Vakajātaka

The Wolf

“The wolf who takes”—This story the Master told at Jetavana, about old friendship. The circumstances were the same in detail as in the Vinaya; this is an abstract of them. The reverend Upasena, a two-years’ man, visited the Master along with a first year’s man who lived in the same monastery; the Master rebuked him, and he retired. Having acquired spiritual insight, and attained to sainthood, having got contentment and kindred virtues, having undertaken the Thirteen Practices of a Recluse, and taught them to his fellows, while the Blessed One was secluded for three months, he with his brethren, having accepted the blame first given for wrong speech and nonconformity, received in the second instance approval, in the words, “Henceforth, let any brothers visit me when they will, provided they follow the Thirteen Practices of a Recluse.” Thus encouraged, he returned and told it to the Brethren. After that, the brothers followed these practices before coming to visit the Master; then, when ho had come out from his seclusion, they would throw away their old rags and put on clean garments. As the Master with all the body of the Brethren went round to inspect the rooms, he noticed these rags lying about, and asked what they were. When they told him, he said, “Brethren, the practice undertaken by these brothers is short-lived, like the wolf’s holy day service”; and he told them an old-world tale.