{"id":202,"date":"2025-12-29T06:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/?p=202"},"modified":"2026-01-01T10:21:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T10:21:51","slug":"life-of-the-buddha-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/?p=202","title":{"rendered":"Life of the Buddha 13"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chapter 13: The Brahma’s Entreaty<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

(1)\u00a0Atha kho bhagav\u0101 tasm\u0101 r\u0101j\u0101yatan\u0101 m\u016bl\u0101 u<\/em>\u1e6d\u1e6dhahitv\u0101.<\/em>\u00a0Then the Blessed One, rising from the foot of the Rajayatana tree, went and sat again under the Ajapala Banyan tree. While sitting there, this thought occurred to him: “This Dhamma that I have realized is profound, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful, sublime, beyond the sphere of reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. Beings have accumulated this Dhamma, yet it is a Dhamma that is difficult for them to see, difficult to awaken to. This Dhamma is subtle, exceedingly refined, supremely excellent, and complete without remainder. It is what the wise should teach.” Having thought thus, a sense of hesitation arose in his heart, and he felt no desire to teach the Dhamma to beings, remaining silent and indifferent.<\/p>\n\n

(2)\u00a0Atha kho sahampati brahm\u0101.<\/em>\u00a0Then, Sahampati Brahm\u0101, knowing the thought in the Blessed One’s mind, uttered this cry three times, saying: “O virtuous one, the world is surely heading for ruin and destruction.” The Mah\u0101brahm\u0101s in ten thousand world systems heard this and came to inquire about the matter. Sahampati Brahm\u0101 explained the reason and then led them, flying down to the Teacher’s presence. Upon arriving, he knelt with his right knee on the ground, placed his folded hands, adorned with the ten radiant fingernails, upon his head like a lotus flower. He then looked up at the face of the Blessed One, which shone with the six-colored radiance, and pleaded with him in verse, beginning with “Sant\u012bdha satt\u0101 apparajakkhaj\u0101tik\u0101<\/em>” (“There are beings here with little dust in their eyes”).<\/p>\n\n

(3)\u00a0Atha bhagav\u0101.<\/em>\u00a0Then, the Blessed One, his heart filled with compassion, having heard the Brahma’s plea, spoke these words, “O Brahma, Sahampati Brahma, the Tathagata has considered that the Dhamma is profound, which the Tathagata has realized. Beings who delight in craving cannot make the end of suffering, which is Nibb\u0101na. The law of Dependent Origination (Paticcasamupp\u0101da) with its twelve links is also hard for beings to see. The calming of all formations, the relinquishing of all defilements, the destruction of craving, and the attainment of Nibb\u0101na are also hard for beings to know. If the Tathagata were to teach the Dhamma, beings would not believe the Tathagata’s words. Only weariness and fruitless trouble would befall the Tathagata. For this reason, the Tathagata feels little inclination to teach the Dhamma to beings.<\/p>\n\n

(4)\u00a0Eva<\/em>\u1e43 y\u0101va tatiya<\/em>\u1e43 pi bhagav\u0101.<\/em>\u00a0When Sahampati Brahm\u0101 had thus pleaded for the third time, the Blessed One surveyed the world with his divine eye. He saw beings with little dust of passion, aversion, and delusion in their eyes, and other beings with much dust in their eyes. Having understood this clearly, the Blessed One uttered these words:<\/p>\n\n

Ap\u0101rut\u0101 tesa<\/em>\u1e43 amatassa dv\u0101r\u0101<\/em>
ye sotavanto pamu\u00f1cantu saddha<\/em>\u1e43<\/em>
vihi<\/em>\u1e43sasa\u00f1\u00f1\u012b pagu<\/em>\u1e47a<\/em>\u1e43 na bh\u0101si<\/em>\u1e43<\/em>
dhamma<\/em>\u1e43 pa<\/em>\u1e47\u012bta<\/em>\u1e43 manujesu brahm\u0101ti.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

“O Brahm\u0101, the Tath\u0101gata, perceiving the weariness (of body and speech), has not yet taught the sublime Dhamma, which the Tath\u0101gata has mastered, to humans and devas. (But now) the doors to Nibb\u0101na are open. Let those beings who have receptive ears release their faith (and listen to the Dhamma).”<\/p>\n\n

Sahampati Brahm\u0101, having heard the Buddha’s words granting the opportunity to teach the Dhamma to beings, raised his clasped hands in homage, took his leave, and, leading his retinue of Brahm\u0101s, flew back to the Brahma world.<\/p>\n\n

(End of the Chapter of the Brahma’s Entreaty, Chapter 13)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chapter 13: The Brahma’s Entreaty (1)\u00a0Atha kho bhagav\u0101 tasm\u0101 r\u0101j\u0101yatan\u0101 m\u016bl\u0101 u\u1e6d\u1e6dhahitv\u0101.\u00a0Then the Blessed One, rising from the foot of the Rajayatana tree, went and sat again under the Ajapala…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buddhism","tag-pandit-chhim-sumn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":408,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/408"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatewaytoinsight.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}