..續本文上一頁 that "Nibbana is ceasing of coming-to-be" (bhava-nirodha).[26]

　　This detached attitude to the jhanic attainments may have been due to the meditative "abiding in voidness" (suññata-vihara) which the Venerable Sariputta cultivated. We read in the Pindapata-parisuddhi Sutta (Majjh. 151) that the Buddha once remarked on the Venerable Sariputta”s radiant features and asked him by which state of mind this radiance had been caused.[27] The Venerable Sariputta replied that he frequently practiced the abiding in voidness, upon which the Buddha said that this was the abode of great men, and proceeded to describe it in detail. The Udana records that on three occasions the Master saw the Venerable Sariputta seated in meditation outside the monastery and uttered verses (udana) in praise of a firm and calm mind.

　　We may perhaps imagine the Venerable Sariputta seated in meditation in a bower such as that mentioned in the Devadaha Sutta (Khandha Samyutta, No.2), where it is said "Once the Blessed One lived in the Sakya country, at Devadaha, a market town of the Sakyas... At that time the Venerable Sariputta was seated, not far from the Blessed One, under an Elagala bush." The Commentary to the text tells us: "At Devadaha there was a bower under an Elagala bush. This bush grows where there is a constant supply of flowing water. People had made a bower with four posts over which they let the bush grow, forming a roof. Under it they made a seat by placing bricks there and strewing it with sand. It was a cool place for the daytime, with a fresh breeze blowing from the water." It may well have been in some such rustic shelter as this that the Buddha saw Sariputta deep in meditation, on those occasions when he extolled his disciple”s tranquillity and detachment.

　　Concerning his attainment to analytical knowledge (patisambhida-ñana), the Venerable Sariputta speaks of it in the Anguttara Nikaya (Fours, No. 172), where he says:

　　"It was half a month after my ordination, friends that I realized, in all their parts and details, the analytical knowledge of meaning, the analytical knowledge of the Dhamma, the analytical knowledge of language, the analytical knowledge of perspicuity. These I expound in many ways, teach them and make them known, establish and reveal them, explain and clarify them. If anyone has any doubt or uncertainty, he may ask me and I shall explain (the matter). Present is the Master who is well acquainted with our attainments."

　　From all of this it is evident that the Venerable Sariputta was a master of all the stages of attainment up to and including the highest insight-knowledge. What could be more aptly said of him than this, in the Buddha”s own words:

　　"If one could ever say rightly of one that he has come to mastery and perfection in noble virtue, in noble concentration, in noble wisdom and noble liberation, it is of Sariputta that one could thus rightly declare.

　　"If one could ever say rightly of one that he is the Blessed One”s true son, born of his speech, born of the Dhamma, formed of the Dhamma, heir to the Dhamma, not heir to worldly benefit, it is Sariputta that one could thus rightly declare.

　　"After me, O monks, Sariputta rightly turns the supreme Wheel of Dhamma, even as I have turned it."

　　— Majjh. 111, Anupada Sutta

　　The Turner of the Wheel

　　The discourses of Sariputta and the books attributed to him form a comprehensive body of teaching that for scope and variety of exposition can stand beside that of the Master himself. Sariputta understood in a unique way how to organize and present the rich material of the Dhamma lucidly, in a manner that was intellectually stimulating and also an inspiration to practical effort. We find this exemplified in two classic discourses of the Majjhima Nikaya, the Samma-d…

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