Unexpected Freedom

A Question of Identityfind unattractive, or they may not have washed their robes orsomething. And to them, according to their particularconditioning that’s perfectly acceptable. Or they may evenhave a rather grubby sense of humour. I have known somepeople who were pretty much like arahants and they used toenjoy rather coarse jokes. You may not find that agreeable,you might say, ‘That person can’t be an arahant, he’s toovulgar to be an arahant.’But the Buddha said that you couldn’t tell an arahant bylooking at the outside. The outside’s not just the complexionof their skin or their bodily features; it’s everything that youcan perceive from the outside, including what we might callpersonality. You have to be an arahant to know an arahant.There are several stories in the scriptures whichundermine some of the assumptions people might haveabout how an enlightened being would appear. One is fromthe sutta called ‘Lakuntaka Bhaddiya’ from the SamyuttaNikaya. In this sutta the Buddha mentions a monk who iscalled Bhaddiya who he says is ugly, unpleasing and evendespised. Yet this same monk ‘has arrived at and fullyrealised that uttermost goal of the holy life.’Then Dhammapada verse 408 says: ‘Those who speaktruth and give gentle encouragement, contending with noone,these do I call great beings.’ It is explained in thecommentaries that this verse was uttered by the Buddha inreference to incidents involving an elder monk called Vaccha,who was in the habit of addressing everyone in a patronising,even abusive, manner. He called people ‘wretched’ and ‘vile’,which of course wasn’t what they had come to expect from aBuddhist monk. With their feelings hurt, they went to seethe Buddha who, on hearing their complaint, looked into themind of Bhikkhu Vaccha. The Buddha saw that this monk’sheart was completely free from any intention to cause harm.155