In the fifty-sixth chapter, the first Apadāna is that of the Venerable Yasa, beginning with the verse, “Having entered the great ocean…”
This elder too had accumulated supporting conditions for liberation under previous Buddhas. Throughout many lives he gathered meritorious deeds that served as causes for liberation. During the time of the Buddha Sumedha, he was born as a powerful Nāga king. He invited the Buddha and the community of monks headed by the Buddha to his own mansion and offered a great almsgiving. He clothed the Blessed One with a very valuable set of the three robes and presented each monk with an expensive pair of cloths together with all the requisites of an ascetic.
Through the power of that merit he wandered among gods and humans. During the time of the Buddha Siddhattha, he was born as a merchant’s son and worshipped the Great Bodhi Tree with the seven precious jewels. During the dispensation of the Buddha Kassapa he went forth as a monk and practiced the ascetic life. Thus, continuing to be reborn only in fortunate realms, during the time of our present Buddha he was born in Bārāṇasī as the son of an immensely wealthy merchant.
His mother was the daughter of the merchant who had offered milk-rice to the Bodhisatta before his Enlightenment. The child was named Yasa and was brought up in the utmost luxury and delicacy.
He possessed three palaces: one for the cold season, one for the hot season, and one for the rainy season. During the four months of the rainy season he lived in the rainy-season palace, entertained only by female musicians, never descending to the lower floors. During the cold season he resided in the winter palace, whose windows and doors were arranged to keep out the cold winds. During the hot season he stayed in the summer palace, furnished with many windows and lattices for cooling breezes.
His body was so delicate that he never sat directly upon the ground. Cushions and bedding filled with silk-cotton and other soft materials were spread for him, and upon these he reclined and rested. Thus, like a young deva in heaven, surrounded and served by the five kinds of sensual pleasures, he lived in complete luxury.
One night he awoke earlier than usual. The attendants had also fallen asleep. Oil lamps were still burning throughout the night. Rising before everyone else, Yasa looked around and saw his attendants sleeping in various postures. One woman held a lute under her arm, another had a drum resting on her neck, another embraced a musical instrument. Some lay with disheveled hair, some drooling, some muttering incoherently in their sleep.
Seeing them in that condition, they appeared to him like corpses scattered in a charnel ground. At that moment the danger and unsatisfactoriness of sensual pleasures became evident to him. Disenchantment arose and his mind turned away from worldly life.
Then Yasa uttered the exclamation:
“Alas, what distress! Alas, what oppression!”
Putting on his golden sandals, he approached the doorway of his mansion. The non-human beings (deities) opened the door for him, thinking:
“Let no obstacle arise for Yasa, the merchant’s son, in going forth from the household life into homelessness.”
He then went to the city gate. Again the non-human beings opened it for him with the same thought:
“Let no obstacle arise for Yasa in leaving the household life and becoming a homeless renunciant.”
Thereupon Yasa proceeded toward the Deer Park at Isipatana.
At that time the Blessed One had risen in the last watch of the night and was walking meditation in the open air. The Buddha saw Yasa approaching from a distance. Seeing him, the Blessed One came down from the walking path and sat upon the prepared seat.
When Yasa drew near, he again exclaimed:
“Alas, what distress! Alas, what oppression!”
Then the Blessed One said to him:
“Here, Yasa, there is no distress. Here there is no oppression. Come, Yasa, sit down. I shall teach you the Dhamma.”
Hearing this, Yasa became joyful and uplifted:
“So this is a place free from distress and oppression!”
He removed his golden sandals, approached the Blessed One, paid homage, and sat respectfully to one side.
To Yasa, seated there, the Blessed One gave a gradual discourse (anupubbikathā). He spoke about generosity, virtue, and heavenly rebirth. He explained the danger, degradation, and defilement in sensual pleasures, and the benefits of renunciation.
When the Blessed One knew that Yasa’s mind had become ready, softened, free from hindrances, uplifted, and full of confidence, he taught the unique teaching of the Buddhas:
- suffering (dukkha),
- its origin (samudaya),
- its cessation (nirodha),
- and the path (magga).
Just as a clean cloth free from stains readily absorbs dye, so too, while seated there itself, Yasa attained the Dhamma-eye, stainless and free from dust:
“Whatever is subject to arising is all subject to cessation.”
Thus Yasa became a stream-enterer (sotāpanna) while listening to the Buddha’s discourse.
Then Yasa’s mother went up to the palace and, not seeing Yasa, approached the merchant-householder, his father. Having approached him, she said:
“Householder, your son Yasa cannot be found.”
Then the merchant-householder sent horsemen in all four directions to search, while he himself went toward the Deer Park at Isipatana.
As he went, he saw the footprints of Yasa’s golden sandals and followed them. The Blessed One saw the merchant approaching from afar and thought:
“What if I were to exercise such a supernormal power that, although seated here, the merchant-householder would not see Yasa sitting here?”
