Mahā Lomahaṃsa Cariya

With regard to the Perfection of Equanimity, the story of the Bodhisatta’s hair-raising, severe efforts in fulfilling Upekkhā Pāramī will be reproduced from the Cariya Piṭaka Commentary.

Once the Bodhisatta was born in a family of wealth and rank. When the time came for his education, he went to a well-known teacher. After completing it, he returned to his parents to look after them. On their death, his relatives urged him to protect and increase the riches that he had inherited.

However, the Bodhisatta had developed fear of all realms of existence and his fear was based on the nature of impermanence of all conditioned things. He also had perceived the loathsomeness of the body and had no desire at all to be entangled in the thicket of defilements associated with household life. In fact, his desire to get out of the world of sensuality had long been growing. Accordingly, he wanted to renounce the world after abandoning his great wealth. “But because of sounds of praise, my renunciation will make me famous,” he thought to himself. Since he disliked fame, gain and honour shown to him, he did not renounce the world. In order to test himself whether he could unshakably stand the vicissitude of life, such as gaining and not gaining (wealth), etc. wearing the usual clothes, he left the house. His special desire was to fulfil the highest form of Upekkhā Pāramī by enduring ill-treatment of others. Leading a noble life of austerities, he was thought by people to be a feeble-minded eccentric, one who never showed anger to others. Regarded as a person to be treated not with respect but with impudence, he roamed about villages and towns, big and small, spending just one night at each place. But he stayed longer wherever he was shown the greatest insolence. When his clothes were worn out, he tried to cover himself with whatever remnant was left. And when that piece was torn away, he did not accept any garment from anybody but tried to cover himself with anything available and kept moving.

After living such a life for a long time, he arrived at a village. The village children there were of aggressive nature. Some kids, belonging to widows and associates of ruling class, were unsteady, conceited, fickle-minded. garrulous, indulging in loose talk. They wandered around, always playing practical jokes on others. When they saw aged and poor people walking, they followed them and threw ashes on their backs. They tried to place ketaki leaves under the old people’s arm-pits (just to make them feel uncomfortable). When the old people turned round to look at them, they mimicked their movements and manners by bending their backs, curving their legs, pretending to be dumb, etc., and had great fun laughing among themselves.

When the Bodhisatta saw the unruly children, he thought: “Now I have found a good means of support for fulfilment of Perfection of Equanimity,” and stayed in the village. Seeing him, the mischievous kids tried to make fun of him, who, pretending as though he could no longer endure them and as though he was afraid of them, ran away. Still the kids followed him wherever he went.

The Bodhisatta, on the run, reached a cemetery and thought to himself: “This is a place where no one will prevent these mischievous youngsters from doing harm. I have now a chance to fulfil Upekkhā Pāramī to a great extent.” He went into the cemetery and slept there using a skull as a pillow. Getting an opportunity to indulge in devilry, the foolish kids went where the Bodhisatta was sleeping and insulted him in various ways, spitting phlegm and saliva on him and doing other evil things and went away. In this way, they ill-treated the Bodhisatta everyday.

Seeing these wrong acts done by the wicked children, some wise people stopped them. With the knowledge that “This indeed is a holy ascetic of great power”, they all paid obeisance to him with utmost reverence.

The Bodhisatta kept the same attitude towards both the foolish kids and the wise people. He showed no affection to the latter who honoured him nor aversion to the former who insulted him. Instead, he took a neutral stance between affection and aversion with regard to both parties. In this way, he fulfilled the Perfection of Equanimity.

(Though this story is called Mahā Lomahaṃsa Jātaka, the name Mahā Lomahaṃsa was not that of the Bodhisatta. It just refers to the effect on those who come to know of how the Bodhisatta had practised; the horrible story could make their hair stand on end; hence the story’s name Mahā Lomahaṃsa).