"What are you doing here, so early, Sāriputta?" asked he.
Then he told him what had happened; and on hearing what the Elder said, the Teacher thought, —
"If the monks even now, while I am yet living, show so little respect and courtesy to one another, what will they do when I am dead?" And he was filled with anxiety for the welfare of the Truth.
As soon as it was light he called all the priests together, and asked them —
"Is it true, priests, as I have been told, that the Six went on in front, and occupied all the lodging-places to the exclusion of the Elders?"
"It is true, O Blessed One!" said they.
Then he reproved the Six, and addressing the monks, taught them a lesson, saying, —
"Who is it, then, O monks, who deserves the best seat, and the best water, and the best rice?"
Some said, "A nobleman who has become a monk."
Some said, "A Brāhman, or the head of a family who has become a monk." Others said, "The man versed in the Rules of the Order; an Expounder of the Law; one who has attained to the First Jhāna, or the Second, or the Third, or the Fourth." Others again said, "The Converted man; or one in the Second or the Third Stage of the Path to Nirvāna; or an Arahat; or one who knows the Three Truths; or one who has the Sixfold Wisdom."[1]
When the monks had thus declared whom they each thought worthy of the best seat, and so on, the Teacher said:
"In my religion, O monks, it is not the being ordained from a noble, or a priestly, or a wealthy family; it is not being versed in the Rules of the Order, or in the general or the metaphysical books of the Scriptures; it is not the attainment of the Jhānas, or progress in the Path of
- ↑ See the translator's 'Buddhism,' pp. 108 and 174-177 (2nd edition).
