26.5 The Story about the Elder Ānanda
Ānandattheravatthu
Dhp 387
Burlingame: The Buddhas Shine Both Day and Night
One day Elder Ānanda saw the sun set, the moon rise, the king in his mantle, Elder Kāḷudāyi meditating and the Buddha, who outshone them all; the Teacher explained that Buddhas outshine the others both by day and by night, and spoke a verse.
Keywords: Similes
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“The sun shines by day,” this Dhamma teaching was given by the Teacher while he was in residence at Migāramātā’s mansion with reference to Elder Ānanda.
It seems that, on the Great Invitation, Pasenadi Kosala went to the monastery, adorned with all the adornments, bearing perfumes, garlands, and the like in his hands.
The elder worshipped the Teacher and said: “Venerable Sir, as today I gazed upon the radiance of all these bodies, the radiance of your body alone satisfied me; for your body far outshone the radiance of all these other bodies.”
The Teacher said to the elder: “Ānanda, the sun shines by day, the moon by night, the king when he is adorned, the Arahat when he has left human associations behind and is in absorption. But the Buddhas shine both by night and by day, and shine with fivefold brightness.” So saying, he pronounced the following verse:
387. Divā tapati ādicco, rattiṁ ābhāti candimā,
sannaddho khattiyo tapati, jhāyī tapati brāhmaṇo,
atha sabbam-ahorattiṁ Buddho tapati tejasā.
The sun shines by day, the moon shines by night,
the accoutred noble is radiant,
the meditating Brahmin’s radiant,
then every day and night the Buddha
is radiant through his shining power.
At the end of the teaching many reached the fruition of Stream-entry and so on.