Weapons To Defeat Death
The Story of Five Hundred Monks
Chapter 3: The Mind • Verse 8
The Story of Five Hundred Monks
Chapter 3: The Mind • Verse 8
Realizing that this body is as fragile as a clay pot, and fortifying this mind like a well-fortified city, fight out Mara with the sword of wisdom. Then, guarding the conquest, remain unattached.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to five hundred monks.
Five hundred monks from Savatthi, after obtaining a meditation topic from the Buddha, travelled a hundred leagues to a large forest grove suited for meditation. The guardian spirits of the trees there, thinking the monks would only stay one night, at first descended from their trees to make way for them.
But when the monks were still there after a fortnight, and it seemed they might remain for the whole rainy season, the guardian spirits, unwilling to live on the ground with their families that long, decided to frighten the monks away with ghostly sounds and frightful apparitions, appearing as bodies without heads and heads without bodies.
Terrified, the monks fled back to the Buddha and told him everything. He explained that this had happened because they had gone without any protection, and that they should return armed with suitable protection. He then taught them the protective discourse known as the Metta Sutta, the discourse on loving-kindness, so that they could recite it as they approached and entered the grove.
The guardian spirits, receiving loving-kindness from the returning monks, welcomed them instead of harming them, and the ghostly sounds and frightening sights ceased. Left in peace, the monks meditated on the body and came to realize its fragile and impermanent nature.
From the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha, through his supernormal power, learned of their progress and sent forth his radiance to make his presence felt, telling them that the body is indeed impermanent and fragile, like an earthen jar.
The Story of Five Hundred Monks
Chapter 3: The Mind • Verse 8
Realizing that this body is as fragile as a clay pot, and fortifying this mind like a well-fortified city, fight out Mara with the sword of wisdom. Then, guarding the conquest, remain unattached.
While residing at the Jetavana Monastery, the Buddha spoke this verse with reference to five hundred monks.
Five hundred monks from Savatthi, after obtaining a meditation topic from the Buddha, travelled a hundred leagues to a large forest grove suited for meditation. The guardian spirits of the trees there, thinking the monks would only stay one night, at first descended from their trees to make way for them.
But when the monks were still there after a fortnight, and it seemed they might remain for the whole rainy season, the guardian spirits, unwilling to live on the ground with their families that long, decided to frighten the monks away with ghostly sounds and frightful apparitions, appearing as bodies without heads and heads without bodies.
Terrified, the monks fled back to the Buddha and told him everything. He explained that this had happened because they had gone without any protection, and that they should return armed with suitable protection. He then taught them the protective discourse known as the Metta Sutta, the discourse on loving-kindness, so that they could recite it as they approached and entered the grove.
The guardian spirits, receiving loving-kindness from the returning monks, welcomed them instead of harming them, and the ghostly sounds and frightening sights ceased. Left in peace, the monks meditated on the body and came to realize its fragile and impermanent nature.
From the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha, through his supernormal power, learned of their progress and sent forth his radiance to make his presence felt, telling them that the body is indeed impermanent and fragile, like an earthen jar.