ལས་བརྒྱ་ཐམ་པ་པ 15.21

15.21

and seeing that the other monks had already gone carrying their alms bowls filled, he thought, “I will ask where I should go to quickly get some alms.” So he went to see Upananda and asked him, “Lord Upananda, I don’t know my way around¹¹² Śrāvastī. Can you please show me where to go to¹¹³ quickly get some alms?”

Upananda, intending him harm, pointed at the home of a certain brahmin, a faithless man irritated by all things virtuous, auspicious, and well mannered, and said, “Go to that house there—that’s where you’ll get your alms.” With that, Upananda departed.

As the monk approached the house, the brahmin, who was just heading out to another village on an errand, decided that it was a bad omen for this shaven-headed, colored-cloth-wearing man to cross his path. The brahmin grabbed hold of him, pummeled him, and stomped on him. After the brahmin let him go, the monk emerged from the house with his head gashed open, shirt and robes torn, alms bowl smashed, and walking staff in pieces, and thought, “Better to go without food.” When he came to the garden of Prince Jeta during his fast, the monks saw him and asked, “Lord, what is this? You weren’t overcome by bandits, were you?”

“No, I wasn’t overcome by bandits. Rather, Upananda thought to do me harm,” he replied.

When the monks heard the story, they asked the Blessed One about it, and the Blessed One declared, “Let one monk not point another in the wrong direction.¹¹⁴ And should a monk see others who don’t understand where they are headed, let him stop them. It is good to stop someone in such a way. Not to stop them will be an infraction.”