..續本文上一頁ther way, but asked: "Where will your final passing away take place

　　"

　　The Venerable Sariputta replied: "In the Magadha country, in the village called Nalaka, there in the chamber of my birth shall I finally pass away."

　　Then the Blessed One said: "Do, Sariputta, what you think timely. But now your elder and younger brethren in the Sangha will no longer have the chance to see a bhikkhu like you. Give them once more a discourse on Dhamma."

　　The great Elder then gave a discourse, displaying all his descending to mundane truth, rising again, and again descending, he expounded the Dhamma directly and in symbols. And when he had ended his discourse he paid homage at the feet of the Master. embracing his legs, he said: "So that I might worship these feet I have fulfilled the Perfections throughout an aeon and a hundred thousand kalpas. My heart”s wish has found fulfillment. From now on there will be no more contact or meeting; severed now is that intimate connection. The City of Nibbana, the unaging, undying, peaceful, blissful, heat-assuaging and secure, which has been entered by many hundreds of thousands of Buddhas — I too shall enter it now.

　　"If any deed or word of mine did not please you, O Lord, may the Blessed One forgive me! It is now time for me to go."

　　Now once before, the Buddha had answered this, when he said: "There is nothing, be it in deeds or words, wherein I should have to reproach you, Sariputta. For you are learned, Sariputta, of great wisdom, of broad and bright, quick, keen and penetrative wisdom."[45]

　　So now he made answer in the same way: "I forgive you, Sariputta," he said. "But there was not a single word or deed of yours that was displeasing to me. Do now, Sariputta, what you think timely."

　　From this we see that on those few occasions when the Master seemed to reproach his Chief Disciple, it was not that he was displeased with him in any way, but rather that he was pointing out another approach to a situation, another way of viewing a problem.

　　Immediately after the master had given his permission and the Venerable Sariputta had risen from paying homage at his feet, the Great Earth cried out, and with a single huge tremor shook to its watery boundaries. It was as though the Great Earth wished to say: "Though I bear these girdling mountain ranges with Mount Meru, the encircling mountain walls (cakkavala) and the Himavant, I cannot sustain on this day so vast an accumulation of virtue!" And mighty thunder split the heavens, a vast cloud appeared and heavy rain poured down.

　　Then the Blessed One thought: "I shall now permit the Marshal of the Law to depart." and he rose from the seat of the Law, went to his Perfumed Cell and there stood on the Jewel Slab. Three times the Venerable Sariputta circumambulated the cell, keeping it to his right, and paid reverence at four places. And this thought was in his mind: "an aeon and a hundred thousand kalpas ago it was, when I fell down at the feet of the Buddha Anomadassi and made the aspiration to see you. This aspiration has been realized, and I have seen you. At the first meeting it was my first sight of you; now it is my last, and there will be none in the future." And with raised hands joined in salutation he departed, going backwards until the Blessed One was out of sight. And yet again the Great Earth, unable to bear it, trembled to its watery boundaries.

　　The Blessed One then addressed the bhikkhus who surrounded him. "Go, bhikkhus," he said. "Accompany your elder brother." At these words, all the four assemblies of devotees at once went out of the Jeta Grove, leaving the Blessed One there alone. The citizens of Savatthi also, having heard the news, went out of the city in an unending stream carrying incense and flowers in their hands; and with their hair wet (th…

《The Life of Sariputta》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…