ud3.9:0.1Heartfelt Sayings 3.9
ud3.9:0.2Professions
ud3.9:1.1So I have heard.
ud3.9:1.2At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery.
ud3.9:1.3Now at that time, after the meal, on return from almsround, several mendicants sat together in the pavilion and this discussion came up among them:
ud3.9:1.4“Who knows a craft?
ud3.9:1.5Who is studying which craft?
ud3.9:1.6Which is the best craft?”
ud3.9:2.1In answer, some said that
ud3.9:2.2elephant-craft is the best of crafts.
ud3.9:2.3Others said that the best craft is
ud3.9:2.4horse-craft,
ud3.9:2.6or chariot-craft,
ud3.9:2.8or archery,
ud3.9:2.10or swordsmanship,
ud3.9:2.12or arithmetic,
ud3.9:2.14or accounting,
ud3.9:2.16or calculating,
ud3.9:2.18or writing,
ud3.9:2.20or poetry,
ud3.9:2.22or cosmology,
ud3.9:2.24or geomancy.
ud3.9:2.25At that point the conversation among those mendicants was left unfinished.
ud3.9:3.1Then in the late afternoon, the Buddha came out of retreat and went to the assembly hall. He sat down on the seat spread out,
ud3.9:3.2and addressed the mendicants:
ud3.9:3.3“Mendicants, what were you sitting talking about just now? What conversation was left unfinished?”
ud3.9:4.1So the mendicants told him what they had been talking about when the Buddha arrived. The Buddha said,
ud3.9:6.1“Mendicants, it is not appropriate for you gentlemen who have gone forth out of faith from the lay life to homelessness to talk about such things.
ud3.9:6.2When you’re sitting together you should do one of two things:
ud3.9:6.3discuss the teachings or keep noble silence.”
ud3.9:7.1Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
ud3.9:8.1“Living without a craft, light, wanting what is best,
ud3.9:8.2with senses controlled, everywhere free;
ud3.9:8.3a migrant with no bastion, unselfish, with no need for hope,
ud3.9:8.4having given up conceit, wandering alone: that is a mendicant.”