Part 4 – Sayings of sacred Arahant monks:
- “We live in the great forest. We live by going for begging alms. We
are happy with whatever the begging-bowl gets. The mind is
concentrated on the inner life. We are the ones who destroy the army
of Mara.” - “We live in the great forest. We live by going for begging alms. We
are happy with whatever the begging-bowl gets. We are the ones who
destroy the army of Mara. Like an elephant king destroys a house
made of reeds.” - “We sit in the shades of trees and meditate all the time. We are
happy with whatever the begging-bowl gets. The mind is concentrated
on the spiritual life. We are the ones who destroy the army of evil.” - “Hey! Shame on the woman who has a room made of bones, the
one who has a body sewed with flesh and veins, the one who has a
body full of filth and stinks! And staying like that thinking of other
people’s bodies as ‘mine, mine’!” (at the time, a whore tried to charm
the rishi) - “Hey! The one who looks like a bag full of excrement, the one who
has a body covered by skin, the one who has two meat balls on the
chest, the one who looks like a goblin, there are nine gates in your
body where excrements always spill.” - “Dirt flows from nine gates in your body. That body very stinks. Your
body is the biggest obstacle to the Nirvana. The monk who wants a
clean life should get rid of that cesspool from a far away distance.” - “If anyone else knows what I know about this filthy body, he will
chase this woman away as if she were a stinking cesspool that
overflows due to the rain.” - (by that woman) “Blessed sage, what you have said, o great heroic
sage, what you have said are true! Even so, some people cling to a
woman’s body like old bulls sinking into a muddy swamp.” - (by the sage Moggallana) “If anyone wants to paint this space in
yellow or any other colour; it is a great inconvenience to him.” - “My mind is like the space. The mind is concentrated in the
spiritual life. Foolish woman! Do not come up against me and get
destroyed as a locust jumps into a great fire.” - “This body is made of bones. Foolish people think differently about
this body that gets diseased. They decorate this body with ornaments.
But should look at the real condition of this body. There is nothing in
this body that can keep according to the wish.” - “Although adorned with pearls and jewels, should look at the real
nature of this body that is with a skeleton wrapped by a skin.
Garments make the body looks good.” - “The hunter had set up a trap. However, the deer did not fall into
the trap. When the hunter cries, we run after eating the food.” - “The deer trap was broken. The deer did not fall into the trap.
When the hunter is in distress, we run away after eating the food.” - “Truly things that are formed are impermanent. They have an
emerging and disappearing nature. Those things that get formed are
being originated and deteriorated. Pacifying this nature is the
pleasure.” - “Should look at these five groups of clingings as one looks at
something of others. Should not look like your own things. Those
people can understand this very subtle nature like skilled archers
pierce the body hair of a horse in the darkness by the light of a
thunderbolt.” - “Like a man who was struck by a weapon and anxious to be healed,
and as a man who has a burning head is anxious to extinguish it; a
monk must strive to awake the sanity and eliminate the lust.” - “A monk should strive to arise mindfulness and eradicate the
desire for existence. Just as a person who was struck by a weapon is
anxious to be healed and as a person who is burnt on the head is
anxious to extinguish it.” - “I was engaged in this great work by the Lord Buddha who has a
developed mind and who bears the last body. So I shook the
Purvaarama monastery by my thumb using psychic powers.” - “Realizing the extinction of existence element and getting freed
from these defilements is not something that can be done with a little
effort. It is not something that can be done with a little courage.” - “But this young monk is a magnificent man. He was able to defeat
the army of Mara and carry the last body.” - “Lights of lightning strikes fall on the slope between the ‘Vebhara’
mountain and the ‘Pandava’ mountain. That monk meditates in a cave
on that mountain. That monk has an unwavering mind and unique
qualities. A son of the Lord Buddha.” - “He is calm. And restrained. A sage who lives in a distant forest.
