..續本文上一頁, greed, and obsession with views, that recluses fight with recluses." Finally the brahman asked whether there was anyone in the world who had transcended both sensual lust and lust for views. Although Maha Kaccana, as an arahant, could have put himself forth as an example of such a one, with characteristic modesty and self-effacement he named instead the Blessed One, who was dwelling at Savatthi at the time. When this was said, the brahman Aramadanda knelt down on the ground, held out his hands in reverential salutation, and exclaimed three times: "Homage to the Blessed One, the Arahant, the Fully Enlightened One."
In the next sutta (AN 2:4:7) a brahman named Kandarayana reproaches Maha Kaccana for not showing proper respect towards aged brahmans. The elder defends himself by distinguishing the conventional usage of the words "aged" and "young" from their proper meaning within the Discipline of the Noble One. On this latter criterion, even if a person is eighty, ninety, or a hundred years from birth, if he is still addicted to sensual pleasures he is reckoned as a fool, not an elder. But even if a person is young, with jet black hair, endowed with the blessing of youth, if he has broken free from sensual desires, he is then reckoned as an elder.
Once the Venerable Maha Kaccana gave the monks a discourse on the six recollections (cha anussati) — the contemplations of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Sangha, virtue, generosity, and the devas (AN 6:26). He declared that it is wonderful and marvellous how the Blessed One has discovered these six recollections as the way to freedom for those still trapped in the confines of the world. He describes the six recollections in exactly the same terms that the Buddha himself has used to describe the four foundations of mindfulness. They are the means "for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the passing away of pain and grief, for the arrival at the right method, and for the realization of Nibbana."
On another occasion (AN 6:28) some elder bhikkhus were holding a discussion about the right time to approach "a monk worthy of esteem" (manobhavaniyo bhikkhu). One said he should be approached after he has finished his meal, another said he should he approached in the evening, while still another contended that the early morning was the most fitting time to speak with him. Unable to reach accord, they came to Maha Kaccana with their problem. The elder replied that there were six proper times for approaching a worthy monk. The first five are when the mind is overcome and obsessed by the five mental hindrances — sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse, and doubt — and one cannot find an outlet from them on one”s own. The sixth occasion to approach is when one does not know a suitable object to attend to in order to reach the destruction of the cankers (asavakkhaya).
It was not always with words that the Venerable Maha Kaccana taught, but also by silent example. On one such occasion the Buddha was moved to extol Maha Kaccana in an udana — an inspired utterance — preserved for us in the canonical collection of that name (Ud. 7:8). One evening the Buddha was seated in his cottage at Jeta”s Grove in Savatthi when he saw the Venerable Maha Kaccana nearby "sitting cross-legged, holding his body erect, having mindfulness with regard to the body set up and well established within him." On realizing the significance of this, the Blessed One uttered this inspired utterance:
"He who always has mindfulness
Continually established on the body thus:
”If there had not been, there would not be for me;
There will not be, so there will not be for me,”
If he dwell therein in graded steps
In time he will pass beyond attachment."
In its explanation …
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