Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
21. Bhikkhu Saṃyutta
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
Part II.
The Book of Causation Nidāna-Vagga
21. Connected Discourses with Bhikkhus
Sutta 6
Bhaddi or Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya Suttaṃ
Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Copyright Bhikkhu Bodhi 2000, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)
This selection from The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Saṃyutta Nikāya by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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[1][pts][niza][than] At Sāvatthī.
Then the Venerable Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya approached the Blessed One.
The Blessed One saw him coming in the distance and addressed the bhikkhus thus:
"Bhikkhus, do you see that bhikkhu coming, ugly, unsightly, deformed, despised among the bhikkhus?"
"Yes, venerable sir."
"That bhikkhu is of great spiritual power and might.
It is not easy to find an attainment which that bhikkhu has not already attained.
And he is one who, by realizing it for himself with direct knowledge, in this very life enters and dwells in that unsurpassed goal of the holy life for the sake of which clansmen rightly go forth from the household life into homelessness."
This is what the Blessed One said ... [who] further said this:
"Geese, herons, and peacocks,
Elephants, and spotted deer,
All are frightened of the lion
Regardless of their bodies' size.
"In the same way among human beings
The small one endowed with wisdom —
He is the one that is truly great,
Not the fool with a well-built body."
