19.7 The Story about a Certain Brahmin
Aññatarabrāhmaṇavatthu
Dhp 266-267
Burlingame: What Is It That Makes the Monk?
A Brahmin who ordained in an outside order collected his almsfood through begging; later he went to the Buddha and asked to be addressed as a bhikkhu, like the Buddha’s own disciples; but the Buddha explained with some verses that it is not the form that counts, but the cleansing of the mind.
Keywords: Almsrounds, Sectarians
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“One is not a monastic,”
It seems that this Brahmin went forth in a sectarian order. As he went about on his rounds for alms, he thought to himself: “The ascetic Gotama addresses as ‘bhikkhus’ his own disciples who go about on rounds for alms; AJ: alms in Pāḷi is bhikkha, hence bhikkhu, one who goes collects almsfood. he ought to address me also as a bhikkhu.” Accordingly he approached the Teacher and said to him: “Dear Gotama, I also support life by going about on rounds for alms; address me also as a bhikkhu.”
But the Teacher said to him: “Brahmin, I do not call a man a bhikkhu merely because he receives alms. For a man who adopts and practices all the forms is not therefore a bhikkhu. But he that weighs well all the conditions and acts accordingly, he is a bhikkhu indeed.” So saying, he pronounced the following verses:
266. Na tena bhikkhu hoti yāvatā bhikkhate pare,
vissaṁ Dhammaṁ samādāya bhikkhu hoti na tāvatā.
One is not a monastic merely through
eating others’ almsfood,
the one who undertakes a false Dhamma
to that extent is not a monastic.
267. Yodha puññañ-ca pāpañ-ca bāhetvā brahmacariyavā,
saṅkhāya loke carati sa ce, bhikkhū ti vuccati.
Warding off both merit and demerit,
the one who lives the spiritual life,
if he wanders with discrimination,
that one is said to be a monastic.
At the end of the teaching many reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.