ud3.6:0.1Heartfelt Sayings 3.6
ud3.6:0.2With Pilindavaccha
ud3.6:1.1So I have heard.
ud3.6:1.2At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.
ud3.6:1.3Now at that time Venerable Pilindavaccha addressed the mendicants as “lowlifes”.
ud3.6:1.4Then several mendicants went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him,
ud3.6:1.5“Sir, Venerable Pilindavaccha addresses the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’.”
ud3.6:2.1So the Buddha addressed one of the monks,
ud3.6:2.2“Please, monk, in my name tell the mendicant Pilindavaccha that
ud3.6:2.3the Teacher summons him.”
ud3.6:2.4“Yes, sir,” that monk replied. He went to Pilindavaccha and said to him,
ud3.6:2.5“Reverend Pilindavaccha, the Teacher summons you.”
ud3.6:3.1“Yes, reverend,” Pilindavaccha replied. He went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him:
ud3.6:3.2“Is it really true, Vaccha, that you addressed the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’?”
ud3.6:3.3“Yes, sir,” he replied.
ud3.6:4.1Then, having applied his mind to Pilindavaccha’s past lives, the Buddha said to the mendicants,
ud3.6:4.2“Mendicants, don’t complain about the mendicant Vaccha.
ud3.6:4.3He doesn’t address the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’ out of hate.
ud3.6:4.4For five hundred lives without interruption he was reborn in a brahmin family.
ud3.6:4.5For a long time, he has addressed people as ‘lowlife’.
ud3.6:4.6That’s why he addresses the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’.”
ud3.6:5.1Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
ud3.6:6.1“In whom dwells no deceit or conceit,
ud3.6:6.2rid of greed, unselfish, with no need for hope,
ud3.6:6.3with anger cast aside, quenched:
ud3.6:6.4they are a brahmin, an ascetic, a mendicant.”