Buddhist Stories: “A Certain Monk,” Part 2 of 6, Sept. 28-29, 2015

“What do you mean, Reverend Sirs, by this expression, ‘practice of meditation’? So the monks said to her, ‘We rehearse the 32 constituent parts of the body. And thus obtain a clear conception of the decay and death inherent in the body, great lay disciple.” “She began at once to rehearse the 32 constituent parts of the body, the spare parts of this vehicle, called body, different spare parts, striving thereby to obtain for herself a clear concept of the decay and death inherent in the body. So successful was she that even in advance of those monks who taught her, she attained the Three Paths and the Three Fruits, and by the same paths won the Four Analytical Knowledges and Mundane Super Knowledge.” “And then now she sat and she saw in her vision, what, what… and then she was wanting to know, she asked a question: ‘At what time did my sons attain this state?’ So immediately she became aware of the following, means she knew that, the knowledge came to her that all these monks were still in the bondage of lust, hatred and delusion. So they had not yet by the practice of deep meditation induced insight. They had not got insight yet, still mundane. So they had not yet by the practice of deep meditation induced insight. Then she pondered, ‘Do my sons possess the dispositions requisite for the attainment of Arhatship, or do they not yet?’ She perceived that they do, OK, meaning they had equipment. And then she asked herself again, ‘Do they possess suitable lodgings, or do they not?’ And immediately she had a response coming to her: ‘Yes, they did.’ Then she pondered again, ‘Have they proper companions, or have they not?’ Immediately she perceived that they had. Finally she pondered the question: ‘Do they receive proper food or do they not?’ She perceived the answer: ‘They do not receive proper food.’ So now she realized, with her inner vision and enlightenment, that the monks had not received enough food, not enough nutrition. So then, from that time on, she provided them with various kinds of rice porridge, and with all manner of hard food, and with soft food, with various choice flavors.”