The Discourse about the Elders (UD1.5)

Thus I heard: At one time the Gracious One was dwelling near Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Wood, at Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then at that time venerable Sāriputta, venerable Mahāmoggallāna, venerable Mahākassapa, venerable Mahākaccāyana, venerable Mahākoṭṭhita, venerable Mahākappina, venerable Mahācunda, venerable Anuruddha, venerable Revata, and venerable Nanda went to the Gracious One.

The Gracious One saw those venerable ones coming while still far away, and having seen them, he addressed the monks saying: “These brāhmaṇas are coming, monks; these brāhmaṇas are coming, monks.”

After that was said, a certain monk who was a brāhmaṇa by birth, said to the Gracious One: “To what extent, dear Gotama, is one a brāhmaṇa? And again what things make one a brāhmaṇa?”

Then the Gracious One, having understood the significance of it, on that occasion uttered this exalted utterance:

“Those who, having removed bad things, live always mindful,
The Buddhas who have destroyed the fetters,
truly they are brāhmaṇas in the world.”

Translated by Bhikkhu Ānandajoti from the Buddha Jayanthi Tripitaka text. Version 2.2, revised February 2008.

The text and translation, together with detailed notes and discussions, may be found in multiple formats on the translator’s website, Ancient Buddhist Texts.

Used by kind permission of Bhikkhu Ānandajoti.

The original translation was released under the following licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.