Yasa wearies of his wealth and wanders into the Deer Park; meeting the Buddha, he receives a teaching

The Buddha, together with the five noble disciples, spent the rains retreat at the Deer Park at Isipatana, the place of his first teaching. That was the first rains retreat. At this stage the Buddha did not yet travel around to teach others because it was the rainy season, but a young man named Yasa did come to see him.

Yasa was the son of a rich man in Varanasi. His parents had built three mansions for him, one for each of the seasons [hot, rainy and cool], and in each of the mansions there were a great number of dancing girls to entertain him. One day, at midnight, Yasa awoke and saw the dancing girls sleeping in various ungainly postures (here the story is just the same as for the Bodhisatta on the day he left home for the homeless life) and became wearied of his life.

Yasa ran away from his home in the dead of night, and made for the Deer Park, muttering to himself as he went, "Upaddutam vata upasaggam vata": "Here it is confusing, here it is oppressive!" He was referring to the confusion and oppression he felt inside.

At that time a sound came in response from the edge of the forest: "No upaddutam no upasaggam": ("Here it is not confusing, here there is no obstruction!"). It was the Buddha.

At the time of this exchange it was very late, almost dawn in fact. The Buddha had been pacing up and down in cankamma. Cankamma is pacing up and down, a kind of mild physical exercise for stretching the muscles and overcoming sleepiness.

The Buddha said to Yasa, "Come, come here and sit down. I will teach you."

Yasa approached the Buddha and bowed to his feet, then sat down to one side. The Buddha gave him a teaching, at the completion of which Yasa attained Arahatship, full enlightenment. He asked for admission to the Buddha's order as a monk.

Not long after Yasa had become a monk, a great number of his friends, 54 of them, having heard of his going forth, went to see the Buddha, listened to the teaching and were all, like Yasa, fully enlightened. Thus within the first vassa, or rains retreat, there were altogether 61 Arahats in the world.
 

Copyright © 2002 Mahidol University All rights reserved.
Mahidol University Computing Center, Rama VI Road, Rajathewi, Bangkok 10400, THAILAND Tel. (662) 354-4333