20.7 The Story about the Elder Poṭhila
Poṭhilattheravatthu

“From effort arises wisdom,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to Elder Poṭhila.

Poṭhila, it seems, bore the title ‘Versed in the Three Baskets’ AJ: Pāḷi: Tepiṭaka. through the dispensations of all Seven Buddhas, and recited the Dhamma to a company of five hundred bhikkhus. {3.418} One day the Teacher thought to himself: “It has not even occurred to this bhikkhu to win for himself escape from suffering; I will stir him up.” From that time forward, whenever that bhikkhu came to wait upon him, he would say to him: “Come, Empty Poṭhila; salute, Empty Poṭhila; sit, Empty Poṭhila; go, Empty Poṭhila,” and when Poṭhila had risen from his seat and gone, he would say: “Empty Poṭhila has gone.”

Poṭhila thought to himself: “I am versed in the Three Baskets and in the commentaries thereon; moreover I recite the Dhamma to [30.158] five hundred bhikkhus, eighteen great companies. Yet the Teacher addresses me always as Empty Poṭhila. It is doubtless because I have not developed the absorptions and so on that the Teacher thus addresses me.” Much stirred up, he said to himself: “I will straightaway enter the forest and engage in meditation.” Accordingly that very evening he put bowl and robe in order, and when it was dawn, set out, accompanying the bhikkhu who was the last of all to master the Dhamma. The bhikkhus who sat in their cells repeating the Dhamma did not notice that it was their teacher.

Poṭhila went a distance of 120 leagues, finally arriving at a forest hermitage where thirty bhikkhus resided. Approaching the bhikkhus, he worshipped the elder of the community and said to him: “Venerable Sir, be my refuge.” – “Friend, you are a teacher of the Dhamma; it is we {3.419} who have something to learn from you. Why do you speak thus?” – “Venerable Sir, do not act thus; be my refuge.” As a matter of fact, all of those bhikkhus were Arahats. The senior elder thought to himself: “This bhikkhu, by reason of great learning, is affected with pride,” and therefore sent him to a junior elder. Poṭhila said the same thing to the junior elder. In like manner each of the bhikkhus sent him to his junior; finally they sent him to the youngest of all, a seven-year-old novice, who was sitting in his day-quarters doing needlework. Thus did they humble his pride.

His pride humbled, Poṭhila raised his clasped hands in an attitude of reverent supplication to the novice and said to him: “Good Sir, be my refuge.” – “Oh, teacher,” replied the novice, “what say you? You are of mature age and of great learning; it is I who have something to learn from you.” – “Do not act thus, good sir; only be my refuge.” – “Venerable Sir, if you will patiently endure admonition, I will be your refuge.” – “I will do so, good sir; if you say to me: ‘Enter the fire,’ I will enter the fire.” Thereupon the novice pointed out a pool of water not far off and said to him: “Venerable Sir, plunge into this pool, robes and all.” For although the novice knew full well that Poṭhila had on under and upper garments of great value, {3.420} he spoke thus to ascertain whether he was tractable or not. No sooner were the words spoken than the elder plunged into the water.

When the novice saw that the skirts of Poṭhila’s robes were dripping he said: “Come here, venerable Sir.” No sooner did the novice speak than Poṭhila came and stood before him. Said the novice to [30.159] Poṭhila: “Venerable Sir, if there are six holes in a given ant-hill, and a lizard enters the ant-hill by one of these holes, he that would catch the lizard stops up five of the six holes, leaving the sixth hole open, and catches the lizard in the hole by which he entered. Precisely so should you deal with the six doors of the senses; close five of the six doors, and devote your attention to the door of the mind.”

To the bhikkhu, learned as he was, the words of the novice were as the lighting of a lamp. “Let that suffice, good sir,” he said; and concentrating his attention on the material body, he began to meditate. The Teacher, even as he sat at a distance of 120 leagues, surveyed that bhikkhu, and thinking to himself: “This bhikkhu must so establish himself as to become a man of great wisdom,” sent forth a radiant image of himself, which went and spoke with the bhikkhu, as it were, pronouncing the following verse:

282. Yogā ve jāyatī bhūri, ayogā bhūrisaṅkhayo,
etaṁ dvedhāpathaṁ ñatvā bhavāya vibhavāya ca,
tathattānaṁ niveseyya yathā bhūri pavaḍḍhati.

From effort arises wisdom,
without effort wisdom is lost,
having understood these two paths
of development and decline,
one should then establish oneself
so that one’s wisdom increases. {3.421}

At the end of the teaching the Elder Poṭhila was established in Arahatship.

last updated: August 2024