Vinaya (3): The Cullavagga

by T. W. Rhys Davids | 1881 | 137,074 words

The Cullavagga (part of the Vinaya collection) includes accounts of the First and Second Buddhist Councils as well as the establishment of the community of Buddhist nuns. The Cullavagga also elaborates on the etiquette and duties of Bhikkhus....

Cullavagga, Khandaka 7, Chapter 1

1. Now at that time the Blessed One was staying at Anupiyā[2]. Anupiyā is a town belonging to the Mallas[3]. Now at that time the most distinguished of the young men of the Sākya clan had renounced the world in imitation of the Blessed One.

Now there were two brothers, Mahānāma the Sākyan, and Anuruddha the Sākyan. Anuruddha the Sākyan was delicately nurtured; and he had three storeyed residences, one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the season of the rains[4]. During the four months spent in the residence for the season of the rains, he was waited upon by women performing music[5], and came not down from the upper storey of his residence.

Then Mahānāma the Sākyan thought: 'Now the most distinguished of the young men of the Sākya clan have already renounced the world in imitation of the Blessed One, but from our own family no one has gone forth from the household life into the houseless state. Let therefore either I, or Anuruddha, renounce the world.' And he went to Anuruddha the Sākyan, and said [so to him, adding], 'Either therefore do you go forth, or I will do so.'

'I am delicate. It is impossible for me to go forth from the household life into the houseless state. Do you do so.'

2. 'But come now, O beloved Anuruddha, I will tell you what is incident to the household life. First, you have to get your fields ploughed. When that is done, you have to get them sown. When that is done, you have to get the water led down over them. When that is done, you have to get the water led off again. When that is done, you have to get the weeds pulled up[6]. When that is done, you have to get the crop reaped. When that is done, you have to get the crop carried away. When that is done, you have to get it arranged into bundles. When that is done, you have to get it trodden out[7]. When that is done, you have to get the straw picked out. When that is done, you have to get all the chaff removed. When that is done, you have to get it winnowed. When that is done, you have to get the harvest garnered[8]. When that is done, you have to do just the same the next year, and the same all over again the year after that.

'The work is never over: one sees not the end of one's labours. O! when shall our work be over? When shall we see the end of our labours? When shall we, still possessing and retaining the pleasures of our five senses, yet dwell at rest? Yes! the work, beloved Anuruddha, is never over; no end appears to our labours. Even when our fathers and forefathers had completed their time[9], even then was their work unfinished.'

'Then do you take thought for the household duties. I will go forth from the household life into the houseless state.'

And Anuruddha the Sākyan went to his mother, and said to her: 'I want, mother, to go forth from the household life into the houseless state. Grant me thy permission to do so.'

And when he had thus spoken, his mother replied to Anuruddha the Sākyan, and said: 'You two, O beloved Anuruddha, are my two only sons, near and dear to me, in whom I find no evil. Through death I shall some day, against my will, be separated from you; but how can I be willing, whilst you are still alive, that you should go forth from the household life into the houseless state?'

[And a second time Anuruddha the Sākyan made the same request, and received the same reply. And a third time Anuruddha the Sākyan made the same request to his mother.]

3. Now at that time Bhaddiya the Sākya Rāja held rule over the Sākyas; and he was a friend of Anuruddha the Sākyan's. And the mother of Anuruddha the Sākyan, thinking that that being so, the Rāja would not be able to renounce the world, said to her son: 'If, beloved Anuruddha, Bhaddiya the Sākyan Rāja will renounce the world, thou also mayest go forth into the houseless state.'

Then Anuruddha the Sākyan went to Bhaddiya the Sākyan Raga, and said to him: 'My renunciation of the world, dear friend, is being obstructed by thee.'

'Then let that obstruction, dear friend, be removed. Even with thee will I[10]—renounce thou the world according to thy wish.'

'Come, dear friend, let us both renounce the world together!'

'I am not capable, dear friend, of giving up the household life. Whatsoever else you can ask of me, that I will do[11]. Do you go forth (alone).'

'My mother, dear friend, has told me that if thou dost so, I may. And thou hast even now declared "If thy renunciation be obstructed by me, then let that obstruction be removed. Even with thee will I—renounce thou the world, according to thy wish." Come, then, dear friend, let us both renounce the world.'

Now at that time men were speakers of truth, and keepers of their word which they had pledged. And Bhaddiya the Sākya Rāja said to Anuruddha the Sākyan: 'Wait, my friend, for seven years. At the end of seven years we will renounce the world together.'

'Seven years are too long, dear friend. I am not able to wait for seven years.'

