The Liberation of Prince Nanda

[Kusala]

"The splinter of a view, that had penetrated to my core,

O Mighty One,
was paining me intensely, being very sharp;

Via the jaws of the pincers of your words
-- by means of a means and by way of a mouth --

It was pulled out of me
as a splinter is removed by a surgeon.

A doubt,
by which I fell into a state of hesitant questioning,

O One Beyond Doubt, has been eradicated in me --

Through your teaching I have arrived at a true path

Like a straggler, under a good guide, getting on the road.

With senses ruled by relishing,

I madly drank the drug of love;

Its action was blocked in me
by the antidote of your words,

As a deadly poison is by a great remedy.

Rebirth is over, O Refuter of Rebirth!

I am dwelling as one with observance of true dharma.

What was for me to do,
O Doer of the Necessary! is totally done.

I am present in the world without being of the world..."

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[Coyote]

The splinter of a view, that had penetrated to my core,

O Mighty One,
was paining me intensely, being very sharp;

Via the jaws of the pincers of your words
-- by means of a means and by way of a mouth --

It was pulled out of me
as a splinter is removed by a surgeon.

I like it. Thanks for sharing.

[Meormineisnotreal]

Ekottara Āgama 16:1
Then King Prasenajit rose from his seat, bowed down at Nanda’s feet and departed. And then, not too long after the departure of the King, that same Māra came to Venerable Nanda, circled in the sky and addressed him with this verse:

“The face of your adorable bride is like the moon.
Gold, silver, a body covered with jewels.
Her beauty is truly unforgettable.
And always there are the five sensual pleasures to be enjoyed;
The songs, the drums, the dance,
And her soft and harmonious voice,
Have the power to drive away
Sadness and worries,
And bring joy to this forest.”

Then Venerable Nanda, knowing that Māra wanted to disturb him, replied:

“Formerly I had such mind.
Indulging in sexual love,
Without having enough.
I was tied up by my passions,
I ignored old age, illness, and death.
But now, I have crossed over that ocean of craving,
I am pure, I am immune,
I know that prosperity and prestige,
They are all suffering.
Only Dharma the eternal joy;
I no longer have any bondage,
Nor sexual desire, anger, and ignorance,
I no longer practice the worldly habits;
The small-minded should know that.”

Read the whole group of suttas concerning Venerable Nanda (aka the Buddha's brother) in the Agamas here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... BzDqWkS6lv

[Kusala]

Ekottara Āgama 16:1
Then King Prasenajit rose from his seat, bowed down at Nanda’s feet and departed. And then, not too long after the departure of the King, that same Māra came to Venerable Nanda, circled in the sky and addressed him with this verse:

“The face of your adorable bride is like the moon.
Gold, silver, a body covered with jewels.
Her beauty is truly unforgettable.
And always there are the five sensual pleasures to be enjoyed;
The songs, the drums, the dance,
And her soft and harmonious voice,
Have the power to drive away
Sadness and worries,
And bring joy to this forest.”

Then Venerable Nanda, knowing that Māra wanted to disturb him, replied:

“Formerly I had such mind.
Indulging in sexual love,
Without having enough.
I was tied up by my passions,
I ignored old age, illness, and death.
But now, I have crossed over that ocean of craving,
I am pure, I am immune,
I know that prosperity and prestige,
They are all suffering.
Only Dharma the eternal joy;
I no longer have any bondage,
Nor sexual desire, anger, and ignorance,
I no longer practice the worldly habits;
The small-minded should know that.”

Read the whole group of suttas concerning Venerable Nanda (aka the Buddha's brother) in the Agamas here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... BzDqWkS6lv

Thanks...interesting note: Prince Nanda was 6 feet 4 inches tall...

II. Controversial points: Sugata measures.

The Commentary to Sg 6 states that the Buddha's cubit — the distance from his bent elbow to the tips of his fingers — was three times that of a normal man. This puts all the sugata measures — based on the Buddha's cubit, handspan, and breadth of his fingers — at three times normal length and makes the Buddha freakishly tall.

How the Commentary arrived at this figure is hard to say, for the Vinaya-mukha cites several passages from the Canon showing that the Buddha, though tall, was not abnormally so. The most telling passage is the one from DN 2, in which King Ajātasattu visits the Buddha while the latter is sitting in an assembly of bhikkhus, and the king is unable to identify which member of the assembly the Buddha is. This, of course, is meant to indicate the king's spiritual blindness, but if the Buddha had been remarkably tall it would have been part of his general reputation, and the king would not have had to ask.

The Vinaya-mukha then goes on to suggest a variety of ways of calculating the Buddha's measurements, the most useful being to assume the Buddha's cubit to be 50 cm. This, at least roughly, fits a number of passages from the Canon, as follows:

According to DN 30, the spread of the Buddha's arms, outstretched, was equal to his height. Because a person's cubit is one-fourth the spread of his outstretched arms, this would put the Buddha's height at 2 meters, or approximately 6 feet 7 inches. The origin story to Pc 92 states that his half-brother, Nanda, was four fingerbreadths shorter than he, and that when bhikkhus saw him coming from afar, they would mistake him for the Buddha, partly on the basis of his tall height. One fingerbreadth is said to be 1/24 cubit, or a little more than 2 cm. by this reckoning, which would put Nanda at 1.92 meters, or approximately 6 feet 4 inches tall.

These figures would seem to fit the information in the Canon fairly well, in that they allow for both Nanda and the Buddha to be tall but not outlandishly so.

Another pair of passages supporting these measurements is the ruling under Pc 87 that the legs of a bhikkhu's bed not be more than eight sugata fingerbreadths tall, taken together with the recommendation at Cv.VIII.1.5 that one should grope under the bed with one's hand to make sure that nothing is there before placing one's bowl there. Our measurements would put the maximum height for the bed legs at 18 cm. If they were much taller than that, there would be no need to grope, for one could easily see under the bed with a glance. If they were much shorter than that, even a small bowl wouldn't fit.

Although there is no way of determining the sugata measures with 100% accuracy, the above considerations suggest that the following estimates are reasonable:
The sugata cubit = 50 cm.
The sugata span = 25 cm.
The sugata fingerbreadth = 2.08 cm.

Applied to the various rules, this would give us a hut 3 x 1.75 meters — small, but adequate; a rains-bathing cloth 1.5 x .625 meters — enough to cover one from the waist to the knees; and an skin-eruption covering cloth 1 x .5 meters — enough to cover one from the waist to just above the knees. All of these figures seem appropriate and so have been accepted for the purposes of this book.