Ja 252 Tilamuṭṭhijātaka
The Birth Story about the Fistful of Sesame Seeds (3s)
In the present one monk is always getting angry, even at the slightest annoyance. The Buddha tells a story from the past about how a student vowed vengeance on his teacher for reprimanding him, but when the time came, was persuaded it had been for his own good.
The Bodhisatta = the teacher (ācariya),
the angry monk = the king (of Benares) (rājā).
Keywords: Anger, Restraint.
“Now I bethink me.” This story the Teacher told in Jetavana, about a passionate man. We learn that there was a monk who was full of bitterness. No matter how little was said to him, he fell into a rage and spoke roughly; showing wrath, hatred, and mistrust.
In the Dhamma Hall the monks discussed the matter. “Friend, how angry and bitter is monk So-and-so! He goes snapping about for all the world like salt in the fire. Though he has adopted this peaceful dispensation, yet he cannot even restrain his anger.” The Teacher heard this and sent a monk to fetch the man in question. “Are you really as passionate as they say?” he asked. The man said he was. Then the Teacher added, “This is not the first time, monks, that this man has been passionate. He was just the same before,” and he told them a story.
In the past, Brahmadatta the king of Benares had a son named prince Brahmadatta. Now kings of former times, though there might be a famous teacher living in their own city, often used to send their sons to foreign countries afar off to complete their education, that by this means they might learn to quell their pride and highmindedness, and endure heat or cold, and be made acquainted with the ways of the world. So did this king. Calling his boy to him – now the lad was sixteen years old – he gave him one-soled sandals, a sunshade of leaves, and a thousand pieces of money, with these words: “My son, get you to Taxila, and study there.”
The boy obeyed. He bade his parents farewell, and in due course arrived at Taxila. There he enquired for the teacher’s dwelling, and reached it at the time when the teacher had finished his lecture, and
“Where have you come from?” he asked. “From Benares.”
“Whose son are you?” “I am the son of the king of Benares.”
“What brings you here?” “I came to learn,” replied the lad.
“Well, have you brought a teacher’s fee? Or do you wish to attend on me in return for teaching you?”
“I have brought a fee with me,” and with this he laid at the teacher’s feet his purse of a thousand pieces.
The resident pupils attend on their teacher by day, and at night they learn of him: but they who bring a fee are treated like the eldest sons in his house, and thus they learn. And this teacher, like the rest, gave schooling to the prince on every light and lucky day. There are four nakkhattas called laku, ‘light’; there is another reading subhanakkhattena, ‘every fair day’. The meaning is by no means clear. [Subhanakkhatta means ‘an auspicious occasion’.] Thus the young prince was taught.
Now one day, he went to bathe along with his teacher. There was an old woman, who had prepared some white seeds, and strewed them out before her: there she sat, watching them. The youth looked upon these white seeds, and desired to eat; he picked up a handful, and ate them. “That fellow must be hungry,” thought she; but she said nothing, and sat silent.
Next day the same thing happened at the same time. Again the woman said nothing to him.
On the third day, he did it again; then the old dame cried out, saying: “The great Teacher is letting his pupils rob me!” and uplifting her arms she raised a lamentation.
The Teacher turned back.
“Teacher, I have been parching some seeds, and your pupil took a handful and ate them! This he has done today, he did it yesterday, and he did it the day before! Surely he will eat me out of house and home!”
“Don’t cry, mother: I will see that you are paid.”
“Oh, I want no payment, master: only teach your pupil not to do it again.”
“See here, then, mother,” said he; and he caused two lads to take the
The prince was very angry with his teacher. With a bloodshot glare, he eyed him from his head to foot. The teacher observed how angry he was, and how he eyed him.
The youth applied himself to his work, and finished his courses. But the offence he hid away in his heart, and determined to murder his teacher. When the time came for him to go away, he said to him, “O my Teacher, when I receive the kingdom of Benares, I will send for you. Then come to me, I pray.” And so he exacted a promise most affectionately.
He returned to Benares, and visited his parents, and showed proof of what he had learned. Said the king, “I have lived to see my son again, and while I yet live, I will see the magnificence of his rule.” So he made his son king in his stead.
When the prince enjoyed the splendour of royalty, he remembered his grudge, and anger rose within him. “I will be the death of that fellow!” he thought, and sent off a messenger to fetch his teacher.
“I shall never be able to appease him while he is young,” thought the teacher; so he did not come. But when the prince’s time of rule was half over, he thought he could appease him then; and he came, and stood at the king’s door, and sent to say that the teacher from Taxila had arrived. The king was glad, and caused the brahmin to be led in. Then his anger rose, and his eyes grew bloodshot. He beckoned to those about him. “Hah, the place which my teacher struck still hurts me today! He has come here with death written upon his forehead,
1. Ajjāpi me taṁ manasi, yaṁ maṁ tvaṁ tilamuṭṭhiyā,
Bāhāya maṁ gahetvāna laṭṭhiyā anutāḷayi.
Even today it’s in my mind, what you did to me for a handful of sesame, taking me by the arm you beat me with a stick.
2. Nanu jīvite na ramasi, yenāsi brāhmaṇāgato,
Yaṁ maṁ bāhā gahetvāna, tikkhattuṁ anutāḷayī ti.
Do you not take delight in life, brahmin, that you come by here, having taken ahold of my arms, three times you did batter me.
Thus he threatened him with death. As he heard, the teacher uttered the third verse:
3. Ariyo anariyaṁ kubbantaṁ, yo daṇḍena nisedhati,
Sāsanaṁ taṁ, na taṁ veraṁ, iti naṁ paṇḍitā vidū ti.
The noble one doing the ignoble, he who censors with a stick, this is right instruction, not hatred, so the wise do understand.
“And so, great king, understand this yourself. Know that this is no just cause for anger. Indeed, if you had not been taught this lesson by me, you would have gone on taking cakes and sweets, fruit, and the like, until you became covetous through these acts of theft; then by degrees you would have been lured on to house-breaking, highway robbery, and murder about the villages; the end would have been, that you would have been taken red-handed and haled before the king for a public enemy and a robber; and you would have come in fear of public punishment, when the king should say, ‘Take this man, and punish him according to his crimes.’ Whence could have come all this prosperity which you now enjoy? Is it not through me that you have attained to such magnificence?”
Thus did his teacher talk over the king.
At once the king recognised the goodness of his teacher, and said to him, “All my power I give to you, my teacher! Receive the kingdom!” But the other refused, saying: “No, my lord king; I have no wish for the kingdom.”
And the king sent to Taxila for the teacher’s wife and family; he gave them great power, and made him the royal priest; he treated him like a father, and obeyed his admonitions; and after bestowing gifts and doing good deeds he became destined for paradise.
When the Teacher had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths; at the conclusion of the Truths the passionate monk attained the Fruit of the Third Path, and many others entered on the First, or Second, or Third Paths. “At that time the passionate monk was the king; but the Teacher was I myself.”