Yamaka
Vagga
Verse
1
The
story of Thera Cakkhupãla
Verse 1. All mental phenomena have mind as
their forerunner; they have mind as their chief; they are mind made. If one
speaks or acts with an evil mind, ‘dukkha’ follows him just as the wheel
follows the hoof print of the ox that draws the cart.
On one
occasion, Thera Cakkhupãla
came to pay homage to the Buddha at Jetavana
monastery. One night, while pacing up and down in meditation, the thera
accidentally stepped on some insects. In the morning, some bikkhus visiting the
thera found the dead insects. They thought ill of the thera and reported the
matter to the Buddha. The Buddha asked them whether they had seen the thera
killing the insects. When they answered in the negative, The Buddha said, ’’just
as you had not seen him killing, so also he had not seen those living insects.
Besides, as the thera had already attained arahatship he could have no
intention of killing and so was quite innocent.’’ On being asked why Cakkhupãla was blind although he was an arahat,
the Buddha told the following story:
Cakkhupãla was a physician in one of his past
existences. Once, he had deliberately made a woman patient blind. That woman
had promised him to become his slave, together with her children, if her eyes
were completely cured. Fearing that she and her children would have to become
slaves, she lied to the physician. She told him that her eyes were getting
worse when, in tact, they were perfectly cured. The physician knew she was
deceiving him, so in revenge, he gave her another ointment which made her
totally blind. As a result of this evil deed the physician lost his eyesight
many times in his later existences. Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 1. All mental
phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they have mind as their chief; they
are mind made. If one speaks or acts with an evil mind, ‘dukkha’ follows him
just as the wheel follows the hoof print of the ox that draws the cart.
At the end of the discourse,
thirty thousand bhikkhus attained arahatship together with Analytical
insight(patisambhida)
Reference: (Dhammapada(Daw Mya Tin)
Ven.Aggasãra
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