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Udana » Context of this sutta
- Udana II.1
- Muccalinda Sutta
- About Muccalinda
- For free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma
I have heard that on one occasion, when the Blessed One was newly Awakened -- staying
at Uruvela by the banks of the Nerañjara River in the shade of
the Muccalinda tree -- he sat for seven days in one session, sensitive to the bliss of
release. Now at that time a great, out-of-season storm-cloud rose up, with seven days of
rainy weather, cold winds, and intense darkness. Then Muccalinda
the naga king, leaving his realm and encircling the Blessed One's body seven times with
his coils, stood with his great hood spread over the Blessed One, thinking: "Don't
let the Blessed One be disturbed by cold. Don't let the Blessed One be disturbed by heat.
Don't let the Blessed One be disturbed by the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and
creeping things." Then at the end of the seven days the Blessed One emerged from that
concentration. Muccalinda the naga king, realizing that the sky had cleared and the storm
clouds had left, and unraveled his coils from the body of the Blessed One, changed his
appearance and, assuming the form of a youth, stood in front of the Blessed One with hands
before his heart in homage.
Then, on realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion
exclaimed:
Blissful is solitude for one who's content,
who has heard the Dhamma,
who sees.
Blissful is non-affliction with regard for the world,
restraint for living beings.
Blissful is dispassion with regard for the world,
the overcoming of sensual pleasures.
But the subduing of the conceit "I am" --
That is truly
the ultimate bliss.