The Wise Are Tranquil
The Story of the Five Hundred Monks
Chapter 6: The Wise • Verse 8
The Story of the Five Hundred Monks
Chapter 6: The Wise • Verse 8
The good renounce (attachment for) everything. The virtuous do not prattle with a yearning for pleasures. The wise show no elation or depression when touched by happiness or sorrow.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a group of monks.
At the request of a brahmin from Veranja, the Buddha once spent the rainy season at Veranja with a group of monks. But the brahmin failed to look after them, and the people of Veranja, suffering a famine, could offer very little when the monks went for alms.
Despite these hardships, the monks were not disheartened. They were content with the small portion of shrivelled grain that some horse-traders offered them each day.
At the end of the rainy season, after taking leave of the brahmin, the Buddha returned to the Jetavana Monastery with the monks, and the people of Savatthi welcomed them back with choice food of every kind.
Some people who lived alongside the monks and ate their leftovers now gorged themselves like gluttons and slept after their meals. On waking, they shouted, sang, and danced, making a great nuisance of themselves.
When the Buddha came to the assembly that evening, the monks told him that these people had been quiet and well-behaved during the hardship and famine at Veranja, but now that they had plenty of good food they were running wild, while the monks themselves behaved just as they had at Veranja.
The Buddha replied that it is the nature of fools to be sorrowful and dejected when things go badly and elated when things go well, but the wise withstand the ups and downs of life.
The Story of the Five Hundred Monks
Chapter 6: The Wise • Verse 8
The good renounce (attachment for) everything. The virtuous do not prattle with a yearning for pleasures. The wise show no elation or depression when touched by happiness or sorrow.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to a group of monks.
At the request of a brahmin from Veranja, the Buddha once spent the rainy season at Veranja with a group of monks. But the brahmin failed to look after them, and the people of Veranja, suffering a famine, could offer very little when the monks went for alms.
Despite these hardships, the monks were not disheartened. They were content with the small portion of shrivelled grain that some horse-traders offered them each day.
At the end of the rainy season, after taking leave of the brahmin, the Buddha returned to the Jetavana Monastery with the monks, and the people of Savatthi welcomed them back with choice food of every kind.
Some people who lived alongside the monks and ate their leftovers now gorged themselves like gluttons and slept after their meals. On waking, they shouted, sang, and danced, making a great nuisance of themselves.
When the Buddha came to the assembly that evening, the monks told him that these people had been quiet and well-behaved during the hardship and famine at Veranja, but now that they had plenty of good food they were running wild, while the monks themselves behaved just as they had at Veranja.
The Buddha replied that it is the nature of fools to be sorrowful and dejected when things go badly and elated when things go well, but the wise withstand the ups and downs of life.