, as a lotus-flower by water.\u201d \u201cThe mendicant by whom the galaxy with the age of the Divinity are known in an hour\u2014 that master of psychic ability sees the gods at the time they pass away and are reborn.\u201d \u201cS\u0101riputta is full of wisdom, ethics, and peace. Even a mendicant who has crossed over might at best equal him. But in a moment I can create the likenesses of ten million times 100,000 people! I\u2019m skilled in transformations; I\u2019m a master of psychic powers. A member of the Moggall\u0101na clan, <j>attained to perfection and mastery in immersion and knowledge, <j>wise in the teachings of the unattached, with serene faculties, has burst his bonds like an elephant bursts a vine. I\u2019ve served the Teacher and fulfilled the Buddha\u2019s instructions. The heavy burden is laid down, the leash to existence is eradicated. I\u2019ve attained the goal for the sake of which I went forth from the lay life to homelessness\u2014 the ending of all fetters.\u201d \u201cWhat 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: \u2018Respectable sir, I hope you recall the one who is freed 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 admitted the truth when asked. \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 Neru 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. That is how these verses were recited by the senior venerable Mah\u0101moggall\u0101na. The Book of the Sixties is finished.","title":"Mah\u0101moggall\u0101na","tradition":"Khuddaka Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":1616}