The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [226]
6. When this was said, the Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta told him: “Good, good, Tapassī! The Nigaṇṭha Dīgha Tapassī has answered the recluse Gotama like a well-taught disciple who understands his teacher’s dispensation rightly. What does the trivial mental rod count for in comparison with the gross bodily rod? On the contrary, the bodily rod is the most reprehensible for the performance of evil action, for the perpetration of evil action, and not so much the verbal rod and the mental rod.”
7. When this was said, the householder Upāli said to the Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta: “Good, good, venerable sir, [on the part of] Dīgha Tapassī! The venerable Tapassī has answered the recluse Gotama like a well-taught disciple who understands his teacher’s dispensation rightly. What does the trivial mental rod count for in comparison with the gross bodily rod? On the contrary, the bodily rod is the most reprehensible for the performance of evil action, for the perpetration of evil action, and not so much the verbal rod and the mental rod. Now, venerable sir, I shall go and refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine on the basis of this statement. If the recluse Gotama maintains before me what the venerable Dīgha Tapassī made him maintain, then just as a strong man582 might seize a long-haired ram by the hair and drag him to and drag him fro and drag him round about, so in debate I will drag the recluse Gotama to and drag him fro and drag him round about. Just as a strong brewer’s workman might throw a big brewer’s sieve into a deep water tank, and taking it by the corners, might drag it to and drag it fro and drag it round about, so in debate I will drag the recluse Gotama to and drag him fro and drag him round about. Just as a strong brewer’s mixer might take a strainer by the corners and shake it down and shake it up and thump it about, so in debate I will shake the recluse Gotama down [375] and shake him up and thump him about. And just as a sixty-year-old elephant might plunge into a deep pond and enjoy playing the game of hemp-washing, so I shall enjoy playing the game of hemp-washing with the recluse Gotama . Venerable sir, I shall go and refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine on the basis of this statement.”
“Go, householder, and refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine on the basis of this statement. For either I should refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine or else the Nigaṇṭha Dīgha Tapassī or you yourself.”
8. When this was said, the Nigaṇṭha Dīgha Tapassī said to the Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta: “Venerable sir, I do not agree that the householder Upāli should [try to] refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine. For the recluse Gotama is a magician and knows a converting magic by which he converts disciples of other sectarians.”
“It is impossible, Tapassī, it cannot happen that the householder Upāli should go over to discipleship under the recluse Gotama; but it is possible, it can happen that the recluse Gotama might come over to discipleship under the householder Upāli. Go, householder, and refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine. For either I should refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine or else the Nigaṇṭha Dīgha Tapassī or you yourself.”
For the second time…For the third time, the Nigaṇṭha Dīgha Tapassī said to the Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta: “Venerable sir, I do not agree that the householder Upāli should [try to] refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine. For the recluse Gotama is a magician and knows a converting magic by which he converts disciples of other sectarians.”
“It is impossible, Tapassī, it cannot happen that the householder Upāli should go over to discipleship under the recluse Gotama; but it is possible, it can happen that the recluse Gotama might come over to discipleship under the householder Upāli. Go, householder, and refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine. For either I should refute the recluse Gotama’s doctrine or else the Nigaṇṭha Dīgha Tapassī or you yourself.”
9. “Yes, venerable sir,” the householder Upāli replied, and he rose from