Fruits Of Religious Life Through Practice & Practice Ensures Fulfilment
The Story of Two Friends
Chapter 1: Twin Verses • Verse 20
The Story of Two Friends
Chapter 1: Twin Verses • Verse 20
Little though he recites the sacred texts, but puts the Teaching into practice, forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion, with true wisdom and emancipated mind, clinging to nothing of this or any other world — he indeed partakes of the blessings of a holy life.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke these verses with reference to two monks who were close friends.
Two young men of noble family in Savatthi, inseparable companions, once went together to the monastery, heard the Buddha preach, renounced worldly pleasures, and became monks.
After keeping residence with their preceptors and teachers for five years, they asked the Buddha about the duties of a monk.
Having heard of the Duty of Meditation and the Duty of Study, one said that since he had become a monk in old age he could not fulfill the Duty of Study, but could fulfill the Duty of Meditation. He was instructed accordingly, and through diligent striving attained Arahatship along with the supernatural faculties.
The other monk chose to fulfill the Duty of Study, mastering the Tipitaka by degrees, and travelled from place to place reciting and teaching the Dhamma to five hundred monks, becoming preceptor of eighteen large communities.
A group of monks who had learned a meditation formula from the Buddha went to the elder monk who had devoted himself to meditation, and through faithfully following his instruction attained Arahatship themselves.
Wishing to see the Buddha, they asked their teacher's permission, and he asked them to convey his greetings to the Buddha, the eighty Chief Elders, and to his fellow-elder, the monk devoted to study.
When they greeted the learned monk on their teacher's behalf, he did not even recognize who their teacher was, and on learning it was his own fellow monk, dismissively asked what they could possibly have learned from someone who knew no scripture at all.
He privately resolved to question this old, unlearned monk when he next visited.
When the elder monk later came to see the Buddha and afterward visited his fellow-elder, the learned monk received him courteously but sat down intending to question him.
Foreseeing that the learned monk might offend the elder and thereby risk being reborn in a woeful state, the Buddha, out of compassion, came to where they sat and took the seat always prepared for him.
The Buddha then questioned the learned monk on the First Trance and, on his correct answers, proceeded through the Eight Attainments and the Form and Formless Worlds, all correctly answered.
But when asked about the Path of Conversion, the learned monk could not answer, while the elder monk, the Arahat, answered immediately and correctly. The Buddha praised him.
The Buddha continued questioning both monks about the remaining Paths: the learned monk failed every time, while the Arahat answered every question correctly, receiving the Buddha's praise on four occasions, to the applause of the assembled deities.
The pupils of the learned monk, offended that the Buddha had praised the seemingly ignorant elder four times while ignoring their own accomplished teacher, complained to the Buddha.
He explained that their teacher, despite his learning, was in his Religion like a hired man who tends cows for others, while the elder monk, having realized the truth for himself, was like the owner who freely enjoys the cow's milk and its products.
The Story of Two Friends
Chapter 1: Twin Verses • Verse 20
Little though he recites the sacred texts, but puts the Teaching into practice, forsaking lust, hatred, and delusion, with true wisdom and emancipated mind, clinging to nothing of this or any other world — he indeed partakes of the blessings of a holy life.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke these verses with reference to two monks who were close friends.
Two young men of noble family in Savatthi, inseparable companions, once went together to the monastery, heard the Buddha preach, renounced worldly pleasures, and became monks.
After keeping residence with their preceptors and teachers for five years, they asked the Buddha about the duties of a monk.
Having heard of the Duty of Meditation and the Duty of Study, one said that since he had become a monk in old age he could not fulfill the Duty of Study, but could fulfill the Duty of Meditation. He was instructed accordingly, and through diligent striving attained Arahatship along with the supernatural faculties.
The other monk chose to fulfill the Duty of Study, mastering the Tipitaka by degrees, and travelled from place to place reciting and teaching the Dhamma to five hundred monks, becoming preceptor of eighteen large communities.
A group of monks who had learned a meditation formula from the Buddha went to the elder monk who had devoted himself to meditation, and through faithfully following his instruction attained Arahatship themselves.
Wishing to see the Buddha, they asked their teacher's permission, and he asked them to convey his greetings to the Buddha, the eighty Chief Elders, and to his fellow-elder, the monk devoted to study.
When they greeted the learned monk on their teacher's behalf, he did not even recognize who their teacher was, and on learning it was his own fellow monk, dismissively asked what they could possibly have learned from someone who knew no scripture at all.
He privately resolved to question this old, unlearned monk when he next visited.
When the elder monk later came to see the Buddha and afterward visited his fellow-elder, the learned monk received him courteously but sat down intending to question him.
Foreseeing that the learned monk might offend the elder and thereby risk being reborn in a woeful state, the Buddha, out of compassion, came to where they sat and took the seat always prepared for him.
The Buddha then questioned the learned monk on the First Trance and, on his correct answers, proceeded through the Eight Attainments and the Form and Formless Worlds, all correctly answered.
But when asked about the Path of Conversion, the learned monk could not answer, while the elder monk, the Arahat, answered immediately and correctly. The Buddha praised him.
The Buddha continued questioning both monks about the remaining Paths: the learned monk failed every time, while the Arahat answered every question correctly, receiving the Buddha's praise on four occasions, to the applause of the assembled deities.
The pupils of the learned monk, offended that the Buddha had praised the seemingly ignorant elder four times while ignoring their own accomplished teacher, complained to the Buddha.
He explained that their teacher, despite his learning, was in his Religion like a hired man who tends cows for others, while the elder monk, having realized the truth for himself, was like the owner who freely enjoys the cow's milk and its products.