Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c12.1962

v1.c12.1962

**Kimsukopama Jātaka** (No. 248).—Four monks came to the Buddha and asked him for a topic of meditation. He gave them various topics and they, having retired to various places, all became arahants: one by understanding the six-fold sphere, the second the five *khandhas*, the third the four *mahābhūtas*, and the fourth the eighteen *dhātu*. They returned and related to the Buddha each the particular excellence attained by him, and one of them asked the Buddha how all these methods could lead to Nibbāna. The Buddha related a story of the past where four sons of Brahmadatta, king of Benares, having asked their charioteer to show them a *kimsuka*-tree, are shown the tree at four different times: when the buds were just sprouting, when the leaves were green, at the time of blossoming, and at the time of fruit-bearing.