Iti 89 · uttaka 89
This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, conquered by three forms of false Dhamma–his mind overwhelmed–Devadatta1 is incurably doomed to deprivation, to hell, for an eon. Which three? Conquered by evil desires–his mind overwhelmed–Devadatta is incurably doomed to deprivation, to hell, for the duration of an eon. Conquered by friendship with evil people–his mind overwhelmed–Devadatta is incurably doomed to deprivation, to hell, for the duration of an eon. And, there being something further to be done, he nevertheless stopped halfway with a lower modicum of distinctive attainment. Conquered by these three forms of false Dhamma–his mind overwhelmed–Devadatta is incurably doomed to deprivation, to hell, for an eon.”
May no one in the world
ever be reborn
with evil desire.
Know that
through that
evil desire,
his destination’s that
of all who have evil desires.
I’ve heard how Devadatta,
–regarded as wise, composed,
incandescent with honor–
in the thrall of heedlessness
assaulted the Tathāgata
and fell to the four-gated, fearful place:
Avīci, unmitigated hell.
Whoever plots against
one free of corruption
who’s done no evil deed:
that evil touches him himself,
corrupted in mind,
disrespectful.
Whoever might think
of polluting the ocean
with a pot of poison,
couldn’t succeed,
for the mass of water is great.
So it is
when anyone attacks with abuse
the Tathāgata
–rightly-gone,
of peaceful mind–
for abuse doesn’t grow on him.
A wise person should make friends,
should associate,
with a person like him–
whose path a monk can pursue
and reach the ending
of suffering & stress.
Note
1. Devadatta, one of the Buddha’s cousins, plotted to take over the Saṅgha, and ended up causing a schism. His story is told in Cv VII. See also §18. His “lower modicum of distinctive attainment“ was his mastery of psychic powers.
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).
