Practise What You Preach
VEN. UPANANDA fervently preached to others not to be greedy and to be
content with what they had, even if what they had was not very much. He himself, however, did not practise what
he preached.
Once,
Upananda went to a village monastery and there gave such inspirational
discourses that the people of the village invited him to spend the vassa with
them. However, when he asked them how many robes each monk would be offered a
the end of the vassa and was told only one, he decided he would rather find
somewhere else more suitable. But before he set our to look for another
monastery, he left a pair of his slippers behind.
At the
next monastery, he found out that the bhikkhus would be getting two robes each,
and there he left his staff. At the third, he learned that the bhikkhus usually
received three robes, and there he left his water bottle. Finally he came to a
large and rich monastery. and when he heard that the bhikkhus there would he
offered four robes each, he rubbed his hands together with glee and exclaimed w
hims elf softly, “Ah, this is the place for me! I think I’ll spend my vassa
here!”
When the
three-month period of the vassa had drawn to a dose, Upananda bundled up his
four new robes and went to collect his belongings at each of the monasteries hehad earlier visited. He also claimed his share of robes as if he
had spent the vassa at each one.
He then set out for his own monastery. On the way back, he came upon two young bhikkhus
who were arguing about how to divide between themselves two robes and what
appeared to be a costly blanket. Unable to come up with a settlement of mutual
satisfaction, they were looking for a third party to arbitrate when Upananda
happened to come along. Of course, Upananda was more than happy to help, for he
saw something in it for him too. After pretending to have considered their case
carefully, he awarded each monk a robe, and as for the luxurious blanket, he
took it for himself as payment for his trouble.
The two
young bhikkhus were not satisfied with the way Upananda dealt with their
problem. They went and complained to the Buddha about him. The Buddha then sent
for Upananda and reprimanded him for his behaviour, saying, “If you want to
teach others, you should first teach yourself and do as you preach.”
No comments:
Post a Comment