25.1 The Story about Five Bhikkhus

25.1 The Story about Five Bhikkhus
Pañcabhikkhuvatthu

Dhp 360-361

Burlingame: Guard the Doors of the Senses

Compare: Ja 132; Ja 96 BG: The Story of the Past is a brief outline of Ja 96. The title given to this Jātaka in Fausböll’s edition is Telapatta: but it is referred to, both at Dhp-a 4.83¹⁷ and at Jātaka, 1.470⁰¹ as the Takkasilā Jātaka.

A group of bhikkhus argued about which sense door was the hardest to restrain; the Buddha told them that in a previous life they were unable to restrain their senses and were devoured by a Yakkhinī, he then taught them these verses as the way to attain release from suffering.

Keywords: Sense-Restraint, Past Lives, Yakkhinīs

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“The restraint of the eye is good,” [30.215] {4.83} this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to five bhikkhus.

It appears that each of these five bhikkhus guarded one of the five doors of the senses. One day they met and began to argue with each other, saying: “It is I who guard the door which is most difficult to guard! It is I who guard the door which is most difficult to guard!” Finally they said: “We can learn the truth of this matter by questioning the Teacher.” So they approached the Teacher and asked him the following question: “Venerable Sir, each one of us is guarding one of the five doors of the senses, and each one of us imagines that the particular door which he is guarding is the door of all other doors which is the most difficult to guard. Now we should like to have you tell us which one of us is guarding the door that is the most difficult to guard.”

The Teacher carefully avoided placing any of the bhikkhus in a position inferior to that of his fellows and said in reply: “Bhikkhus, all of these doors are difficult to guard. But this is not the first time you have failed to control yourselves in these five particulars. In a previous state of existence also you failed to exercise restraint over your senses, and because you failed to exercise restraint over your senses, and because you refused to comply with the admonition of wise men, met destruction.” – “When was that, venerable Sir?” asked the five bhikkhus.

1a. Story of the Past: The Birth Story about Takkasilā

Complying with their request, the Teacher related in detail the Birth Story about Takkasilā, {4.84} telling them how, in the distant past, after the household of a king had been destroyed by Yakkhinīs, the Great [30.244] Being, having received the ceremonial sprinkling of a king, seated on the royal throne under the white parasol, surveying his own majesty and glory, thinking to himself: “Men should exert the power of their will,” breathed forth the following exalted utterance:

Skilful advice, with firm resolution,
without turning back through fear and through fright,
we came not under Rakkhasīs’ control,
I found a state of safety from great fear.

Having recited this verse, the Teacher summarized the Birth Story as follows: “At that time you were the five men who, when the Great Being went forth to take the kingdom of Takkasilā, stood round about him with weapons in your hands, guarding the road. But when, as you journeyed by the way, the Yakkhinīs tempted you with objects pleasing to the senses of sight and sound and smell and taste and touch, then you threw off all restraint, then you disregarded the admonitions of the wise man, then you yielded to the seductions of the Yakkhinīs; and they devoured you, and you were utterly destroyed. The wise man who restrained himself and yielded not to their temptations, who paid no attention to the Yakkhinī of celestial beauty that followed close upon his heels, and who reached Takkasilā in safety and became king, was I myself.”

Having thus summed up the Birth Story, the Teacher said: “A bhikkhu should guard all the doors of the senses, for only by guarding the doors of the senses can he obtain release from all suffering.” So saying, he pronounced the following verses: {4.85}

360-361. Cakkhunā saṁvaro sādhu, sādhu sotena saṁvaro,
ghāṇena saṁvaro sādhu, sādhu jivhāya saṁvaro,
kāyena saṁvaro sādhu, sādhu vācāya saṁvaro,
manasā saṁvaro sādhu, sādhu sabbattha saṁvaro,
sabbattha saṁvuto bhikkhu sabbadukkhā pamuccati.

The restraint of the eye is good,
the restraint of the ear is good,
the restraint of the nose is good,
the restraint of the tongue is good,
the restraint of body is good,
the restraint of the speech is good,
the restraint of the mind is good,
restraint is always good,
a monastic who is
restrained everywhere
is free from all the suffering.

At the end of the teaching those five bhikkhus were established in the fruition of Stream-entry, and those who had assembled also had benefit from the Dhamma teaching.