Connected Discourses 7.17

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1. Linked Discourses 7.17
2. 2. Lay Followers
3. The Builder
4. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.
5. Now at that time the brahmin Bhāradvāja the Builder was having some building work done in that jungle thicket.
6. He saw the Buddha sitting down cross-legged at the root of a certain sal tree, his body set straight, and mindfulness established in his presence.
7. Seeing this, it occurred to him,
8. “I enjoy having this building work done here in the jungle.
9. I wonder what the ascetic Gotama enjoys having done?”
10. Then Bhāradvāja the Builder went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse:
11. “What kind of works are done by you,
12. a mendicant in the sal jungle?
13. How do you find enjoyment
14. alone in the wilderness, Gotama?”
15. “There’s nothing I need to do in the jungle;
16. my jungle’s cut down at the root, it’s withered away.
17. With jungle cleared, free of thorns,
18. I enjoy solitude in the jungle,
    having given up discontent.”
19. When he had spoken, the brahmin Bhāradvāja the Builder said to the Buddha,
20. “Excellent, worthy Gotama …
21. From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.”