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Theravāda — Pali Canon · Khuddaka Nikāya — The Minor Collection
Cp 31The Conduct of Kaṇhadīpāyana
Pāli / Sanskrit:Kaṇhadīpāyanacariya
📖288 words · ~1 min read
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Full translation (English)
– The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood
The Chapter With Yudhañjaya The Perfection of Truth (5th)
Dark Light’s Conduct
“Then again when I wasthe seer Dark Light,for more than fifty yearsI lived dissatisfied. No-one knew of thisdissatisfaction of mine,for I mentioned it to no-one, it only went on in my mind.Maṇḍabya, a spiritual companionand friend of mine was a great seer.Bound to a deed in a past life,he got impaled on a stake.I nursed himand brought him back to health.Asking leave, I returnedto my own hermitage.A brahmin friend of mine,bringing wife and child,came to me, all three of them,as my guests.As I exchanged greetings with them,seated in my own hermitage,the boy threw a balland angered a viper.Then the boy, looking which waythe ball had gone,touched the viper’s headwith his hand.Angered at his touch,the snake, relying on its potent poison,completely enraged,bit the boy right away.When bitten by the viper,the boy fainted on the ground.It made me distraught,the pain became as if mine.Comforting the parents,in their suffering and sorrow,I made the first act,the original, supreme declaration of truth:‘For just seven days with a mind of faithI led the spiritual life seeking merit.My life since then,for fifty years or more,I have lived unwillingly.By this truth, may he be well!May the poison die! May Yaññadatta live!’As I declared this truth,the boy trembling with poison,awoke and got up,the brahmin youth was well.There is no-one to equal my truthfulness:this is my perfection of truth.”
Translation source: Bhikkhu Indacanda (SuttaCentral)License: VI © Bhikkhu Indacanda (qua SuttaCentral) · EN CC0-1.0 (Bhikkhu Sujato)
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