The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [113]
17. When this was said, the venerable Puṇṇa Mantāṇiputta asked the venerable Sāriputta: “What is the venerable one’s name, and how do his companions in the holy life know the venerable one?”
“My name is Upatissa, friend, and my companions in the holy life know me as Sāriputta.ʺ
“Indeed, friend, we did not know that we were talking with the venerable Sāriputta, the disciple who is like the Teacher himself. 292 If we had known that this was the venerable Sāriputta, we should not have said so much. It is wonderful, friend, it is marvellous! Each profound question has been posed, point by point, by the venerable Sāriputta as a learned disciple who understands the Teacher’s Dispensation correctly. It is a gain for his companions in the holy life, it is a great gain for them that they have the opportunity to see and honour the venerable Sāriputta. Even if it were by carrying the venerable Sāriputta about on a cushion on their heads that his companions in the holy life would get the opportunity to see and honour him, [151] it would be a gain for them, a great gain for them. And it is a gain for us, a great gain for us that we have the opportunity to see and honour the venerable Sāriputta.”
Thus it was that these two great beings rejoiced in each other’s good words.
Nivāpa Sutta
The Bait
1. THUS HAVE I HEARD. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. There he addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus.”—“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Blessed One said this:
2. “Bhikkhus, a deer-trapper does not lay down bait for a deer herd intending thus: ‘May the deer herd enjoy this bait that I have laid down and so be long-lived and handsome and endure for a long time.’ A deer-trapper lays down bait for a deer herd intending thus: ‘The deer herd will eat food unwarily by going right in amongst the bait that I have laid down; by so doing they will become intoxicated; when they are intoxicated, they will fall into negligence; when they are negligent, I can do with them as I like on account of this bait.’
3. “Now the deer of the first herd ate food unwarily by going right in amongst the bait that the deer-trapper had laid down; by so doing they became intoxicated; when they were intoxicated, they fell into negligence; when they were negligent, the deer-trapper did with them as he liked on account of that bait. That is how the deer of the first herd failed to get free from the deertrapper’s power and control.
4. “Now the deer of a second herd reckoned thus: ‘The deer of that first herd, by acting as they did without precaution, [152] failed to get free from the deer-trapper’s power and control. Suppose we altogether shun that bait food; shunning that fearful enjoyment, let us go out into the forest wilds and live there.’ And they did so. But in the last month of the hot season when the grass and the water were used up, their bodies were reduced to extreme emaciation; with that they lost their strength and energy; when they had lost their strength and energy, they returned to that same bait that the deer-trapper had laid down. They ate food unwarily by going right in amongst it. By so doing they became intoxicated; when they were intoxicated they fell into negligence; when they were negligent, the deer-trapper did with them as he liked on account of that bait. And that is how the deer of the second herd also failed to get