The Perfection of Patience - Analysis of the Elements X


We read further on in the Sutta:

“Then it occurred to the Lord:

‘This young man of respectable family has gone forth on account of me.

Suppose I were to teach him Dhamma?’

And the Lord addressed the venerable Pukkusati, saying:

‘I will teach you Dhamma, monk;

listen carefully, pay attention and I will speak.’

 

‘Yes, friend,’ the venerable Pukusati answered the Lord in assent...”

  The Buddha then taught him the Sutta on the “Analysis of the Elements”
We read further on in the Sutta:

“Then the venerable Pukkusati thought:

‘Indeed it is the Teacher who has come to me;

indeed it is the Well-farer who has come to me;

indeed it is the Fully Self-Awakened One who has come to me,’

and rising from his seat, 

arranging his robe over one shoulder and bowing his head to the Lord’s feet,

he spoke thus to the Lord:

 

‘A transgression, revered sir, has overcome me in that foolish, 

errant and unskilled as I was,

I supposed the Lord could be addressed with the epithet: friend.

Revered sir, may the Lord acknowledge my transgression

as a transgression for the sake of restraint in the future.’

 

‘Indeed, monk, a transgression overcame you in that...

you supposed I could be addressed with the epithet: friend.

But if you, monk, seeing this transgression as a transgression,

confess it according to the rule, we acknowledge it for you.

For this is growth, monk, in the discipline for an ariyan,

that whoever, seeing a transgression as a transgression

confess it according to the rule,

he comes to restraint in the future.’

 

‘Revered sir, may I receive ordination in the Lord’s presence?’

 

‘But are you, monk, complete as to bowl and robe?’

 

‘Revered sir, I am not complete as to bowl and robe.’

 

‘Monk, Tathagatas do not ordain anyone not complete as to bowl and robe.’

 

Then the venerable Pukkusati, having rejoiced in what the Lord had said,

having given thanks for it, rising from his seat greeted the Lord and,

keeping his right side towards him, departed in order to search for bowl and robe.

But while he was touring about in search of a bowl and robe

a cow swerved and deprived him of life.

 

Then a number of monks approached the Lord;

having approached, having greeted the Lord,

they sat down at a respectful distance.

As they were sitting down at a respectful distance,

these monks spoke thus to the Lord:

‘That young man of family, Pukusati, revered sir,

whom the Lord exhorted with an exhortation in brief, has died.

What is his bourn, what his future state?’

 

‘Clever, monks, was Pukkusati, the young man of family;

he followed after Dhamma according to the various parts of Dhamma,

and he did not annoy me with questionings on Dhamma.

Monks, Pukkusati, the young man of family,

by the complete destruction of the five fetters binding to this lower (shore),

is of spontaneous uprising,

one who attains nibbana there,

not liable to return from that world.’

 

When the Buddha had spoken this Discourse,

the monks delighted in the words of the Exalted One.”

 


Topic 282