Restrained Mind Leads To Happiness
The Story of a Certain Monk
Chapter 3: The Mind • Verse 3
The Story of a Certain Monk
Chapter 3: The Mind • Verse 3
Wonderful, indeed, it is to subdue the mind, so difficult to subdue, ever swift, and seizing whatever it desires. A tamed mind brings happiness.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a certain monk.
On one occasion, sixty monks, after obtaining a meditation topic from the Buddha, went to Matika village at the foot of a mountain. There, Matikamata, mother of the village headman, offered them alms-food and built a monastery for them so they could stay in the village during the rainy season.
One day she asked the monks to teach her the practice of meditation. They taught her how to meditate on the thirty-two constituents of the body, leading to awareness of the decay and dissolution of the body. Matikamata practiced with diligence and attained the three paths and fruits, together with analytical insight and mundane supernormal powers, even before the monks did.
Rising from the bliss of that attainment, she looked with her divine power of sight and saw that the monks had not yet attained any of the paths. She also learned that they had enough potential for arahatship but needed proper food, so she prepared good, choice food for them. With proper food and right effort, the monks developed right concentration and eventually attained arahatship.
At the end of the rainy season, the monks returned to the Jetavana Monastery, where the Buddha was in residence. They reported that they had been in good health and comfortable circumstances, with no need to worry about food, and mentioned Matikamata, who always knew their thoughts and prepared exactly the food they wished for.
A certain monk, hearing them talk about Matikamata, decided to go to that village himself. Taking a meditation topic from the Buddha, he arrived at the village monastery, where everything he wished for was likewise sent to him by Matikamata.
When he wished her to come, she personally came to the monastery bringing choice food. After eating, he asked her if she could read the thoughts of others, but she evaded the question, replying only, "People who can read the thoughts of others behave in such and such a way."
The monk thought to himself, "Should I, like an ordinary worldling, entertain any impure thoughts, she is sure to find out." Frightened of the lay-devotee, he decided to return to the Jetavana Monastery, telling the Buddha he could not stay in Matika village for fear she might detect impure thoughts in him.
The Buddha told him to observe just one thing: to control his mind. He sent the monk back to Matika village with instructions to think of nothing but the object of his meditation. The lay-devotee again offered him good food so he could practice without worry, and within a short time he too attained arahatship.
The Story of a Certain Monk
Chapter 3: The Mind • Verse 3
Wonderful, indeed, it is to subdue the mind, so difficult to subdue, ever swift, and seizing whatever it desires. A tamed mind brings happiness.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a certain monk.
On one occasion, sixty monks, after obtaining a meditation topic from the Buddha, went to Matika village at the foot of a mountain. There, Matikamata, mother of the village headman, offered them alms-food and built a monastery for them so they could stay in the village during the rainy season.
One day she asked the monks to teach her the practice of meditation. They taught her how to meditate on the thirty-two constituents of the body, leading to awareness of the decay and dissolution of the body. Matikamata practiced with diligence and attained the three paths and fruits, together with analytical insight and mundane supernormal powers, even before the monks did.
Rising from the bliss of that attainment, she looked with her divine power of sight and saw that the monks had not yet attained any of the paths. She also learned that they had enough potential for arahatship but needed proper food, so she prepared good, choice food for them. With proper food and right effort, the monks developed right concentration and eventually attained arahatship.
At the end of the rainy season, the monks returned to the Jetavana Monastery, where the Buddha was in residence. They reported that they had been in good health and comfortable circumstances, with no need to worry about food, and mentioned Matikamata, who always knew their thoughts and prepared exactly the food they wished for.
A certain monk, hearing them talk about Matikamata, decided to go to that village himself. Taking a meditation topic from the Buddha, he arrived at the village monastery, where everything he wished for was likewise sent to him by Matikamata.
When he wished her to come, she personally came to the monastery bringing choice food. After eating, he asked her if she could read the thoughts of others, but she evaded the question, replying only, "People who can read the thoughts of others behave in such and such a way."
The monk thought to himself, "Should I, like an ordinary worldling, entertain any impure thoughts, she is sure to find out." Frightened of the lay-devotee, he decided to return to the Jetavana Monastery, telling the Buddha he could not stay in Matika village for fear she might detect impure thoughts in him.
The Buddha told him to observe just one thing: to control his mind. He sent the monk back to Matika village with instructions to think of nothing but the object of his meditation. The lay-devotee again offered him good food so he could practice without worry, and within a short time he too attained arahatship.