The Heedful Advances To Nibbana
The Story of Monk Nigama Vasi Tissa
Chapter 2: Heedfulness • Verse 12
The Story of Monk Nigama Vasi Tissa
Chapter 2: Heedfulness • Verse 12
The monk who delights in heedfulness and looks with fear at heedlessness will not fall. He is close to Nibbana.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to the monk Nigama Vasi Tissa.
A youth of high station, born and raised in a market-town not far from Savatthi, retired from the world and became a monk, coming to be known as Tissa of the Market-town, or Nigama Tissa. He gained a reputation for being frugal, content, pure, and resolute, and always sought alms in the village where his relatives lived, never going to Savatthi even though Anathapindika and other disciples, along with King Pasenadi Kosala, were making abundant offerings there.
One day the other monks began to talk about him, telling the Buddha that Nigama Tissa lived in close association with his relatives and never came to Savatthi despite the generous offerings being made there.
The Buddha summoned Tissa and asked if this was true. Tissa replied that he did not live in intimate association with his relatives; he received from them only as much food as he needed to eat, and once he had enough, whether coarse or fine, he saw no reason to seek more.
Knowing Tissa's true disposition, the Buddha praised him, saying it was not at all strange that, having such a teacher, Tissa should be frugal, since frugality was the Buddha's own disposition and habit as well. At the monks' request, he then told the following story.
Once, several thousand parrots lived in a grove of fig-trees in the Himalayan country on the bank of the Ganges. When the fruits of the tree where the king-parrot lived had withered away, he simply ate whatever remained, whether shoot, leaf, or bark, drank water from the Ganges, and remained there, very happy and contented.
So contented was the king-parrot that the abode of Sakka itself began to quake. Sakka, observing the parrot's happiness and contentment, visited him and turned the whole forest green and flourishing again.
The Buddha pointed out that even in that past birth he himself had been contented and happy, and that a monk of such contentment will never slip back from the vicinity of Nibbana.
The Story of Monk Nigama Vasi Tissa
Chapter 2: Heedfulness • Verse 12
The monk who delights in heedfulness and looks with fear at heedlessness will not fall. He is close to Nibbana.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to the monk Nigama Vasi Tissa.
A youth of high station, born and raised in a market-town not far from Savatthi, retired from the world and became a monk, coming to be known as Tissa of the Market-town, or Nigama Tissa. He gained a reputation for being frugal, content, pure, and resolute, and always sought alms in the village where his relatives lived, never going to Savatthi even though Anathapindika and other disciples, along with King Pasenadi Kosala, were making abundant offerings there.
One day the other monks began to talk about him, telling the Buddha that Nigama Tissa lived in close association with his relatives and never came to Savatthi despite the generous offerings being made there.
The Buddha summoned Tissa and asked if this was true. Tissa replied that he did not live in intimate association with his relatives; he received from them only as much food as he needed to eat, and once he had enough, whether coarse or fine, he saw no reason to seek more.
Knowing Tissa's true disposition, the Buddha praised him, saying it was not at all strange that, having such a teacher, Tissa should be frugal, since frugality was the Buddha's own disposition and habit as well. At the monks' request, he then told the following story.
Once, several thousand parrots lived in a grove of fig-trees in the Himalayan country on the bank of the Ganges. When the fruits of the tree where the king-parrot lived had withered away, he simply ate whatever remained, whether shoot, leaf, or bark, drank water from the Ganges, and remained there, very happy and contented.
So contented was the king-parrot that the abode of Sakka itself began to quake. Sakka, observing the parrot's happiness and contentment, visited him and turned the whole forest green and flourishing again.
The Buddha pointed out that even in that past birth he himself had been contented and happy, and that a monk of such contentment will never slip back from the vicinity of Nibbana.