Dighanikaya 29.165_9

29.165_9

Bhagavantaṃ dassanāyāti bhagavantaṃ dassanatthāya. Kiṃ panānena bhagavā na diṭṭhapubboti? No na diṭṭhapubbo. Ayañhi āyasmā divā nava vāre, rattiṃ nava vāreti ekāhaṃ aṭṭhārasa vāre upaṭṭhānameva gacchati. Divasassa pana satavāraṃ vā sahassavāraṃ vā gantukāmo samānopi na akāraṇā gacchati, ekaṃ pañhuddhāraṃ gahetvāva gacchati. So taṃ divasaṃ tena kathāpābhatena gantukāmo evamāha.

“To see the Blessed One” means for the purpose of seeing the Blessed One. Had he, then, not seen the Blessed One before? It was not that he had not seen him before. For this venerable one went in attendance eighteen times in a single day—nine times by day and nine times by night. But even though he wished to go a hundred times or a thousand times a day, he did not go without a reason; he went only after taking up an issue for a question. Wishing to go on that day with that topic of conversation, he spoke thus.