法句譬喻經 16.p1.1

16.p1.1

In old time, when Buddha was residing at Śrāvastī, there was an old mendicant called Pan-teh-san (Patisena?) who being by nature cross and dull, could not learn so much as one Gāthā by heart. Buddha accordingly ordered 500 Rahats day by day to instruct him, but after three years he still was unable to remember even the one Gāthā. Then all the people of the country (the four orders of people) knowing his ignorance, began to ridicule him, on which Buddha, pitying his case, called him to his side, and gently repeated the following stanza :—"He who guards his mouth, and restrains his thoughts, he who offends not with his body, the man who acts thus shall obtain deliverance.” Then Patisena, moved by a sense of the Master's goodness to him, felt his heart opened, and at once he repeated the stanza. Buddha then addressed him further—"You now, an old man, can repeat a stanza only, and men know this, and they will still ridicule you, therefore I will now explain the meaning of the verse to you, and do you on your part attentively listen.” Then Buddha declared the three causes connected with the body, the four connected with the mouth, and the three connected with the thoughts, by destroying which men might obtain deliverance, on which the mendicant, fully realising the truth thus explained, obtained the condition of a Rahat.