The Tranquility Of The Saints
The Story of a Novice Monk from Kosambi
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 7
The Story of a Novice Monk from Kosambi
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 7
Calm is his thought, calm his speech, and calm his deed, who, truly knowing, is wholly freed, perfectly tranquil and wise.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a novice monk who was a pupil of Venerable Tissa of Kosambi.
A young man of good family in Kosambi left the world and became a monk, and after his full ordination was known as Venerable Kosambivasi Tissa.
After he had spent the rainy season at Kosambi, his supporter brought him a set of three robes with offerings of ghee and palm sugar, and offered his own son as a novice, since the elder had no novice to attend him. Tissa accepted.
The man brought his son, only seven years old, and asked the elder to admit him into the Sangha. Tissa moistened the boy's hair, taught him to meditate on the first five parts of the body, and ordained him. The very moment the razor touched his hair, the boy attained Arahatship together with the supernormal powers.
After a fortnight at Kosambi, the elder decided to visit the Buddha, and set out with the novice carrying the requisites. On the way they stopped at a monastery.
The novice found lodging for his teacher and prepared it, but by the time he had finished it was dark, and he could not find a place for himself. So he spent the night sitting cross-legged beside his preceptor's bed.
At dawn the elder decided to wake the novice and send him out. He tapped the novice's mat with the tip of a palm-leaf fan and then tossed the fan into the air, telling him to go out. The handle struck the novice in the eye and blinded it.
The novice asked what the elder had said, and was told to get up and go out. Instead of saying that his eye had been blinded, he covered it with one hand and went out.
When it was time for his duties, he still said nothing. Covering his eye with one hand and holding a broom in the other, he swept the privy and wash-room, set out water for washing the face, and swept the elder's cell.
Only when he came to offer the elder a tooth-stick did he tell him the whole story. The elder was deeply shaken. The novice tried to comfort him, but he would not be comforted, and overcome with remorse, he took the novice to the Buddha.
When the Buddha asked whether all was well, the elder said that all was well with him, but that here was a young novice whose virtues surpassed anything he had ever seen. He told the Buddha what had happened, and that when he had asked the novice's pardon, the novice had said that neither of them was to blame.
The Buddha replied that those who have rid themselves of the defilements feel neither anger nor hatred toward anyone.
The Story of a Novice Monk from Kosambi
Chapter 7: The Arahats • Verse 7
Calm is his thought, calm his speech, and calm his deed, who, truly knowing, is wholly freed, perfectly tranquil and wise.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a novice monk who was a pupil of Venerable Tissa of Kosambi.
A young man of good family in Kosambi left the world and became a monk, and after his full ordination was known as Venerable Kosambivasi Tissa.
After he had spent the rainy season at Kosambi, his supporter brought him a set of three robes with offerings of ghee and palm sugar, and offered his own son as a novice, since the elder had no novice to attend him. Tissa accepted.
The man brought his son, only seven years old, and asked the elder to admit him into the Sangha. Tissa moistened the boy's hair, taught him to meditate on the first five parts of the body, and ordained him. The very moment the razor touched his hair, the boy attained Arahatship together with the supernormal powers.
After a fortnight at Kosambi, the elder decided to visit the Buddha, and set out with the novice carrying the requisites. On the way they stopped at a monastery.
The novice found lodging for his teacher and prepared it, but by the time he had finished it was dark, and he could not find a place for himself. So he spent the night sitting cross-legged beside his preceptor's bed.
At dawn the elder decided to wake the novice and send him out. He tapped the novice's mat with the tip of a palm-leaf fan and then tossed the fan into the air, telling him to go out. The handle struck the novice in the eye and blinded it.
The novice asked what the elder had said, and was told to get up and go out. Instead of saying that his eye had been blinded, he covered it with one hand and went out.
When it was time for his duties, he still said nothing. Covering his eye with one hand and holding a broom in the other, he swept the privy and wash-room, set out water for washing the face, and swept the elder's cell.
Only when he came to offer the elder a tooth-stick did he tell him the whole story. The elder was deeply shaken. The novice tried to comfort him, but he would not be comforted, and overcome with remorse, he took the novice to the Buddha.
When the Buddha asked whether all was well, the elder said that all was well with him, but that here was a young novice whose virtues surpassed anything he had ever seen. He told the Buddha what had happened, and that when he had asked the novice's pardon, the novice had said that neither of them was to blame.
The Buddha replied that those who have rid themselves of the defilements feel neither anger nor hatred toward anyone.