The Great Chronicle of Buddhas
by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw | 1990 | 1,044,401 words
This page describes The Story of a Senior Monk contained within the book called the Great Chronicle of Buddhas (maha-buddha-vamsa), a large compilation of stories revolving around the Buddhas and Buddhist disciples. This page is part of the series known as on Pāramitā. This great chronicle of Buddhas was compiled by Ven. Mingun Sayadaw who had a thorough understanding of the thousands and thousands of Buddhist teachings (suttas).
The Story of a Senior Monk
Once there was a senior monk who was very ill and unable to eat with his hands. He lay rolling smeared with his own urine and excrement. Seeing him a young bhikkhu, he exclaimed: “Oh, how painful is the life process!” The senior monk said: “Friend, if I die now I will surely achieve divine bliss. I have no doubt of that. The bliss obtained by breaking[1] this sīla is like forsaking monkhood and becoming a lay man. But I am determined to die with my sīla intact.[2]” So saying he lay in the same place, contemplating on the same illness inherent in the five aggregates of mind and matter and attained arahatship.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
To break sīla means to die without becoming an arahat.
[2]:
“Sīla intact” means passing away only after attaining arahatship.
[3]:
Here ‘etc’. means refers to other Enlightened Ones, namely, Paccekabuddhas and Sammāsambuddhas.