Jataka Vol. I: Book I.--Ekanipāta: No. 135. Candābha-Jātaka
p. 292
No. 135.
[474] CANDĀBHA-JĀTAKA.
"Who sagely meditates."--This story too was told by the Master while at Jetavana
about the interpretation of a problem by the Elder Sāriputta at the gate of
Saṁkassa.
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Once on a time when Brahmadatta was reigning in Benares, the Bodhisatta, as he
expired in his forest-home, answered his disciples' enquiries with the
words--"Moonlight and Sunlight." With these words he died and passed to the
Radiant Realm.
Now when the chief disciple interpreted the Master's words his fellows did not
believe him. Then back came the Bodhisatta and from mid-air recited this
stanza:--
Who sagely meditates on sun and moon,
Shall win (when Reason unto Ecstasy
Gives place) his after-lot in Radiant Realms 1.
Such was the Bodhisatta's teaching, and, first praising his disciple, he went
his way back to the Brahma Realm.
_____________________________
His lesson ended, the Master identified the Birth by saying, "Sāriputta was the
chief disciple of those days, and I Mahā-Brahmā."
Footnotes
292:1 These technical lines imply that, by taking the Sun and Moon as his
kammaṭṭhāna, or subject for meditation, a Buddhist, by attaining Jhāna (or
Insight) in the second (i.e. supra-rational) degree, can save himself from
re-birth in a lower sphere of existence than the Ābhassaraloka or Radiant Realm
of the corporeal Brahma-world.
Next: No. 136. Suvaṇṇahaṁsa-Jātaka
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