The Wise Control Themselves
The Story of Novice Monk Pandita
Chapter 6: The Wise • Verse 5
The Story of Novice Monk Pandita
Chapter 6: The Wise • Verse 5
Irrigators regulate the rivers; fletchers straighten the arrow shaft; carpenters shape the wood; the wise control themselves.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to the novice monk Pandita.
Pandita was the young son of a rich man of Savatthi, and became a novice monk at the age of seven.
On his eighth day as a novice, while following Venerable Sariputta on his alms-round, he saw farmers channelling water into their fields, and asked whether water, which has no consciousness, could be guided wherever one wished. Sariputta told him that it could.
Further on, the novice saw fletchers heating their arrows over a fire and straightening them, and then carpenters cutting, sawing, and planing timber to make cart-wheels and other things.
He reflected that if water, crooked bamboo, and timber, all without consciousness, could be guided, straightened, and shaped into useful things, then surely he, who had consciousness, could tame his own mind and practise tranquillity and insight meditation.
Then and there, he asked Sariputta's permission and returned to his room at the monastery, where he practised meditation ardently and diligently, contemplating the body. Sakka and the devas helped him by keeping the monastery and its surroundings perfectly quiet.
Before the noon meal, Pandita attained the fruit of the third path (anagami).
Just then, Venerable Sariputta was on his way with food for the novice. The Buddha saw that Pandita had attained the third path and that, if he went on meditating undisturbed, he would soon attain Arahatship.
So the Buddha went to the door and kept Sariputta engaged with questions. While they were talking, the novice attained Arahatship, on the eighth day after becoming a novice.
The Buddha told the monks that when one earnestly practises the Dhamma, even Sakka and the devas stand guard, and that he himself had kept Sariputta at the door so the novice would not be disturbed. Having seen the farmers irrigating, the fletchers straightening arrows, and the carpenters shaping wheels, Pandita had tamed his mind and become an Arahat.
The Story of Novice Monk Pandita
Chapter 6: The Wise • Verse 5
Irrigators regulate the rivers; fletchers straighten the arrow shaft; carpenters shape the wood; the wise control themselves.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to the novice monk Pandita.
Pandita was the young son of a rich man of Savatthi, and became a novice monk at the age of seven.
On his eighth day as a novice, while following Venerable Sariputta on his alms-round, he saw farmers channelling water into their fields, and asked whether water, which has no consciousness, could be guided wherever one wished. Sariputta told him that it could.
Further on, the novice saw fletchers heating their arrows over a fire and straightening them, and then carpenters cutting, sawing, and planing timber to make cart-wheels and other things.
He reflected that if water, crooked bamboo, and timber, all without consciousness, could be guided, straightened, and shaped into useful things, then surely he, who had consciousness, could tame his own mind and practise tranquillity and insight meditation.
Then and there, he asked Sariputta's permission and returned to his room at the monastery, where he practised meditation ardently and diligently, contemplating the body. Sakka and the devas helped him by keeping the monastery and its surroundings perfectly quiet.
Before the noon meal, Pandita attained the fruit of the third path (anagami).
Just then, Venerable Sariputta was on his way with food for the novice. The Buddha saw that Pandita had attained the third path and that, if he went on meditating undisturbed, he would soon attain Arahatship.
So the Buddha went to the door and kept Sariputta engaged with questions. While they were talking, the novice attained Arahatship, on the eighth day after becoming a novice.
The Buddha told the monks that when one earnestly practises the Dhamma, even Sakka and the devas stand guard, and that he himself had kept Sariputta at the door so the novice would not be disturbed. Having seen the farmers irrigating, the fletchers straightening arrows, and the carpenters shaping wheels, Pandita had tamed his mind and become an Arahat.