[And the same offer was made successively of six years and so on down to one year, of seven months and so on down to one month, and even of a fortnight, and still there was ever the same reply. At last the Rāja said,]

'Wait, my friend, for seven days, whilst I hand over the kingdom to my sons and my brothers.'

'Seven days is not too long. I will wait thus far' (was the reply).

4. So Bhaddiya the Sākya Rāja, and Anuruddha, and Ānanda, and Bhagu, and Kimbila, and Devadatta—just as they had so often previously gone out to the pleasure-ground with fourfold array—even so did they now go out with fourfold array, and Upāli the barber went with them, making seven in all.

And when they had gone some distance, they sent their retinue back, and crossed over into the neighbouring district, and took off their fine things, and wrapped them in their robes, and made a bundle of them, and said to Upāli the barber: 'Do you now, good Upāli, turn back. These things will be sufficient for you to live upon.'

But as he was going back, Upāli the barber thought: 'The Sākyas are fierce. They will think that these young men have been brought by me to destruction, and they will slay me. But since now these young men of the Sākya clan can go forth from the household life into the houseless state, why indeed should not I?' And he let down the bundle (from his back), and hung the bundle on a tree, saying, 'Let whoso finds it, take it, as a gift,' and returned to the place where the young Sākyans were.

And the Sākya youths saw him coming from afar, and on seeing, they said to him: 'What have you come back for, good Upāli?'

Then he told them [what he had thought, and what he had done with the bundle, and why he was returned].

'Thou host done well, good Upāli (was the reply), in that thou didst not return; for the Sākyas are fierce, and might have killed thee.'

And they took Upāli the barber with them to the place where the Blessed One was. And on arriving there, they bowed down before the Blessed One, and took their seats on one side. And so seated they said to the Blessed One: 'We Sākyas, Lord, are haughty. And this Upāli the barber has long been an attendant, Lord, upon us. May the Blessed One admit him to the Order before us, so that we may render him respect and reverence, and bow down with outstretched hands before him (as our senior), and thus shall the Sākya pride be humbled in us Sākyans[12].'

Then the Blessed One received first Upāli the barber, and afterwards those young men of the Sākya clan, into the ranks of the Order. And the venerable Bhaddiya, before that rainy season was over, became master of the Threefold Wisdom[13], and the venerable Anuruddha acquired the Heavenly Vision[14], and the venerable Ānanda realised the effect of having entered upon the Stream[15], and Devadatta attained to that kind of Iddhi which is attainable even by those who have not entered upon the Excellent Way[16].

5[17]. Now at that time the venerable Bhaddiya, who had retired into the forest to the foot of a tree, into solitude, gave utterance over and over again to this ecstatic exclamation: 'O happiness! O happiness!' And a number of Bhikkhus went up to the place where the Blessed One was, and bowed down before him, and took their seats on one side. And, so seated, they [told the Blessed One of this], and added, 'For a certainty, Lord, the venerable Bhaddiya is not contented as he lives the life of purity; but rather it is when calling to mind the happiness of his former sovranty that he gives vent to this saying.'

Then the Blessed One addressed a certain Bhikkhu; and said: 'Do you go, O Bhikkhu, and in my name call Bhaddiya the Bhikkhu, saying, The Teacher, venerable Bhaddiya, is calling for you."'

'Even so, Lord,' said that Bhikkhu, in assent to the Blessed One. And he went to Bhaddiya, and called him [in those words].

6. 'Very, well,' said the venerable Bhaddiya, in assent to that Bhikkhu; and he came to the Blessed One, and bowed down before him, and took his seat on one side. And when he was so seated, the Blessed One said to the venerable Bhaddiya:

'Is it true, as they say, that you Bhaddiya, when retired into the forest to the foot of a tree, into solitude, have given utterance over and over again to this ecstatic exclamation, "O happiness! O happiness!" What circumstance was it, O Bhaddiya, that you had in your mind when you acted thus?'

'Formerly, Lord, when I was a king, I had a guard completely provided both within and without my private apartments, both within and without the town, and within the (borders of my) country. Yet though, Lord, I was thus guarded and protected, I was fearful, anxious, distrustful, and alarmed. But now, Lord, even when in the forest, at the foot of a tree, in solitude, I am without fear or anxiety, trustful and not alarmed; I dwell at ease, subdued[18], secure[19], with mind as peaceful as an antelope's[20]. It was when calling this fact to mind, Lord, that I gave utterance over and over again to that cry, "O happiness! O happiness!"'

Then the Blessed One, on hearing that, gave utterance at that time to this song:

'The man who harbours no harsh thoughts within him,
Who cares not whether things are thus or thus,
His state of joy, freedom from grief or care,
The very gods obtain not to behold!'

