དག་སླང་ལ་རབ་ཏ་གཅས་པའ་མད་ཞས་བྱ་བ 2

2

Homage to the Omniscient One.

Thus did I hear at one time. The Blessed One was residing in the Blooming Lotus Monastery in the great city of Śrāvastī together with a retinue that consisted of a saṅgha of 12,500 mendicants. At that time, among the assembled retinue of the Blessed One, there was a noble one called Upāli, whose senses were disciplined, who was well learned, and who had profound wisdom. He was devoted to the Dharma and Vinaya excellently taught by the Blessed One, and he held them in the highest esteem. Upāli rose from his seat, draped his upper robe over one shoulder, and, kneeling on his right knee with palms joined at his heart, he smiled and supplicated the Blessed One with these words:

“Arisen like a lotus from the mud of saṃsāra,
Protector, unshakable like a mountain, your sage’s body
Ornamented by the adornments of the minor marks and beautiful with the blossoms of the major marks,
One never tires of looking at you. To you, utterly supreme, I pay homage!

“Since there are only mendicants residing here, I supplicate you,
O Sage, to please teach us who are gathered here these four points:
The nature of mendicants, their types,
The usage of the term, and their obligations.”

The blessed Well-Gone One was very pleased
And, looking at Upāli, responded as follows:¹⁶

“Listen well, Upāli, my son,
For I will satisfy you
And explain this for the benefit of mendicants.

“Mendicants are the victory banner of the Dharma,
And mendicants are the adamantine life pillar.¹⁷
Mendicants are those who have abandoned suffering,
And mendicants are the heirs of the victorious ones.
Mendicants are those who have cut the life force of afflictions,
And mendicants are those who enter the garden of liberation.

“The very nature of mendicants is restraint,¹⁸
And their completely pure obligations are the two hundred and fifty precepts,¹⁹