ud5.3:0.1Heartfelt Sayings 5.3
ud5.3:0.2With Suppabuddha the Leper
ud5.3:1.1So I have heard.
ud5.3:1.2At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.
ud5.3:1.3At that time in Rājagaha there was a leper called Suppabuddha.
ud5.3:1.4He was a poor person, destitute, and pitiful.
ud5.3:1.5Now, at that time the Buddha was teaching Dhamma, surrounded by a large assembly.
ud5.3:2.1Suppabuddha saw the crowd seated off in the distance
ud5.3:2.2and thought,
ud5.3:2.3“Surely some fresh and cooked foods will be distributed there.
ud5.3:2.4Why don’t I approach the crowd?
ud5.3:2.5Hopefully I’ll get something to eat.”
ud5.3:3.1So he approached the crowd
ud5.3:3.2where he saw the Buddha teaching Dhamma, surrounded by a large assembly.
ud5.3:3.3When he saw this he thought,
ud5.3:3.4“There’s no food being distributed here.
ud5.3:3.5The ascetic Gotama is teaching Dhamma in an assembly.
ud5.3:3.6Why don’t I also listen to the teaching?”
ud5.3:3.7Right there he sat down to one side, thinking,
ud5.3:3.8“I also will listen to the teaching.”
ud5.3:4.1Then the Buddha focused on encompassing the minds of everyone in the assembly, thinking,
ud5.3:4.2“Who here is capable of understanding the teaching?”
ud5.3:4.3He saw Suppabuddha sitting in the assembly,
ud5.3:4.4and thought,
ud5.3:4.5“He is capable of understanding the teaching.”
ud5.3:4.6He gave a step by step talk especially for Suppabuddha
ud5.3:4.7on giving, ethical conduct, and heaven. He revealed the drawbacks of sensual pleasures, so sordid and corrupt, and the benefit of renunciation.
ud5.3:4.8When the Buddha knew that Suppabuddha’s mind was ready, pliable, rid of hindrances, elated, and confident he revealed the special teaching of the Buddhas:
ud5.3:4.9suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.
ud5.3:4.10Just as a clean cloth rid of stains would properly absorb dye,
ud5.3:4.11in that very seat the stainless, immaculate vision of the Dhamma arose in Suppabuddha:
ud5.3:4.12“Everything that is liable to arise is liable to cease.”
ud5.3:5.1Then Suppabuddha saw, attained, understood, and fathomed the Dhamma. He went beyond doubt, got rid of indecision, and became self-assured and independent of others regarding the Teacher’s instructions. He rose from his seat and went to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said:
ud5.3:6.1“Excellent, sir! Excellent!
ud5.3:6.2As if he were righting the overturned, or revealing the hidden, or pointing out the path to the lost, or lighting a lamp in the dark so people with clear eyes can see what’s there, the Buddha has made the teaching clear in many ways.
ud5.3:6.3I go for refuge to the Buddha, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Saṅgha.
ud5.3:6.4From this day forth, may the Buddha remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.”
ud5.3:7.1After Suppabuddha had been educated, encouraged, fired up, and inspired with a Dhamma talk by the Buddha, he got up from his seat, bowed, and respectfully circled the Buddha, keeping him on his right, before leaving.
ud5.3:7.2But soon after Suppabuddha had left, a cow with a baby calf charged at him and took his life.
ud5.3:8.1Then several mendicants went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said,
ud5.3:8.3“The leper named Suppabuddha, after being educated, encouraged, fired up, and inspired with a Dhamma talk by the Buddha, has passed away.
ud5.3:8.4Where has he been reborn in his next life?”
ud5.3:9.1“Mendicants, Suppabuddha was astute. He practiced in line with the teaching, and did not trouble me about the teachings.
ud5.3:9.2With the ending of three fetters, Suppabuddha is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, assured, destined for awakening.”
ud5.3:10.1When he said this, one of the mendicants said to the Buddha,
ud5.3:10.2“What is the cause, sir, what is the reason why Suppabuddha became a leper,
ud5.3:10.3a poor person, destitute, and pitiful?”
ud5.3:11.1“Once upon a time, mendicants, Suppabuddha used to be a financier’s son right here in Rājagaha.
ud5.3:11.2On his way to visit a park, he saw Tagarasikhī, an independent Buddha, entering the city for alms.
ud5.3:11.3When he saw this he thought,
ud5.3:11.4“Who is this leper wandering about with his leper’s robe?”
ud5.3:11.5Before leaving, he spat on the ground and turned his left side to Tagarasikhī.
ud5.3:11.6As a result of that deed he burned in hell for many years, for many hundreds, many thousands, many hundreds of thousands of years.
ud5.3:11.7And as a residual result of that same deed, he became a leper right here in Rājagaha, a poor person, destitute and pitiful.
ud5.3:11.8But owing to faith in the teaching and training proclaimed by the Realized One, he undertook ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom.
ud5.3:11.9After undertaking these things, when his body broke up, after death, he was reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm, in the company of the gods of the thirty-three.
ud5.3:11.10There he outshines the other gods in beauty and glory.”
ud5.3:12.1Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
ud5.3:13.1“As a clear-eyed man would avoid rough paths,
ud5.3:13.2so long as strength is found;
ud5.3:13.3an astute person in the living world,
ud5.3:13.4would shun bad deeds.”