| J.179 |
Satadhamma Jaataka |
The bodhisatva was once born in the lowest caste and one day went on a journey taking
his food in a basket. One the way he met a young man from Benares, Satadhamma, a
snob. They travelled together, and when the time came for the meal, because Satadhamma
had no food, the bodhisatva offered him some. ëI could not possibly take yoursí,
said the snob, ëbecause you are the lowest of the low.í The bodhisatva ate some of
the food and put the rest away. In the evening they bathed and the bodhisatva ate
without offering the other anything. The latter had expected to be asked again and
was very hungry. However, finding that he was offered nothing, he asked the bodhisatva
for some and ate it. As soon as he had finished, he was seized with remorse the he
should thus have disgraced his family. So greatly was he upset that he vomited the
food together with blood. He plunged into the wood and was never heard of again.
The story was related in reference to monks who earned their living in the twenty-one
unlawful ways, as physicians, messangers etc. The Buddha summoned them and warned
that food unlawfully obtained was like red-hot iron, a deadly poison. It was like
partaking of the leavings of the vilest of mankind. |
|
Jaataka |
Khuddhaka |
J.ii.082ff. |
arrogance |