Virtuous Life Is Noble
The Story of Novice Monk Samkicca
Chapter 8: The Thousands • Verse 11
The Story of Novice Monk Samkicca
Chapter 8: The Thousands • Verse 11
Better it is to live one day virtuous and meditative than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to the novice monk Samkicca.
On one occasion thirty monks each took a meditation subject from the Buddha and went to a large village a hundred and twenty leagues from Savatthi. With them, sent by Venerable Sariputta, went a young novice named Samkicca, only seven years old but already an Arahat.
At that time five hundred robbers living in a thick jungle wanted to make an offering of human flesh and blood to the guardian spirits of the forest. They came to the village monastery and demanded that one of the monks be handed over to them for the sacrifice.
Every monk, from the eldest to the youngest, offered to go. But Samkicca said that his teacher Sariputta, foreseeing this danger, had sent him along for exactly this purpose, and that he should be the one to go. So he went with the robbers, and the monks were stricken with grief at letting the young novice go.
When everything was ready for the sacrifice, the robbers' leader came to the novice, who sat with his mind absorbed in jhana. The leader raised his sword and struck hard, but the blade curled up without cutting him.
He straightened the blade and struck again, and this time it bent back all the way to the hilt, leaving the novice unharmed.
Seeing this marvel, the leader dropped his sword, knelt at the novice's feet, and begged his pardon. All five hundred robbers were amazed and terrified; they repented and asked Samkicca to make them monks.
Samkicca ordained them, established them in the ten precepts, and with this retinue of five hundred monks returned to the monks at the village monastery, who were greatly relieved to see him.
Then Samkicca and the five hundred new monks went on to the Jetavana Monastery to pay respects to Venerable Sariputta, and then to the Buddha.
When the Buddha heard what had happened, he told the monks that a life spent robbing, stealing, and doing evil is useless even if it lasts a hundred years, and that a single day of virtuous life is far better than a hundred years of depravity.
The Story of Novice Monk Samkicca
Chapter 8: The Thousands • Verse 11
Better it is to live one day virtuous and meditative than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to the novice monk Samkicca.
On one occasion thirty monks each took a meditation subject from the Buddha and went to a large village a hundred and twenty leagues from Savatthi. With them, sent by Venerable Sariputta, went a young novice named Samkicca, only seven years old but already an Arahat.
At that time five hundred robbers living in a thick jungle wanted to make an offering of human flesh and blood to the guardian spirits of the forest. They came to the village monastery and demanded that one of the monks be handed over to them for the sacrifice.
Every monk, from the eldest to the youngest, offered to go. But Samkicca said that his teacher Sariputta, foreseeing this danger, had sent him along for exactly this purpose, and that he should be the one to go. So he went with the robbers, and the monks were stricken with grief at letting the young novice go.
When everything was ready for the sacrifice, the robbers' leader came to the novice, who sat with his mind absorbed in jhana. The leader raised his sword and struck hard, but the blade curled up without cutting him.
He straightened the blade and struck again, and this time it bent back all the way to the hilt, leaving the novice unharmed.
Seeing this marvel, the leader dropped his sword, knelt at the novice's feet, and begged his pardon. All five hundred robbers were amazed and terrified; they repented and asked Samkicca to make them monks.
Samkicca ordained them, established them in the ten precepts, and with this retinue of five hundred monks returned to the monks at the village monastery, who were greatly relieved to see him.
Then Samkicca and the five hundred new monks went on to the Jetavana Monastery to pay respects to Venerable Sariputta, and then to the Buddha.
When the Buddha heard what had happened, he told the monks that a life spent robbing, stealing, and doing evil is useless even if it lasts a hundred years, and that a single day of virtuous life is far better than a hundred years of depravity.