Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c16.8

v1.c16.8

Cakkana.—An upāsaka of Ceylon. While he was a boy, his mother once fell grievously ill and the doctors ordered her hare’s flesh. Cakkana was sent by his brother into the field, where he caught a hare which, however, out of compassion he set free. His brother blamed him, but Cakkana cured his mother by a saccakiriya, saying that, inasmuch as he had never deprived anything of life, by the power of that truth his mother should recover.¹ Cakkana’s abstinence is one that was maintained “in spite of opportunity” (sampattivirati) and when he had not undertaken to observe any precept.²