Dhammapada Verse 404
Pabbharavasitissatthera Vatthu
Asamsattham gahatthehi
anagarehi cubhayam
anokasari mappiccham
tamaham brumi brahmanam.
Verse 404: Him I call a brahmana, who
associates not with the householder or with the homeless one, or with both, who
is free from sensual desire and has few wants.
The Story of Thera Tissa
While residing at the Jetavana
monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (404) of this book with reference to Thera
Tissa.
Thera Tissa, after taking a
subject of meditation from the Buddha, went to a mountain side. There, he found
a cave which suited him and he decided to spend the three months of the rainy
season (vassa) in that cave. So he stayed in the cave and went to the village
for alms-food every morning. In the village, there was a certain elderly woman
who regularly offered him alms-food. In the cave, there also lived the guardian
spirit of the cave. As the thera was one whose practice of morality was pure,
the cave-spirit dared not live in the same cave with the noble thera; at the
same time, he did not have the courage to ask the thera to leave the place. So
he thought of a plan that would enable him to find fault with the thera and thus
cause him to leave the cave.
The cave-spirit possessed the son
of the elderly woman from the house where the thera usually went for his
alms-food. He caused the boy to behave in a very peculiar way, turning his head
backwards, and rolling his wide open eyes. His mother got alarmed and was in
tears. The cave-spirit, who possessed the boy, then said "Let your teacher,
the thera, wash his feet with water and pour that water on the head of your
son." The next day when the thera came to her house for alms-food, she did
as she was advised by the cave-spirit and the boy was left in peace. The
cave-spirit went back to the cave and waited at the entrance for the return of
the thera. When the thera returned from his alms-round, the cave-spirit revealed
himself and said, "I am the spirit guarding this cave. O you physician, do
not enter this cave." The thera knew that he had lived a clean life from
the day he had become a thera, so he replied that he did not remember practising
medicine. Then the cave-spirit accused him that in that very morning he had
cured a young boy possessed by an ogre at the house of the elderly woman. But
the thera reflected that it was not, in fact, practising medicine and he
realized that even the cave spirit could find no other fault with him. That gave
him a delightful satisfaction (piti) with himself, and abandoning piti
and concentrating hard on Insight Meditation he attained arahatship then and
there, while still standing at the entrance to the cave.
As the thera had now become an
arahat, he advised the cave-spirit to leave the cave. The thera continued to
stay there till the end of the vassa, and then he returned to the Buddha. When
he told the other bhikkhus about his encounter with the cave-spirit, they asked
him whether he did not get angry with the cave-spirit when he was forbidden to
enter the cave. The thera answered in the negative but they did not believe him.
So they went to the Buddha and said, "Thera Tissa claims himself to be an
arahat ; he is not speaking the truth." To them the Buddha replied,
"Bhikkhus, my son Tissa was speaking the truth when he said he did not get
angry. He has indeed become an arahat he is no longer attached to anyone; he has
no occasion to get angry with anyone nor any need to associate with
others."
Then the Buddha spoke in verse as
follows:
| Verse 404: Him I call
a brahmana, who associates not with the householder or with the
homeless one, or with both, who is free from sensual desire and has
few wants. |