Someone who has become the legacy of the great Buddha. One who is
worshiped by Brahmas too.” - “Blessed Brahmin, worship the sage great Kashyapa, a legacy of the
supreme Lord Buddha, who dwells in the forest, who is sublime and
sinless.” (at a time when a brahmin tried to hurt the sage Kashyapa) - “If a person is born as a Vedic Brahmin who came to the end of
Vedic lore of the Brahmin caste in the human world for a hundred
years,” - “If one worships that Brahmin who has gone to the other side of
Vedic lore; that worship is not worth even one-sixteenth of the
worship paid to the rishi great Kashyapa.” - “That monk enters into the eight emancipations in the morning
and then ascends and descends in trances. Thereafter only he goes to
the village for alms round. - “Blessed Brahmin, do not bother such a monk. Do not destroy
yourself. Clear the mind about that Arahant sage who has an
unwavering mind. Immediately join hands and worship. Do not cleave
your own head!” (referring to karma) - “That person has taken forward the rebirth itself only. He does not
see the Dharma. He is going on a circular way. He is going on a wrong
journey.” (about fake ascetics) - “He has embraced the formations like a worm who embraced
excrement. If an ascetic is greedy for profits and hospitalities; he has to
travel an empty journey.” - “But look at that coming sage Saaripuththa. What a beautiful
person. He has developed both concentration meditations and wisdom
meditations to the end and has attained freedom from both sides.” - “Look at that coming sage Saaripuththa. There is no impure
defilements in him. All bonds have been broken. Has acquired the
three sciences. The army of Mara was defeated. That is why he has
become a great field of merits suitable for receiving human adores and
sacrifices.” - “There are about ten thousand gods who have come here, they all
have supernatural powers and are glorious. Also, all the brahmas in the
world of the plane of Brahma ministers have come. They all are with
bonded hands worshiping the rishi Moggallana.” - “Great man, worship you! Supreme man, worship you! You have
no sins. O lord who has no sorrows, you truly deserve to accept the
gifts and worships of the world.” - “Gods and humans honour that monk. He was born into this world
that is with aging and death. Eventually freed from that filthy world of
aging and death; he now lives like a white lotus flower in a muddy swamp that does not touch the mud below. Stays without any
attachment to anyone.” - “That monk can know a thousand galaxies in an instant. One who is
equal to the great Brahma. He is also endowed with magnificent
supernatural powers. Also, he has the distinctive intelligence of seeing
the rebirths of any other being. He even sees gods when at the
appropriate times also.” - “If a person crossed the reincarnation wheel with wisdom, virtue,
and concentration; he is like rishi Saaripuththa. Saaripuththa thero is
foremost of these three facts.” - “I can create one trillion various bodies that act in an instant. I can
manipulate supernatural powers in any method I want. These psychic
powers are perfectly fascinated by me.” - “That monk is in the organization of the greatest Rishi who is free
from the desire, who went to the end of concentration and wisdom.
That wise monk of the Moggallana tribe, with a concentrated mind;
smashed the sins like an elephant king breaking a weak creeper.” - “I too associated with the Master with reverence. The advice of the
Lord Buddha was completed. The weight of the cankers was put aside.
