Dighanikaya 22.373_4

22.373_4

Taṃ ekadivasaṃ pātova toraṇagge nisīditvā bālātapaṃ tapamānaṃ eko sakuṇo nakhapañjarena aggahesi. So ‘‘kiri kirī’’ti saddamakāsi. Sāmaṇeriyo sutvā ‘‘ayye buddharakkhito sakuṇena gahito, mocema na’’nti leḍḍuādīni gahetvā anubandhitvā mocesuṃ. Taṃ ānetvā purato ṭhapitaṃ therī āha – ‘‘buddharakkhita, sakuṇena gahitakāle kiṃ cintesī’’ti? Na, ayye, aññaṃ kiñci cintesiṃ, aṭṭhipuñjova aṭṭhipuñjaṃ gahetvā gacchati, katarasmiṃ ṭhāne vippakirissatīti, evaṃ ayye aṭṭhipuñjameva cintesinti. Sādhu, sādhu, buddharakkhita, anāgate bhavakkhayassa te paccayo bhavissatīti. Evaṃ tattha tiracchānagatāpi satipaṭṭhānamanasikārayuttā. Tasmā nesaṃ bhagavā satipaṭṭhānabuddhimeva janento idaṃ suttamabhāsi.

One day, early in the morning, while it was sitting on top of an archway basking in the morning sun, a bird of prey seized it with its cage of talons. It made the sound "kiri kiri!" Hearing it, the novice nuns, saying, "Noble lady, Buddharakkhita has been seized by a bird! Let us free him!", took clods of earth and the like, chased it, and freed him. Bringing him and setting him before her, the senior nun asked: "Buddharakkhita, what were you thinking at the time you were seized by the bird?" "Noble lady, I did not think of anything else; [I thought:] 'Only a heap of bones is taking a heap of bones and going; in which place will it scatter [them]?' Thus, noble lady, I thought only of a heap of bones." "Well done, well done, Buddharakkhita! In the future, this will be a condition for your destruction of existence." Thus, even animals there were engaged in the attention to the foundations of mindfulness. Therefore, generating in them understanding of the foundations of mindfulness, the Blessed One delivered this discourse.