The Unconditioned Is The Highest Achievement
The Story of Monk Jambuka
Chapter 5: Fools • Verse 11
The Story of Monk Jambuka
Chapter 5: Fools • Verse 11
Month after month a fool may eat his food with the tip of a blade of grass, but he still is not worth a sixteenth part of those who have comprehended the Truth.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to Venerable Jambuka.
Jambuka was the son of a rich man in Savatthi. Because of his past evil deeds, he was born with strange habits: as a child he wanted to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed, and to eat his own excrement instead of rice.
When he grew older, his parents sent him to the Ajivakas, the naked ascetics, but when they discovered his eating habits they drove him away.
From then on he ate human excrement by night and by day stood on one leg with his mouth open. He claimed he kept his mouth open because he lived only on air, and stood on one leg because otherwise he would be too heavy for the earth to bear. He boasted that he never sat down and never slept, and so he became known as Jambuka, the jackal.
Many people believed him and brought him offerings of choice food. He would refuse, saying he took nothing but air, and when pressed, would take a tiny morsel on the tip of a blade of grass and send them off, saying this would bring them enough merit. In this way he lived for fifty-five years, naked and eating only excrement.
One day the Buddha saw in his vision that Jambuka was ready to attain Arahatship. That evening he went to where Jambuka was staying and asked for a place to spend the night, and Jambuka pointed him to a mountain cave near the stone slab where he himself stayed.
During the first, second, and third watches of the night, the Catumaharajika devas, Sakka, and Mahabrahma came in turn to pay homage to the Buddha, and each time the forest was lit up. Jambuka saw the light three times, and in the morning went to ask the Buddha about it.
Told that devas, Sakka, and Mahabrahma had come to honour the Buddha, Jambuka was deeply impressed, and remarked that although he had practised austerities for fifty-five years, living on air and standing on one leg, none of them had ever come to him.
The Buddha replied that Jambuka might deceive others, but he could not deceive him, for he knew that Jambuka had spent those fifty-five years eating excrement and sleeping on the ground.
Horrified and terror-stricken, Jambuka repented of his evil and of deceiving others, and fell to his knees. The Buddha gave him a cloth to put on and delivered a discourse, at the end of which Jambuka attained Arahatship and joined the Sangha.
Soon after, Jambuka's followers from Anga and Magadha arrived and were surprised to find their teacher with the Buddha. Venerable Jambuka explained that he had joined the Order and was now simply a disciple of the Buddha.
The Buddha told them that, austere as their teacher's former practice of eating so sparingly had been, it was not worth even one-sixteenth of his present practice and achievement.
The Story of Monk Jambuka
Chapter 5: Fools • Verse 11
Month after month a fool may eat his food with the tip of a blade of grass, but he still is not worth a sixteenth part of those who have comprehended the Truth.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to Venerable Jambuka.
Jambuka was the son of a rich man in Savatthi. Because of his past evil deeds, he was born with strange habits: as a child he wanted to sleep on the floor rather than in a bed, and to eat his own excrement instead of rice.
When he grew older, his parents sent him to the Ajivakas, the naked ascetics, but when they discovered his eating habits they drove him away.
From then on he ate human excrement by night and by day stood on one leg with his mouth open. He claimed he kept his mouth open because he lived only on air, and stood on one leg because otherwise he would be too heavy for the earth to bear. He boasted that he never sat down and never slept, and so he became known as Jambuka, the jackal.
Many people believed him and brought him offerings of choice food. He would refuse, saying he took nothing but air, and when pressed, would take a tiny morsel on the tip of a blade of grass and send them off, saying this would bring them enough merit. In this way he lived for fifty-five years, naked and eating only excrement.
One day the Buddha saw in his vision that Jambuka was ready to attain Arahatship. That evening he went to where Jambuka was staying and asked for a place to spend the night, and Jambuka pointed him to a mountain cave near the stone slab where he himself stayed.
During the first, second, and third watches of the night, the Catumaharajika devas, Sakka, and Mahabrahma came in turn to pay homage to the Buddha, and each time the forest was lit up. Jambuka saw the light three times, and in the morning went to ask the Buddha about it.
Told that devas, Sakka, and Mahabrahma had come to honour the Buddha, Jambuka was deeply impressed, and remarked that although he had practised austerities for fifty-five years, living on air and standing on one leg, none of them had ever come to him.
The Buddha replied that Jambuka might deceive others, but he could not deceive him, for he knew that Jambuka had spent those fifty-five years eating excrement and sleeping on the ground.
Horrified and terror-stricken, Jambuka repented of his evil and of deceiving others, and fell to his knees. The Buddha gave him a cloth to put on and delivered a discourse, at the end of which Jambuka attained Arahatship and joined the Sangha.
Soon after, Jambuka's followers from Anga and Magadha arrived and were surprised to find their teacher with the Buddha. Venerable Jambuka explained that he had joined the Order and was now simply a disciple of the Buddha.
The Buddha told them that, austere as their teacher's former practice of eating so sparingly had been, it was not worth even one-sixteenth of his present practice and achievement.