‘Enough now with teaching what only with difficulty I reached. This Dhamma is not easily realized by those overcome with aversion & passion.
What is abstruse, subtle, deep, hard to see, going against the flow— those delighting in passion, cloaked in the mass of darkness, won’t see.’
‘In the past there appeared among the Magadhans an impure Dhamma devised by the stained. Throw open the door to the deathless! Let them hear the Dhamma realized by the Stainless One!
Just as one standing on a rocky crag might see people all around below, so, intelligent one, with all-around vision, ascend the palace fashioned of Dhamma. Free from sorrow, behold the people submerged in sorrow, oppressed by birth & aging.
Rise up, hero, victor in battle! O Teacher, wander without debt in the world. Teach the Dhamma, O Blessed One: There will be those who will understand.’
“Having seen this, I answered Brahmā Sahampati in verse: ‘Open are the doors to the deathless. Let those with ears show their conviction. Perceiving trouble, O Brahmā, I did not tell people the refined, sublime Dhamma.’
‘All-vanquishing,
all-knowing am I,
with regard to all things,
unadhering.
All-abandoning,
released in the ending of craving:
having fully known on my own,
to whom should I point as my teacher?2
I have no teacher, and one like me can’t be found. In the world with its devas, I have no counterpart.
For I am a Worthy One in the world; I, the unexcelled teacher. I, alone, am rightly self-awakened. Cooled am I, unbound.
To set rolling the wheel of Dhamma I go to the city of Kāsi. In a world become blind, I beat the drum of the deathless.’
“‘Conquerors are those like me
who have reached effluents’ end.
I’ve conquered evil qualities,
and so, Upaka, I’m a conqueror.’
Notes
1. This part of the story, with minor differences, also appears in Cv V.21.1–3. According to the commentary to this sutta, Ven. Ānanda interprets the Buddha’s concern for future generations to be that, if monks’ stepping on a cloth is meant to bring mundane happiness to laypeople but isn’t followed by mundane happiness, people will look down on the monks.
However, in Cv V.21—the section of the Vinaya prohibiting the act of stepping on cloth coverings—one of the exemptions (Cv V.21.4) deals precisely with situations where people specifically ask monks to step on cloth coverings for the sake of their good luck: In such a situation, monks may step on the cloth.
So the Buddha’s reasoning with regard to Prince Bodhi must have been different. One possible alternative is that the Buddha didn’t want to establish—through his acquiesce—such a wastefully extravagant custom as covering all the floors of a building with cloth when inviting monks to bless the building.
2. This verse = Dhp 353.
3. Following the Thai and Sri Lankan versions of the Canon. The PTS version has, “But he doesn’t say, ‘I go to Master Gotama, the Dhamma, & the Saṅgha of monks for refuge.’” The Thai and Sri Lankan versions seem preferable, as Prince Bodhi would not refer to the Buddha as “Master Gotama.”
Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/MN/MN85.html