Reading guide
A monk’s harsh word
Venerable Pilindavaccha has a habit of addressing the other mendicants as “lowlifes” (vasala) — a term of open contempt, historically the kind of word a brahmin might use for someone considered beneath them. Several mendicants find this offensive enough to report it to the Buddha, who summons Pilindavaccha and asks him directly whether it’s true. Pilindavaccha doesn’t deny it: “Yes, sir.”
The Buddha’s unusual defense: habit, not hatred
Rather than correcting Pilindavaccha’s speech on the spot, the Buddha applies his mind to Pilindavaccha’s past lives and reports what he finds to the other mendicants: “he doesn’t address the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’ out of hate” — rather, “for five hundred lives without interruption he was reborn in a brahmin family,” and has simply carried the habitual manner of address that long. The explanation reframes what looked like present unkindness as an old, deeply worn groove of speech, persisting well past whatever inner hostility might once have produced it.
The verse: what actually makes a brahmin
The closing verse doesn’t mention Pilindavaccha’s habit again; instead it redefines the very identity his old speech pattern invoked. “In whom dwells no deceit or conceit, rid of greed, unselfish, with no need for hope, with anger cast aside, quenched: they are a brahmin, an ascetic, a mendicant.” The three titles are offered as equivalent, all resting on the same inner qualities rather than birth. Placed right after a story about a habit rooted in five hundred lifetimes of brahmin birth, the verse’s point lands with some force: birth explains the habit, but it is not what earns the title.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground. Now at that time Venerable Pilindavaccha addressed the mendicants as “lowlifes”. Then several mendicants went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him, “Sir, Venerable Pilindavaccha addresses the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’.”
§2–3So the Buddha addressed one of the monks, “Please, monk, in my name tell the mendicant Pilindavaccha that the Teacher summons him.” “Yes, sir,” that monk replied. He went to Pilindavaccha and said to him, “Reverend Pilindavaccha, the teacher summons you.” “Yes, reverend,” Pilindavaccha replied. He went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him: “Is it really true, Vaccha, that you addressed the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’?” “Yes, sir,” he replied.
§4Then, having applied his mind to Pilindavaccha’s past lives, the Buddha said to the mendicants, “Mendicants, don’t complain about the mendicant Vaccha. He doesn’t address the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’ out of hate. For five hundred lives without interruption he was reborn in a brahmin family. For a long time, he has addressed people as ‘lowlife’. That’s why he addresses the mendicants as ‘lowlifes’.”
§5Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§6“In whom dwells no deceit or conceit,
rid of greed, unselfish, with no need for hope,
with anger cast aside, quenched:
they are a brahmin, an ascetic, a mendicant.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.