Jataka 185
Anabhirati Jātaka
Discontent
as told by Eric Van Horn
originally translated by William Henry Denham Rouse, Cambridge University
originally edited by Professor Edward Byles Cowell, Cambridge University
One of the many themes in the Buddha’s system of training is the importance of simplifying your life. This is the purpose behind the life of a monastic. Life as a lay person is inevitably muddy. This is not a hard and fast rule, of course. Some lay people have a much better understanding of the Dharma than many monks or nuns. But it is worth considering – whatever we do – whether our actions are simply making our lives more complicated. A complicated life is not a good support for establishing calm, tranquility, and serenity.
“Thick, muddy water.” The Master told this story while he was staying at Jetavana. It is about a young brahmin.
A young brahmin, as they say, who was from Sāvatthi, had mastered the Three Vedas. He then taught the sacred verses to a number of young brahmins and kshatriyas (the second highest caste, or – technically - at the time of the Buddha “varṇa”). In time he settled down as a married man.
His thoughts were now busy with wealth and worldly affairs, male and female servants, lands and substance, cows and bulls, sons and daughters. He became subject to passion, error, and folly. This obscured his mindfulness so that he forgot how to repeat the texts. Now the verses were not clear in his mind.
One day this man bought some flowers and sweet scents. He took these to the Master at Jetavana Park. After his greeting, he sat down on one side. The Master talked pleasantly to him. “Well, young sir, you are a teacher of the sacred verses. Do you know them all by heart?”
“Well, sir,” he replied, “I used to know them all right, but since I married my mind has been darkened, and I don't know them any longer.”
“Ah, young Sir,” the Master said, “just the same thing happened before. At first your mind was clear and you knew all your verses perfectly, but when your mind was obscured by passion and lust, you could no longer remember them clearly.” Then at his request the Master told this story from the past.
Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was the King of Benares, the Bodhisatta was born into the family of a rich and powerful brahmin. When he grew up, he studied under a renowned teacher at Takkasilā University. There he learned all the magic charms. After returning to Benares he taught these charms to a large number of brahmin and kshatriya youths.
Among these youths was one young brahmin who had learned the Three Vedas by heart. He became a master of the ceremonies. He could repeat the whole of the sacred texts without stumbling on a single line. As time went by he married and settled down. Then household cares clouded his mind, and he could no longer repeat the sacred verses.
One day his teacher paid him a visit. “Well, young sir,” he asked, “do you know all of your verses by heart?”
“Since, I have been the head of a household,” the brahmin replied, “my mind has been clouded and I cannot repeat them.”
Figure: He Can’t Remember!
“My son,” his teacher said, “when the mind is clouded, no matter how perfectly the scriptures have been learned, they will not stand out clearly. But when the mind is serene there is no forgetting them.” And then he repeated the following two verses:
“Thick, muddy water will not show
Fish or shell or sand or gravel that may lie below.
So with a clouded wit
Not your nor other’s good is seen in it.
“Clear, quiet waters ever show
All, be it fish or shell, that lies below.
So with unclouded wit
Both your and other’s good shows clear in it.”
When the Master finished this discourse, he taught the Four Noble Truths, at the conclusion of which the young brahmin attained stream-entry. Then he identified the birth: “In those days, this youth was the young brahmin, and I was his teacher.”
