Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c18.125

v1.c18.125

In the time of Kassapa Buddha, Jambuka was a monk and had a lay patron who looked after him. One day a pious monk came to his vihāra, and the layman, being pleased with him, showed him much attention. The resident monk, very jealous, reviled the visitor, saying, “It would be better for you to eat filth than food in this layman’s house, to tear your hair with a palmyra comb than let his barber cut it for you, to go naked than wear robes given by him, to lie on the ground than on a bed provided by him.” The Elder, not wishing to be the cause of his sinning, left the monastery the next day. Because of this act, the meditations practised by Jambuka for twenty thousand years were of no avail, and he was born in Avīci, where he suffered torments during an interval between two Buddhas. In this last life, too, he was condemned to suffer in many ways, as related above.¹