Cp 20 Saṅkhapāla’s Conduct

Text

Cp 20 - Saṅkhapāla’s Conduct
Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato
Source: https://suttacentral.net/cp20/en/sujato
License: CC0-1.0

The Conduct Leading to Buddhahood
The Chapter on an Elephant
The Perfection of Ethics (10th)
Saṅkhapāla’s Conduct
“Then again when I was
Saṅkhapāla, a dragon of great psychic power,
deadly-fanged, lethally venomous,
two-tongued, lord of serpents.
At a crossroad on a highway
crowded with many people,
I resolved on the four factors,
and made my home there.
‘My outer skin and inner, flesh,
sinews and bones:
whoever has use for these,
they are already given, please take them.’
Seeing me, the Bhojans,
those violent and pitiless hunters,
came to me there
with sticks and hammers in their hands.
Having pierced my nose,
tail, and spine,
and fastened me to a pole,
the Bhojans carried me away.
The earth from sea to sea,
with its forests and mountains—
had I wished, right there
I could have burnt it up with a blast from my nose.
Though pierced with stakes,
and stabbed with knives,
I did not get upset with the Bhojans:
this is my perfection of ethics.”