Buddha's Teaching : Functions of Saddhamma ( I )

1. To cleanse the Mind of its impurities

• Once when the .Blessed Lord was residing at Shravasti, Prasenjit,the king  of the Kosalas, came to the place where he was staying and descending from his chariot, approached the Teacher with the deepest reverence.
• And invited him on the morrow to enter the city and partake of his hospitality, with a view to exhibit to the people the excellence of his person and doctrine, that they might believe in him.
• The Buddha having consented, on the morrow entered the city with all his disciples, and having passed through the four cross streets of the town, he came to the place appointed and sat down.
• After finishing the meal, he began, on the request of the king, to preach 
• in the midst of the four highways, whilst his auditors were very many
• At this time there were two merchants listening to him.
• One of them reflected, " What excellent wisdom on the part of the king to have such doctrines as these publicly preached! How wide their application, how searching their character ! "
•  The other reflected thus, " What folly is this on the part of the king, bringing this man here to preach!
•  "Like the calf that follows the cow, here and there, fastened to a vehicle she draws, by eating as it goes, so is- this Buddha following the king." The two merchants having departed from the city came to an inn where they put up.
• In taking some wine the good merchant was restrained and protected by the four guardian spirits that watch over the world.
•  The other on the contrary was incited by an evil spirit to drink on, till he was overpowered by sleep, and lay down in the road near the inn.
• Early in the morning, the merchants' wagons leaving the place, the drivers not perceiving the man lying in the road, crushed him to death by the wagon wheels.
• The other merchant, having come to a distant country, was selected by the genuflection of a sacred horse to succeed the king ; and he accordingly was appointed to the throne.
• After this, considering the strange turn, events had taken, he returned and invited the Buddha to visit him, and preach to his people.
• On which occasion the World-honoured One declared the reason of the death of the evil-minded merchant, and the prosperity of him who thought wisely, and then added these lines :
•  " The mind is the origin of all this is; the mind is .the master, the mind is the cause.
•  " If in the midst of the mind there are evil thoughts, then the words are evil, the deeds are evil, and the sorrow which results from sin follows that man, as the chariot wheel follows him (or it) who draws it,
•  " The mind is the origin of all that is ; it is the mind that commands, it is the mind that contrives.
•  " If in the mind there are good thoughts, then the words are good and the deeds good, and the happiness which results from such conduct follows that man, as the shadow accompanies the substance."
•  On hearing these words, the king and his ministers, with countless
• others, were converted, and became disciples.