Buddhism · Sutta Pitaka · Linked Discourses (Saṁyutta)

SN 21.6

With Bhaddiya the Dwarf · Lakuṇḍakabhaddiyasutta

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At Sāvatthī. Then Venerable Bhaddiya the Dwarf went to the Buddha. The Buddha saw him coming off in the distance, and addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants, do you see this monk coming—ugly, unsightly, deformed, and despised by the mendicants?” “Yes, sir.” “That mendicant is very mighty and powerful. It’s not easy to find an attainment that he has not already attained. And he has realized the supreme culmination of the spiritual path in this very life. He lives having achieved with his own insight the goal for which gentlemen rightly go forth from the lay life to homelessness.” That is what the Buddha said. Then the Holy One, the Teacher, went on to say:

Sāvatthiyaṁ viharati. Atha kho āyasmā lakuṇḍakabhaddiyo yena bhagavā tenupasaṅkami. Addasā kho bhagavā āyasmantaṁ lakuṇḍakabhaddiyaṁ dūratova āgacchantaṁ. Disvāna bhikkhū āmantesi: “passatha no tumhe, bhikkhave, etaṁ bhikkhuṁ āgacchantaṁ dubbaṇṇaṁ duddasikaṁ okoṭimakaṁ bhikkhūnaṁ paribhūtarūpan”ti? “Evaṁ, bhante”. “Eso kho, bhikkhave, bhikkhu mahiddhiko mahānubhāvo, na ca sā samāpatti sulabharūpā yā tena bhikkhunā asamāpannapubbā. Yassa catthāya kulaputtā sammadeva agārasmā anagāriyaṁ pabbajanti, tadanuttaraṁ brahmacariyapariyosānaṁ diṭṭheva dhamme sayaṁ abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja viharatī”ti. Idamavoca bhagavā …pe… satthā:

“Geese, herons, and peacocks, elephants and spotted deer— though their bodies are not equal, they all fear the lion.

“Haṁsā koñcā mayūrā ca, hatthayo pasadā migā; Sabbe sīhassa bhāyanti, natthi kāyasmiṁ tulyatā.

So it is for humans— if a little person is wise, they’re the truly great one, not the fool with a good body.”

Evameva manussesu, daharo cepi paññavā; So hi tattha mahā hoti, neva bālo sarīravā”ti. Chaṭṭhaṁ.