อนุทิน 116008

Buddha Vacana (October 24, 2555)

The naked ascetic Kassapa said to the Lord: “Reverend Gotama, it is hard to be a true monk, it is hard to be a true brahmin.”

The Lord said: “That is what the world says Kassapa.  But if a naked ascetic was to practice all kinds of self- mortification, and if this was the measure of difficulty, then it would not be true to say that it is hard to be a true ascetic or a true brahmin.  Because anyone, a householder, his son, even a slave girl who draws water, could go naked and practice self-mortification.  But there is another type of asceticism about which it is true to say that it is hard to be a true ascetic, a true brahmin.  When a monk develops a mind free from hatred or ill-will, full of love, and by the destruction of the defilements, dwells with a mind freed through insight, then that monk is a true ascetic, a true brahman.”

-- D.I,168 (Digha book I verse 168 -- DPR)

<Notes.

Ascetic: extremely rigid in self-denial and devotions; austere; ผู้บำเพ็ญตบะ

brahmin: one who is of a class/engaged in attaining the highest spiritual knowledge; พราหมณ์

The buddha agreed with an ascetic that it was hard to be a true ascetic or a true brahmin through physical qualities. He also suggested that mental qualitites were what a (Buddhist) monk would pursue.>