26.4 The Story about a Certain Brahmin
Aññatarabrāhmaṇavatthu
Dhp 386
Burlingame: What Is a Brahmin?
A Brahmin by birth noticed that the Buddha referred to his disciples as Brahmins, and thought he should apply the title to him also; the Buddha explained that he used the word not because of birth, but only for one who was an Arahat, and then he spoke a verse.
Keywords: Brahmins
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“The meditator sitting down,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Jetavana with reference to a certain Brahmin.
It seems that one day this Brahmin thought to himself: “The Teacher calls his own disciples Brahmins,
The Teacher replied: “I do not call a man a Brahmin merely because of his birth and lineage; I call by this title only that man who has reached the supreme goal, Arahatship.” So saying, he pronounced the following verse:
386. Jhāyiṁ virajam-āsīnaṁ, katakiccaṁ anāsavaṁ,
uttamatthaṁ anuppattaṁ, tam-ahaṁ brūmi brāhmaṇaṁ.
The meditator sitting down,
dustless, who has done his duty,
without pollutants, who has reached
the supreme good, that one
I say is a Brahmin.
At the end of the teaching that Brahmin was established in the fruition of Stream-entry, and those who had assembled also had benefit from the Dhamma teaching.