Words spoken by the Arahant Assaji to Sariputta
-
Upon meeting Assaji, Sariputta was impressed and asked after his teacher and the dhamma that he taught. Assaji demurred, being "only a beginner", but eventually responded with the now famous verse, and before he had finished Sariputta had a decisive break through. Nyanaponika says:
"Upon hearing the first two lines, there arose in the wanderer Upatissa the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma the first glimpse of the Deathless, the path of Streamentry and to the ending of the last two lines he already listened as a stream-enterer".
Ye dharm� hetu prabhav�
hetuṃ teṣ�ṃ tath�gataḥ hyavadat
teṣ�ṃ cayo nirodha
evaṃ v�dī mah�śramaṇaḥ
Of those things that arise from a cause,
The Tath�gata has told the cause,
And also what their cessation is:
This is the doctrine of the Great Recluse
