The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [314]
5. “Venerable sir, let be the discussion for which we are now sitting together here. The Blessed One can well hear about it later. Venerable sir, when I do not come to this assembly, then it sits talking many kinds of pointless talk. But when I have come to this assembly, then it sits looking up to me, thinking: ‘We shall hear the Dhamma that the recluse Udāyin will expound to us.’ However, when [31] the Blessed One comes, then both I and this assembly sit looking up to the Blessed One, thinking: ‘We shall hear the Dhamma that the Blessed one will expound to us.’”
6. “Then, Udāyin, suggest something that I should speak about.”
“Venerable sir, in recent days there was one claiming to be omniscient and all-seeing, to have complete knowledge and vision thus: ‘Whether I am walking or standing or sleeping or awake, knowledge and vision are continuously and uninterruptedly present to me.’ When I asked him a question about the past, he prevaricated, led the talk aside, and showed anger, hate, and bitterness. Then rapture regarding the Blessed One arose in me thus: ‘Ah, surely it is the Blessed One, surely it is the Sublime One who is skilled in these things.’”
“But, Udāyin, who was it that claimed to be omniscient and allseeing…yet when asked a question by you about the past, prevaricated, led the talk aside, and showed anger, hate, and bitterness?”
“It was the Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, venerable sir.”
7. “Udāyin, if someone should recollect his manifold past lives, that is, one birth, two births…thus, with their aspects and particulars, should he recollect his manifold past lives, then either he might ask me a question about the past or I might ask him a question about the past, and he might satisfy my mind with his answer to my question or I might satisfy his mind with my answer to his question. If someone with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, should see beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate…and understand how beings pass on according to their actions, then either he might ask me a question about the future [32] or I might ask him a question about the future, and he might satisfy my mind with his answer to my question or I might satisfy his mind with my answer to his question. But let be the past, Udāyin, let be the future. I shall teach you the Dhamma: When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases.”782
8. “Venerable sir, I cannot even recollect with their aspects and particulars all that I have experienced within this present existence, so how should I recollect my manifold past lives, that is, one birth, two births…with their aspects and particulars, as the Blessed One does? And I cannot now even see a mud-goblin, so how should I with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, see beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate…and understand how beings pass on according to their actions, as the Blessed One does? But, venerable sir, when the Blessed One told me: ‘But let be the past, Udāyin, let be the future. I shall teach you the Dhamma: When this exists, that comes to be; with the arising of this, that arises. When this does not exist, that does not come to be; with the cessation of this, that ceases’—that is even more unclear to me. Perhaps, venerable sir, I might satisfy the Blessed One’s mind by answering a question about our own teachers’ doctrine.”
9. “Well, Udāyin, what is taught in your own teachers’ doctrine?”
“Venerable sir, it is taught that in our own teachers’ doctrine: ‘This is the