பின்தொடரும்.-திரிபிடகம் மூன்று தொகுப்புகள் up a levelTIPITAKA- All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they have

mind as their chief; they are mind-made. If one speaks or acts with an evil mind, ‘dukkha’ follows him just as the wheel follows the hoofprint of the ox that draws the cart

Explanation: All that we experience begins with thought. Our

words and deeds spring from thought. If we speak or act with evil

thoughts, unpleasant circumstances and experiences inevitably result.

Wherever we go, we create bad circumstances because we carry bad thoughts.

This is very much like the wheel of a cart following the hoofs of

the ox yoked to the cart. The cart-wheel, along with the heavy load

of the cart, keeps following the draught oxen. The animal is bound

to this heavy load and cannot leave it.

The Story of Thera Cakkhupala

While residing at the Jetavana monastery in Savatthi, the Buddha uttered Verse (1) of this book, with reference to Cakkhupala, a blind thera.

On one occasion, Thera Cakkhupala came to pay homage to the Buddha at the Jetavana monastery. One night, while pacing up and down in meditation, the thera accidentally stepped on some insects. In the morning, some bhikkhus visiting the thera found the dead insects. They thought ill of the thera and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha asked them whether they had seen the thera killing the insects. When they answered in the negative, the Buddha said,

“Just as you had not seen him killing, so also he had not seen those living insects. Besides, as the thera had already attained arahatship he could have no intention of killing and so was quite innocent.” On being asked why Cakkhupala was blind although he was an arahat, the Buddha told the following story:

Cakkhupala was a physician in one of his past existences. Once, he had deliberately made a woman patient blind. That woman had promised him to become his slave, together with her children, if her eyes were completely cured.

Fearing that she and her children would have to become slaves, she lied to the physician. She told him that her eyes were getting worse when, in fact, they were perfectly cured. The physician knew she was deceiving him, so in revenge, he gave her another ointment, which made her totally blind. As a result of this

evil deed the physician lost his eyesight many times in his later existences.

இல்லறத்தாரோடும், துறவிகளோடும் கலக்காமல், ஆசைகளை குறைத்துக் கொண்ட தேவைகளில் பற்றுத்லை ஏற்படுத்திக் கொள்ளாதவரையே நான் பிராமணர் என அழைப்பேன்.

Verse 404: Him I call a brahmana, who associates not with the householder or with the homeless one, or with both, who is free from sensual desire and has few wants.

Explanation: He does not establish extensive contact either

with laymen or with the homeless. He is not attached to the way of

life of the householder. He is content with the bare minimum of needs. I call that person a true brahmana.

The Story of Thera Tissa

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (404) of this book with reference to Thera Tissa.

Thera Tissa, after taking a subject of meditation from the Buddha, went to a mountain side. There, he found a cave which suited him and he decided to spend the three months of the rainy season (vassa) in that cave. So he stayed in the cave and went to the village for alms-food every morning. In the village, there was a certain elderly woman who regularly offered him alms-food. In the cave, there also lived the guardian spirit of the cave. As the thera was one whose practice of morality was pure, the cave-spirit dared not live in the same cave with the noble thera; at the same time, he did not have the courage to ask the thera to leave the place. So

he thought of a plan that would enable him to find fault with the thera and thus cause him to leave the cave.

The cave-spirit possessed the son of the elderly woman from the house where the thera usually went for his alms-food. He caused the boy to behave in a very peculiar way, turning his head

backwards, and rolling his wide open eyes. His mother got alarmed and was in tears. The cave-spirit, who possessed the boy, then said “Let your teacher, the thera, wash his feet with water and pour that water on the head of your son.” The next day when the thera came to her house for alms-food, she did as she was advised by the cave-spirit and the boy was left in peace. The cave-spirit went back to the cave and waited at the entrance for the return of

the thera. When the thera returned from his alms-round, the cave-spirit revealed himself and said, “I am the spirit guarding this cave. O you physician, do not enter this cave.” The thera knew that he had lived a clean life from the day he had become a thera, so he replied that he did not remember practising medicine. Then the cave-spirit accused him that in that very morning he had

cured a young boy possessed by an ogre at the house of the elderly woman. But the thera reflected that it was not, in fact, practising medicine and he realized that even the cave spirit could find no other fault with him. That gave him a delightful satisfaction (piti) with himself, and abandoning piti and concentrating hard on Insight Meditation he attained arahatship then and there, while still standing at the entrance to the cave.

As the thera had now become an arahat, he advised the cave-spirit to leave the cave. The thera continued to stay there till the end of the vassa, and then he returned to the Buddha. When he told the other bhikkhus about his encounter with the cave-spirit, they asked

him whether he did not get angry with the cave-spirit when he was forbidden to enter the cave. The thera answered in the negative but they did not believe him.

So they went to the Buddha and said, “Thera Tissa claims himself to be an arahat ; he is not speaking the truth.” To them the Buddha replied, “Bhikkhus, my son Tissa was speaking the truth when he said he did not get angry. He has indeed become an arahat he is no longer attached to anyone; he has no occasion to get angry with anyone nor any need to associate with others.”