Basket of Conduct 17

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1. The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood
2. The Chapter on an Elephant
3. The Perfection of Ethics (7th)
4. Mātaṅga’s Conduct
5. “Then again when I was
6. a matted-hair ascetic of severe penance,
7. Mātaṅga was my name,
8. I was virtuous and serene.
9. A brahmin and I both lived
10. on a bank of the Ganges.
11. I stayed upstream,
12. the brahmin downstream.
13. Wandering along the riverbank,
14. he saw my hermitage upstream.
15. Then he abused and cursed me,
16. that my head would split in seven.
17. If I were upset with him
18. and if I were not taking care of my ethics,
19. then just with a glance
20. I could have reduced him to ashes.
21. But when he cursed me then,
22. so angry and bitter-hearted,
23. it fell right back on his own head:
24. I freed him from that yoke.
25. I guarded my ethics,
26. not my life.
27. For then I was ethical,
28. because it was solely for awakening.”