The cords of existence were broken from the roots.” - “I left the house and became an ascetic with a noble idea. I
achieved the noble idea of being freed from all the bonds.” - “Hey Mara, a long time ago there was a Mara called ‘Dusee’. So
that Mara persecuted the Kakushanda Omniscient Buddha and a main
disciple of him called ‘Vidura’. In the end, he was born into a hell world
and suffered endlessly. This is how it happened.” (at a time when the
Mara god prince came) - “This is how that celestial Mara named Dusee who persecuted the
Kakushanda Buddha and a main disciple Vidura were born in a hell
world and suffered endlessly. That hell world being always gets struck
with a hundred iron darts. The excruciating pain that comes from
hundred darts is different in each attack.” - “Now the person who knows the consequences of that karma is a
disciple monk of the (Gautama) Omniscient Buddha. Hey Mara, are you
going to persecute such a monk and make yourself ruin?” - “In the middle of the ocean there exist very beautiful divine planes
that last a very long time. They are like shining gems. Unimaginably
beautiful goddesses dance in those ethereal celestial mansions, shining
in different colours.” - “Now the person who knows that fact is a disciple monk of the
Lord Buddha. Hey, are you going to persecute such a monk and make
yourself ruin?” - “It was the Omniscient Buddha who ordered me. Then, while
monks were watching; I shook the Purvaarama monastery by my
thumb using paranormal powers.” - “Now the person who knows that fact is a student monk of the
Gautama Buddha. Hey celestial Mara, are you going to persecute such
a monk and make yourself ruin?” - “The Vayijayantha astral building of the god king Shakra was
shocked by the thumb and terrorized the citizens of Thavathinsa god
world also. I am the rishi who did that work.” - “Thereafter asked from the god king Shakra at Vayijayantha Palace
'friend, do you know how to get rid of greed?’ God king told the
Dharma correctly to the rishi just as he had heard. I am that ascetic.” - “There is a heavenly hall called Sudharmaa in the 33 god kings
world. One day the great Brahma king was also present in that hall. A
monk asked the Great Brahma ‘dear brahma, you used to have a
superstitious vision. Do you still have that vision?’ Also, that monk told
to him in his brahma world ‘look at the light of the Lord Buddha
moving in the brahma world with his students’. I am that monk.” - “Then the great Brahma said to that monk. ‘O lord, I don’t have
that vision now’.” - “He further said ’How can I say today, that it is eternal this brahma
world! Also, I now see the light of the Lord Buddha who is traveling in
the brahma world with his disciples.’” - “Now the person who knows that fact is a disciple monk of the
Gautama Buddha. Hey celestial Mara, are you going to persecute such
a monk and make yourself sad?” - “An ascetic touched the top of the great Meru invisible mountain
with the power of emancipations and trances. Also, an ascetic touched
the sleeping area of the human beings in the human world called East
Videha. I am the ascetic who did those things.” (warning the Mara that
the Rishi is more powerful than the Mara) - “Now the person who knows that fact is a disciple monk of the
Omniscient Buddha. Hey Mara, are you going to persecute such a
monk and make yourself ruin?” - “Fire does not think ‘I will burn this fool’. But the stupid one comes
himself into the fire and gets burned in the fire.” - “Hey Mara, you too are going to clash with an Arahant monk. Are
you trying to burn like a fool in a fire?” - “Hey celestial Mara, at that time Dusee Mara also persecuted an
Omniscient Buddha and accumulated sins. Do you think sinful karma
will not give its effect to you?” - “Hey Mara, because of your these actions you are collecting many
sins that give its effect for a very long time. Hey Mara, so do not love
to do sins in anger of the Lord Buddha and the ascetics!” - “It was in the Bhesakala forest that the Moggallana monk
threatened the divine prince Mara in that manner. Then Mara’s mind
became so sad. Becoming very upset, instantly at that moment at that
place; he vanished.” These are the stanzas uttered by The Reverend
Arahant Monk Great Moggallana. 2500 years ago. (Note: These stanzas
were uttered by him on various occasions of his life. Some stanzas
were uttered when a whore tried to charm her. Later that whore
became a Buddhist nun. Some stanzas were uttered by him when the
divine prince Mara by using Mara’s supernatural powers tried to attack
him when he was in the Bhesakala forest. He entered into the stomach
of the reverend Arahant Monk Great Moggallana causing him a terrible
pain. Then he saw the attack of divine prince Mara by using the divine
eye. Then when he recognized the divine prince Mara, he came out
from his stomach and stood before the door of the small forest hut
invisibly. Nevertheless, by seeing him using the divine eye the reverend
Arahant Monk Great Moggallana threatened him. This monk died in
the peace before his master.)
(This information is from the Practical Meditation Guide By A Forest Monk book.)