Passion's Fever Gone
The Story of the Question Asked by Jivaka
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 1
The Story of the Question Asked by Jivaka
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 1
The fever of passion exists not for him who has completed the journey, who is sorrowless and wholly set free, and has broken all ties.
While residing at the Mango Grove Monastery of Jivaka, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a question asked by Jivaka.
On one occasion, Devadatta joined forces with Ajatasattu, climbed Vulture Peak, and, intending to kill the Buddha, hurled down a rock. Two mountain crags caught the rock and shattered it, but a flying splinter struck the Buddha's foot and drew blood.
The Buddha was in great pain, and the monks carried him to Maddakucchi. Wishing to go on to Jivaka's Mango Grove, he asked the monks to carry him there, and they did.
When Jivaka heard the news, he went at once to the Buddha, applied an ointment to the wound, and bound it up. He told the Buddha that he had a patient to see in the city and would return as soon as he could, and asked that the dressing be left exactly as it was until then.
Jivaka went and treated his patient, but by the time he returned the city gate had been closed, and he could not get back in.
He was dismayed, thinking he had made a serious mistake: he had applied an astringent and bound the Buddha's wound as he would any other man's, and it was now time to remove the bandage. If it stayed on all night, the Buddha would suffer intense pain.
At that very moment, the Buddha told Venerable Ananda that Jivaka, shut out by the closed gate, was thinking it was time to remove the bandage, and asked Ananda to remove it. When the bandage came off, the wound healed and the scar fell away like bark from a tree.
At dawn Jivaka hurried to the Buddha and asked whether he had suffered great pain. The Buddha replied that for the Buddha all suffering had been extinguished, ever since he sat on the Throne of Enlightenment.
The Story of the Question Asked by Jivaka
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 1
The fever of passion exists not for him who has completed the journey, who is sorrowless and wholly set free, and has broken all ties.
While residing at the Mango Grove Monastery of Jivaka, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a question asked by Jivaka.
On one occasion, Devadatta joined forces with Ajatasattu, climbed Vulture Peak, and, intending to kill the Buddha, hurled down a rock. Two mountain crags caught the rock and shattered it, but a flying splinter struck the Buddha's foot and drew blood.
The Buddha was in great pain, and the monks carried him to Maddakucchi. Wishing to go on to Jivaka's Mango Grove, he asked the monks to carry him there, and they did.
When Jivaka heard the news, he went at once to the Buddha, applied an ointment to the wound, and bound it up. He told the Buddha that he had a patient to see in the city and would return as soon as he could, and asked that the dressing be left exactly as it was until then.
Jivaka went and treated his patient, but by the time he returned the city gate had been closed, and he could not get back in.
He was dismayed, thinking he had made a serious mistake: he had applied an astringent and bound the Buddha's wound as he would any other man's, and it was now time to remove the bandage. If it stayed on all night, the Buddha would suffer intense pain.
At that very moment, the Buddha told Venerable Ananda that Jivaka, shut out by the closed gate, was thinking it was time to remove the bandage, and asked Ananda to remove it. When the bandage came off, the wound healed and the scar fell away like bark from a tree.
At dawn Jivaka hurried to the Buddha and asked whether he had suffered great pain. The Buddha replied that for the Buddha all suffering had been extinguished, ever since he sat on the Throne of Enlightenment.