Untitled
Passage #4
Acrylic on board
30x24 inches
2019
SOLD - in private collection
*Hover over image to view passage in English
Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was staying in the city of Rajagrha, on the mountain called Grdhrakuta, together with a great assembly of twelve thousand monks, all of whom were arhats whose corruption was at an end, who were free from the confusion of desire, who had achieved their own goals, shattered the bonds of existence, and attained complete mantal discipline. Their names were Ajnata kaundinya, Mahakasyapa, Uruvilvakasyapa, Gaya kasyapa, Nadi kasyapa, Sari putra, Maha maudgalyayana, Maha katyayana, Aniruddha, Kapphina, Gavam pati, Revata, Pilinda vatsa, Bakkula, Maha kausthila, Nanda, Sundarananda, Pur na maitra yani putra, u, Ananda, and Rahula. All of them were great arhats, known to the assembly. There were in addition two thousand others, both those who had more to learn and those who did not. The nun Maha prajapati was there, together with her six thousand attendants; and also the nun Yasodhara, Rahula's mother, together with her attendants. There were also eighty thousand bodhisattva maha sattvas, all of whom were irreversible from highest, complete enlightenment (anuttara samyak sambodhi). They had obtained the dhranis, were established in eloquence, and had turned the irreversible wheel of the Dharma. Each had paid homage to countless hundreds of thousands of presence, and had always been praised by those buddhas. They had also cultivated compassion within themselves, skillfully caused others to enter the wisdom of a buddha, obtained great wisdom, and reached the other shore.
(Passage taken from 'The Lotus Sutra',
A sacred scripture of Buddhism)