So the Blessed One exercised such a supernormal power.
The merchant approached the Blessed One and asked:
“Venerable Sir, has the Blessed One seen my son Yasa?”
The Blessed One replied:
“Then sit down, householder. Perhaps, while sitting here, you may see Yasa sitting here.”
Thinking,
“While sitting here I shall indeed see Yasa,”
the merchant became joyful and delighted. He paid homage to the Blessed One and sat down to one side.
To the merchant seated there, the Blessed One gave the gradual discourse: a talk on generosity, virtue, heaven, the danger and degradation of sensual pleasures, and the benefits of renunciation. When the Blessed One saw that his mind was ready, he taught the higher Dhamma.
As a result, the merchant attained the Dhamma and became established in unwavering confidence in the Buddha’s Dispensation. Then he said:
“Excellent, Bhante! Excellent, Bhante!
Just as one might set upright what had been overturned, reveal what had been hidden, show the way to one who was lost, or bring a lamp into the darkness so that those with eyes could see forms, even so has the Blessed One made the Dhamma clear in many ways.
I go for refuge to the Blessed One, to the Dhamma, and to the Bhikkhu Saṅgha.
May the Blessed One remember me as a lay follower who from this day forth has gone for refuge for life.”
He thus became the first lay disciple in the world to take refuge by the threefold formula (“I go for refuge to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha”).
While the Dhamma was being taught to Yasa’s father, Yasa himself was contemplating the truth that he had seen and realized. By not clinging to anything, his mind became liberated from the taints (āsavas).
Then the Blessed One thought:
“While Yasa’s father was listening to the Dhamma, Yasa’s mind has become liberated from the taints through non-clinging. Yasa is no longer capable of returning to a lower state and enjoying sensual pleasures as he formerly did as a householder. What if I now withdrew that supernormal power?”
The Blessed One then withdrew the supernormal power.
Immediately the merchant saw Yasa sitting there and said:
“Dear Yasa, your mother is overwhelmed with grief and lamentation. Give life to your mother.”
Yasa then looked toward the Blessed One.
The Blessed One asked the merchant:
“What do you think, householder? If someone has seen and realized the Dhamma through the knowledge and vision of a trainee disciple, as you have, and while contemplating what has been seen and known, his mind becomes liberated from the taints through non-clinging—would such a person be capable of returning to a lower state and enjoying sensual pleasures as before?”
The merchant replied:
“Certainly not, Bhante.”
The Blessed One said:
“Just so, householder. Yasa has seen and realized the Dhamma through the knowledge and vision of a trainee disciple. While contemplating what he has seen and known, his mind has become liberated from the taints through non-clinging. Therefore Yasa is incapable of returning to sensual pleasures as he formerly did as a householder.”
Then the merchant exclaimed:
“Fortunate indeed is Yasa! Well gained indeed is Yasa’s attainment, since his mind has been liberated from the taints through non-clinging.
May the Blessed One consent to receive tomorrow’s meal from me, together with Yasa following behind as a monk.”
The Blessed One consented by remaining silent.
Understanding the acceptance, the merchant rose from his seat, paid homage to the Blessed One, circumambulated him respectfully, and departed.
Not long after the merchant had left, Yasa said to the Blessed One:
“Bhante, may I receive the going forth in the Blessed One’s presence? May I receive full ordination?”
The Blessed One replied:
“Come, monk.
The Dhamma is well proclaimed. Live the holy life for the complete ending of suffering.”
That very utterance served as Venerable Yasa’s ordination.
Commentary on the Apadāna Verse
Having become an arahant and filled with joy, he recounted his former deeds and began his Apadāna with the words:
“Having entered the great ocean…”
“Great ocean” (mahāsamudda) means the vast ocean. It is called samudda because it swells, surges, roars, and is agitated.
“Having entered” (oggayha) means having plunged into it and gone within its depths.
“My mansion was well constructed” means:
A bhavana is a dwelling where beings live and reside. His mansion, palace, or celestial residence had been beautifully built, surrounded by five ramparts and lofty structures, splendidly fashioned by his own power.
“A well-made lotus pond” refers to a large pond furnished with fish, turtles, flowers, sandy banks, bathing places, and sweet water.
“Resounding with cakravāka birds” means that the pond echoed with the cries of ruddy geese, swans, and other birds.
The remaining descriptions of rivers, forests, animals, birds, and the invitation extended to the Buddha Sumedha, together with the sequence of giving, are said by the commentator to be self-explanatory.
“Receiver of the World’s Offerings”
The phrase:
Lokāhutipaṭiggaha
means:
“The Receiver of the offerings of the world.”
The world of sensual, form, and formless realms offers worship and honor to him, and he receives those offerings. Thus it refers to the Blessed One Sumedha.
The remainder, concerning the Buddha’s prediction and the attainment of arahantship, is said to be easy to understand.
Thus ends the commentary on the Apadāna of Venerable Yasa.