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

With the whole of the following story compare the, in many respects, fuller account given by the commentator on the Dhammapada (Fausböll, pp. 139 and following).

[2]:

This was the spot where Gotama spent the first week after his renunciation of the world, before he went on to Rājagaha (Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' I, 87). Professor Fausböll there (Jātaka I, 65) reads Anūpiyaṃ, but all his MSS. have the ŭ short. It is noteworthy that in our text the locative is formed as if the word were feminine, though the neuter form is used for the nominative.

[3]:

The more usual mode of adding this description in similar passages at the commencement of all the Suttas would lead us to expect here Mallānaṃ nigame.

[4]:

Compare Mahāvagga I, 7, I, where the same thing is said of Yasa.

[5]:

Nippurisehi turiyehi. That Childers's rendering, 'without men, without people,' is inadequate is clear from the context at the passage which he quotes from Jātaka I, 53.

[6]:

Niḍḍāpeti. Buddhaghosa says, 'Pull up the weeds' (tiṇāni). The word occurs also at Jātaka I, 215, where there is a similar list of farming operations, which, though smaller, contains one or two items not given here.

[7]:

Maddāpeti. There is mention of threshing (prati-han) already in the Vedas. See the passages collected by Zimmer, 'Altindisches Leben,' p. 238. But treading out is even still a very common, if not the more usual, process throughout India and Ceylon.

[8]:

Atiharāpeti. See Milinda Pañha, p. 66. The simple verb occurs also in a similar connection in the Bhikkhunī-vibhaṅga in the introductory story to Pācittiya VII.

[9]:

That is, had died.

[10]:

Ahaṃ tayā. Buddhaghosa explains that the Rāja is beginning to say that he will go with his friend. But a desire for the glory of sovereignty comes over his heart, and he leaves the sentence unfinished. (The Pāli is given in the notes on the text, p. 323.)

[11]:

Tyāhaṃ. See Dr. Morris's remarks on this elision in his introduction to the Cariyā Piṭaka (Pāli Text Society, 1882), where he makes it equal to tad ahaṃ. This seems to us open to question, at least in this passage, where it may possibly stand for te ahaṃ.

[12]:

This reputation of the Sākya family for pride is referred to in Jātaka I, 88, 89.

[13]:

Tisso vijjā, see Rh. D.'s remarks at pp. 161, 162 of 'Buddhist Suttas from the Pāli' (S.B.E., vol. xi). They are probably here the three vijjas referred to in the Sutta-vibhaṅga, Pārājika I, 1, 6-8, as the second of those is the Heavenly Vision, here mentioned in the next clause.

[14]:

Dibbacakkhu, a full description of the details of which will be found in the stock paragraph translated by Rh. D. in 'Buddhist Suttas from the Pāli' (S.B.E., vol. xi, pp. 216-218).

[15]:

Sotāpattiphala; that is, he became free from the delusion of self (sakkāyadiṭṭhi), from doubt (vicikicchā), and from dependence upon ceremonies or works (sīlabbata-pārāmāsa). See Rh. D.'s manual, 'Buddhism,' pp. 108-110.

[16]:

Pothujjanikā iddhi. What this may be is unknown to us. A fourfold Iddhi is described in detail in the stock passage translated by Rh. D. in 'Buddhist Suttas from the Pāli,' S.B.E., vol. xi, p. 214, and the fourfold Iddhi of the ideal king in the similar passage, loc. cit., pp. 259-261. The Iddhi here referred to may be the former of these two, though that list does not include the power ascribed to Devadatta in the next chapter. At Jātaka I, 140, the expression of our text here is replaced by jhāna, though the account there is otherwise the same.

[17]:

The following incident, with a summary of the preceding sections, forms the introductory story to the 10th Jātaka (Rh. D.'s 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' i. pp. 190-193). The legend may have first arisen as an explanation of the name Bhaddiya, which means 'the fortunate one.'

[18]:

Pannalomo. See our note 2 on Cullavagga I, 6, 1 (above, vol. ii, p. 339).

[19]:

Paradavutto. This is the reading of the Sinhalese MS., and is the correct one. See Oldenberg's note at p. 363 of the edition of the text. Our translation is conjectural.

[20]:

Migabhūtena cetasā. The meaning of miga in this phrase is not certain; and the figure may be drawn from the careless mind of any animal in its natural state. We have not noticed the idiom elsewhere; but compare the converse figure, bhantamiga-sappaṭibhāgo sāsane anabhirato, at Jātaka I, 303, 6.

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: