Verses on Dhamma 7.7.p3

7.7.p3

Thero taṃ pabbājetvā aḍḍhamāsaṃ tattha vasitvā ‘‘satthāraṃ passissāmī’’ti sāmaṇeraṃ bhaṇḍakaṃ gāhāpetvā gacchanto antarāmagge ekaṃ vihāraṃ pāvisi. Sāmaṇero upajjhāyassa senāsanaṃ gahetvā paṭijaggi. Tassa taṃ paṭijaggantasseva vikālo jāto, tena attano senāsanaṃ paṭijaggituṃ nāsakkhi. Atha naṃ upaṭṭhānavelāyaṃ āgantvā nisinnaṃ thero pucchi – ‘‘sāmaṇera, attano vasanaṭṭhānaṃ paṭijaggita’’nti? ‘‘Bhante, paṭijaggituṃ okāsaṃ nālattha’’nti. ‘‘Tena hi mama vasanaṭṭhāneyeva vasa, dukkhaṃ te āgantukaṭṭhāne bahi vasitu’’nti taṃ gahetvāva senāsanaṃ pāvisi. Thero pana puthujjano nipannamattova niddaṃ okkami. Sāmaṇero cintesi – ‘‘ajja me upajjhāyena saddhiṃ tatiyo divaso ekasenāsane vasantassa, ‘sace nipajjitvā niddāyissāmi, thero sahaseyyaṃ āpajjeyyā’ti nisinnakova vītināmessāmī’’ti upajjhāyassa mañcakasamīpe pallaṅkaṃ ābhujitvā nisinnakova rattiṃ vītināmesi. Thero paccūsakāle paccuṭṭhāya ‘‘sāmaṇeraṃ nikkhamāpetuṃ vaṭṭatī’’ti mañcakapasse ṭhapitabījaniṃ gahetvā bījanipattassa aggena sāmaṇerassa kaṭasārakaṃ paharitvā bījaniṃ uddhaṃ ukkhipanto ‘‘sāmaṇera, bahi nikkhamā’’ti āha, bījanipattadaṇḍako akkhimhi paṭihaññi, tāvadeva akkhi bhijji. So ‘‘kiṃ, bhante’’ti vatvā uṭṭhāya ‘‘bahi nikkhamā’’ti vutte ‘‘akkhi me, bhante, bhinna’’nti avatvā ekena hatthena paṭicchādetvā nikkhami. Vattakaraṇakāle ca pana ‘‘akkhi me bhinna’’nti tuṇhī anisīditvā ekena hatthena akkhiṃ gahetvā ekena hatthena muṭṭhisammuñjaniṃ ādāya vaccakuṭiñca mukhadhovanaṭṭhānañca sammajjitvā mukhadhovanodakañca ṭhapetvā pariveṇaṃ sammajji. So upajjhāyassa dantakaṭṭhaṃ dadamāno ekeneva hatthena adāsi.

The Elder, having received the youth into the Order, remained there for a fortnight. Then, deciding to visit the Teacher, he directed the novice to take the requisites, and set out on his journey. On the way he entered a certain monastery. The novice obtained lodging for the Elder and looked after it for him. While he was thus engaged, it grew dark and he was therefore unable to provide a lodging for himself. When the time came for the novice to wait upon the Elder, the novice approached the Elder and sat down. The Elder asked the novice, "Novice, have you not neglected to provide yourself with lodging?" "Reverend Sir, I have had no opportunity to look after a lodging for myself." "Well then, remain with me. It will inconvenience you to lodge outside in the place reserved for visitors." So saying, the Elder taking him with him, entered his own lodging. Now the Elder had not yet attained the Fruit of Conversion, and as soon as he lay down, fell asleep. Thereupon the novice thought to himself, "To-day is the third day during which I have occupied the same lodging with my preceptor. If I lie down to sleep the Elder will commit the offense of sleeping in common. Therefore I will spend the night sitting up." So assuming a cross-legged posture near the bed of his preceptor, he spent the night sitting up.

The Elder rose at dawn and said to himself, "I must cause the novice to go out." So he took a fan which was placed at the side of the bed, struck the mat of the novice with the tip of the palm-leaf, and then, tossing the fan into the air, said, "Novice, go out." The handle of the fan struck the novice in the eye and straightway put out his eye. "What did you say, Reverend Sir?" said the novice. "Rise and go out," was the reply. The novice, instead of saying, “Reverend Sir, my eye has been put out,” covered his eye with one hand and went out. Moreover, when it was time for him to perform his duties as novice, he did not say, “My eye has been put out,” nor did he remain seated, but covering his eye with one hand and taking a hand-broom in the other hand, he swept out the privy and the wash-room, after which, setting out water for washing the face, he swept out the Elder’s cell.

When he advanced to present the toothstick to the Elder, he presented it to him with only one hand. His preceptor said to him, “This novice is not properly trained. Is it proper for a novice to present a toothstick to teachers and preceptors with one hand?” “Reverend Sir, I know perfectly well what is the proper form, but one of my hands is not disengaged.” “What is the matter, novice?” Then the novice told him the whole story, beginning at the beginning. When the Elder heard his story, he was deeply moved and said to himself, “Oh, what a grievous thing I have done!” Then he said to the novice, “Pardon me, most excellent youth; I did not know this. Be my refuge.” And extending his clasped hands in an attitude of reverent salutation, he crouched on the ground before the feet of a seven-year-old novice. Then said the novice to him, “It was not for this purpose, Reverend Sir, that I spoke. I said this for the purpose of sparing your feelings. You are not to blame in this matter and neither am I. The round of existences alone is to blame for this. It was because I wished to spare you remorse that I did not tell you the real facts.”