The Story of Thera Cakkhupala (Dhammapada 1 : 1)

I. Yamaka Vagga –Twin Verses

Verse 1:
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts
suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.
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While residing at the Jetavana monastery in Savatthi, the Buddha uttered the verse above, with reference to Cakkhupala, a blind thera. (Thera is a Pāli honorific term meaning ‘old’, ‘elder’ or ‘venerable’, and used with reference to the senior monks of the Buddhist monastic order (Saṃgha). The seniority of a monk is determined not by age but by the time elapsed since ordination. Normally ten years' standing is required for a monk to be considered as a thera).

On one occasion, Thera Cakkhupala came to pay homage to the Buddha at the Jetavana monastery. One night, while pacing up and down in meditation, the thera accidentally stepped on some insects. In the morning, some bhikkhus visiting the thera found the dead insects. They thought ill of the thera and reported the matter to the Buddha. The Buddha asked them whether they had seen the thera killing the insects. When they answered in the negative, the Buddha said, "Just as you had not seen him killing, so also he had not seen those living insects. Besides, as the thera had already attained Arahatship* he could have no intention of killing and so was quite innocent."

On being asked why Cakkhupala was blind although he was an arahat, the Buddha told the following story:

Cakkhupala was a physician in one of his past existences. Once, he had deliberately made a woman patient blind. That woman had promised him to become his slave, together with her children, if her eyes were completely cured. Fearing that she and her children would have to become slaves, she lied to the physician. She told him that her eyes were getting worse when, in fact, they were perfectly cured. The physician knew she was deceiving him, so in revenge, he gave her another ointment, which made her totally blind. As a result of this evil deed the physician lost his eyesight many times in his later existences.

Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

 

"Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā manoseṭṭhā manomayā

manasā ce paduṭṭhena bhāsatī vā karoti vā

tato naṃ dukkham anveti cakkaṃ va vahato padaṃ."

All mental phenomena have mind as their forerunner; they have mind as their chief;
they are mind-made.
If one speaks or acts with an evil mind,
'dukkha' follows him just as the wheel follows the hoofprint of the ox that draws the cart.

At the end of the discourse, thirty thousand bhikkhus attained arahatship[1] together with Analytical Insight (Patisambhida).

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Notes :

* There are 4 stages of enlightenment :

1. Sotāpatti : literally meaning "one who enters (āpadyate) the stream (sotas)," with the stream being the Noble Eightfold Path regarded as the highest Dharma. The person who reaches this stage is called Sotapanna (the stream enterer). The stream enterer will have no more than seven successive rebirths, and possibly in fewer. The stream-enterer can also be sure that he will not be reborn in any of the unhappy states or rebirths (an animal, a preta, or in hell). He can only be reborn as a human being, or in a heaven.

2. Sakadagami : once returner. The once-returner will return to the human world only one more time, and will attain Nibbana in that life.

3. Anāgāmi : non returner. The non-returner does not come back into human existence, or any lower world, after death. Instead, he is reborn in one of the worlds of the Rūpadhātu called the Śuddhāvāsa worlds, or "Pure Abodes", where he will attain Nibbana.

4. Arahat : will not reborn anywhere.

** Dukkha:

In this context, dukkha means suffering, or physical or mental pain, misfortune, unsatisfactoriness, evil consequences, etc., and rebirth in the lower planes of existence or in the lower strata of human society if born in the human world.