The rice is cooked,
my milking done.
I live with my people
along the banks of the Mahi;
my hut is roofed, my fire lit:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The Buddha:
Free from anger,
my rigidity gone,
I live for one night
along the banks of the Mahi;
my hut’s roof is open, my fire out.
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
Dhaniya:
No mosquitoes or gadflies
are to be found.
The cows range in the marshy meadow
where the grasses flourish.
They could stand the rain if it came:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The Buddha:
A raft, well-made,
has been lashed together.
Having crossed over,
gone to the far shore,
I’ve subdued the flood.
No need for a raft
is to be found:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
Dhaniya:
My wife is composed, not wanton,
is charming, has lived with me long.
I hear no evil about her at all:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The Buddha:
My mind is composed, released,
has long been nurtured, well tamed.
No evil is to be found in me:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
Dhaniya:
I support myself on my earnings.
My sons live in harmony,
free from disease.
I hear no evil about them at all:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The Buddha:
I’m in no one’s employ,
I wander the whole world
on the reward [of my Awakening].
No need for earnings
is to be found:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
Dhaniya:
There are cows, young bulls,
cows in calf, & breeding cows,
& a great bull, the leader of the herd:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The Buddha:
There are no cows, no young bulls,
no cows in calf or breeding cows,
no great bull, the leader of the herd:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
Dhaniya:
The stakes are dug-in, immovable.
The new muñja-grass halters, well-woven,
not even young bulls could break:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The Buddha:
Having broken my bonds
like a great bull,
like a great elephant
tearing a rotting vine,
I never again
will lie in the womb:
So if you want, rain-god,
go ahead & rain.
The great cloud rained down
straightaway,
filling the lowlands & high.
Hearing the rain-god pour down,
Dhaniya:
How great our gain
that we’ve gazed
on the Blessed One!
We go to him,
the One with Eyes,
for refuge.
May you be our teacher, Great Sage.
My wife & I are composed.
Let’s follow the holy life
under the One Well-Gone.
Gone to the far shore
of aging & death,
let’s put an end
to suffering & stress.
Mara:
Those with children
delight
because of their children.
Those with cattle
delight
because of their cows.
A person’s delight
comes from acquisitions,
for a person with no acquisitions
doesn’t delight.
because of their cows.
A person’s delight
comes from acquisitions,
for a person with no acquisitions
doesn’t delight.
The Buddha:
Those with children
grieve
precisely because of their children.
Those with cattle
grieve
precisely because of their cows.
A person’s grief
comes from acquisitions,
for a person with no acquisitions
doesn’t grieve.
It's a beautiful sutta, but is there a specific point you would like to make, or a question you would like to ask?
No my friend, I liked the sutta as you did, and thought it very meaningful as throughout this exchange, Buddha is subtly teaching Dhaniya the noble truths. So I posted it for the ones who may not have read this sutta. So they can get their own lesson/idea out of it.
For me, it was how conditional and fragile the man's happiness is. It depended on so many variables that could easily be changed due to impermanence of the world. And Mara could have tampered with one of those variables just out of boredom and the man would be misarable.
But Buddha's happiness is so unconditional that even Mara, let alone nature could not do anything to disrupt it.
It's a beautiful sutta, but is there a specific point you would like to make, or a question you would like to ask?
No my friend, I liked the sutta as you did, and thought it very meaningful as throughout this exchange, Buddha is subtly teaching Dhaniya the noble truths. So I posted it for the ones who may not have read this sutta. So they can get their own lesson/idea out of it.
For me, it was how conditional and fragile the man's happiness is. It depended on so many variables that could easily be changed due to impermanence of the world. And Mara could have tampered with one of those variables just out of boredom and the man would be misarable.
But Buddha's happiness is so unconditional that even Mara, let alone nature could not do anything to disrupt it.
Thank you, i've found it instructive. Why cloudy, why the rain?
Thank you for this. I am currently reading the 𝑃𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑏ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑔𝑎, so this is a nice change.
I noticed the phrase,
my rigidity gone
in the Buddha's first verse, and it struck me as fitting in with a certain slant one finds among some Western Buddhists, especially Mahayanists. I wonder what word that is in the Pali, and whether there are other translations for it. (Yes, I could invest the time myself, but I probably won't.)
May all beings, in or out of the womb, be well, happy and peaceful.
tharpa wrote: ↑Wed Sep 14, 2022 10:02 pm
Thank you for this. I am currently reading the 𝑃𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑏ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑔𝑎, so this is a nice change.
I noticed the phrase,
my rigidity gone
in the Buddha's first verse, and it struck me as fitting in with a certain slant one finds among some Western Buddhists, especially Mahayanists. I wonder what word that is in the Pali, and whether there are other translations for it. (Yes, I could invest the time myself, but I probably won't.)
Its a compound: vigatakhila.
Vigata means "gone away from", and the khila bit can mean rigidity, sterility, barrenness, stiffness, etc. Sujato translates it as "hard-heartedness".