Alexander Hipple<\/p>
Then a deity who was a former relative of B\u0101hiya, having sympathy and wanting what\u2019s best for him, approached him and said: ‘B\u0101hiya, you\u2019re not a perfected one, nor on the path to perfection. You don\u2019t have the practice by which you might become a perfected one or one on the path to perfection.’<\/p>\n
‘Then who exactly are those in the world who are perfected or on the path to perfection?’ ‘In the northern lands there is a city called S\u0101vatth\u012b. There that Blessed One is now staying, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha. He is a perfected one and teaches the Dhamma for the sake of perfection.’<\/p>\n
Impelled by that deity, B\u0101hiya left Supp\u0101raka right away. Sojourning no more than a single night in any place, he made his way to An\u0101thapi\u1e47\u1e0dika\u2019s Monastery in the Jeta Grove at S\u0101vatth\u012b. At that time several mendicants were walking mindfully in the open air. B\u0101hiya approached them and said, ‘Sirs, where is the Blessed One at present, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha? For I want to see him.’ ‘He has entered an inhabited area for almsfood, B\u0101hiya.’<\/p>\n
Then B\u0101hiya rushed out of the Jeta Grove and entered S\u0101vatth\u012b, where he saw the Buddha walking for alms. He was impressive and inspiring, with peaceful faculties and mind, attained to the highest self-control and serenity, like an elephant with tamed, guarded, and controlled faculties. B\u0101hiya went up to the Buddha, bowed down with his head at the Buddha\u2019s feet, and said, ‘Sir, let the Blessed One teach me the Dhamma! Let the Holy One teach me the Dhamma! That would be for my lasting welfare and happiness.’ The Buddha said this: ‘It\u2019s not the time, B\u0101hiya, so long as I have entered an inhabited area for almsfood.’<\/p>\n
For a second time, B\u0101hiya said, ‘But you never know, sir, when life is at risk, either the Buddha\u2019s or my own. Let the Blessed One teach me the Dhamma! Let the Holy One teach me the Dhamma! That would be for my lasting welfare and happiness.’ For a second time, the Buddha said, ‘It\u2019s not the time, B\u0101hiya, so long as I have entered an inhabited area for almsfood.’<\/p>\n
For a third time, B\u0101hiya said, ‘But you never know, sir, when life is at risk, either the Buddha\u2019s or my own. Let the Blessed One teach me the Dhamma! Let the Holy One teach me the Dhamma! That would be for my lasting welfare and happiness.’<\/p>\n
‘In that case, B\u0101hiya, you should train like this: \u2018In the seen will be merely the seen; in the heard will be merely the heard; in the thought will be merely the thought; in the known will be merely the known.\u2019 That\u2019s how you should train. When you have trained in this way, you won\u2019t be \u2018by that\u2019. When you\u2019re not \u2018by that\u2019, you won\u2019t be \u2018in that\u2019. When you\u2019re not \u2018in that\u2019, you won\u2019t be in this world or the world beyond or between the two. Just this is the end of suffering.’<\/p>\n
Then, due to this brief Dhamma teaching of the Buddha, B\u0101hiya\u2019s mind was right away freed from defilements by not grasping.<\/p>\n
And when the Buddha had given B\u0101hiya this brief advice he left. But soon after the Buddha had left, a cow with a baby calf charged at B\u0101hiya and took his life.<\/p>\n
Then the Buddha wandered for alms in S\u0101vatth\u012b. After the meal, on his return from almsround, he departed the city together with several mendicants and saw that B\u0101hiya had passed away. He said to the monks, ‘Mendicants, pick up B\u0101hiya\u2019s corpse. Having lifted it onto a cot and carried it, cremate it and build a monument. Mendicants, one of your spiritual companions has passed away.’<\/p>\n
‘Yes, sir,’ replied those mendicants. They did as the Buddha asked, then returned to the Buddha and said, ‘Sir, B\u0101hiya\u2019s corpse has been cremated and a monument built for him. Where has he been reborn in his next life?’ ‘Mendicants, B\u0101hiya was astute. He practiced in line with the teachings, and did not trouble me about the teachings. B\u0101hiya of the Bark Cloth has become fully quenched.’<\/p>\n
Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:<\/p>\n
‘Where water and earth,
\nfire and air find no footing:
\nthere no star does shine,
\nnor does the sun shed its light;
\nthere the moon glows not,
\nyet no darkness is found.<\/p>\n
And when a sage, a brahmin, finds understanding
\nthrough their own sagacity,
\nthen from forms and formless,
\nfrom pleasure and pain they are released.’<\/p>\n
This too is a heartfelt saying that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.”<\/p>\n
\u2014Ud 1.10<\/h6>\n