The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [360]
Then the Blessed One said to the brahmin Brahmāyu: [145] “Enough, brahmin, arise; sit down in your own seat since your mind has confidence in me.”
The brahmin Brahmāyu then rose and sat down in his own seat. 36. The Blessed One then gave him progressive instruction,866 that is, talk on giving, talk on virtue, talk on the heavens; he explained the danger, degradation, and defilement in sensual pleasures and the blessing of renunciation. When he knew that the brahmin Brahmāyu’s mind was ready, receptive, free from hindrances, elated, and confident, he expounded to him the teaching special to the Buddhas: suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path. Just as a clean cloth with all marks removed would take dye evenly, so too, while the brahmin Brahmāyu sat there, the spotless immaculate vision of the Dhamma arose in him: “All that is subject to arising is subject to cessation.” Then the brahmin Brahmāyu saw the Dhamma, attained the Dhamma, understood the Dhamma, fathomed the Dhamma; he crossed beyond doubt, did away with perplexity, gained intrepidity, and became independent of others in the Teacher’s Dispensation.
37. Then he said to the Blessed One: “Magnificent, Master Gotama! Magnificent, Master Gotama! Master Gotama has made the Dhamma clear in many ways, as though he were turning upright what had been overthrown, revealing what was hidden, showing the way to one who was lost, or holding up a lamp in the dark for those with eyesight to see forms. I go to Master Gotama for refuge and to the Dhamma and to the Sangha of bhikkhus. From today let Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for refuge for life. Let the Blessed One, together with the Sangha of bhikkhus, consent to accept tomorrow’s meal from me.”
The Blessed One consented in silence. Then, knowing that the Blessed One had consented, the brahmin Brahmāyu rose from his seat, and after paying homage to the Blessed One, keeping him on his right, he departed.
38. Then, when the night had ended, the brahmin Brahmāyu had good food of various kinds prepared in his residence, and he had the time announced to the Blessed One: “It is time, Master Gotama, the meal is ready.” [146]
Then, it being morning, the Blessed One dressed, and taking his bowl and outer robe, he went with the Sangha of bhikkhus to the brahmin Brahmāyu’s residence and sat down on the seat made ready. Then, for a week, with his own hands, the brahmin Brahmāyu served and satisfied the Sangha of bhikkhus headed by the Buddha with various kinds of good food.
39. At the end of that week, the Blessed One set out to wander in the country of the Videhans. Soon after he had gone, the brahmin Brahmāyu died. Then a number of bhikkhus went to the Blessed One, and after paying homage to him, they sat down at one side and said: “Venerable sir, the brahmin Brahmāyu has died. What is his destination? What is his future course?”
“Bhikkhus, the brahmin Brahmāyu was wise, he entered into the way of the Dhamma, and he did not trouble me in the interpretation of the Dhamma. With the destruction of the five lower fetters, he has reappeared spontaneously [in the Pure Abodes] and will there attain final Nibbāna, without ever returning from that world.”
That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One’s words.
Sela Sutta
To Sela
1. THUS HAVE I HEARD.867 On one occasion the Blessed One was wandering in the country of the Anguttarāpans with a large Sangha of bhikkhus, [102] with twelve hundred and fifty bhikkhus, and eventually he arrived at a town of the Anguttarāpans named Āpaṇa.
2. The matted-hair ascetic Keṇiya heard: “The recluse Gotama, the son of the Sakyans who went forth from a Sakyan clan, has been wandering in the country of the Anguttarāpans with a large Sangha of bhikkhus, with twelve hundred and fifty [103] bhikkhus, and he has come