An Uninterrupted Flow of Skilful Mental States

Some of you might have heard of this Meghya Sutta of the Udana.

Meghya is the name of a monk in the Buddha's day.

He seems to have been a young monk.

He was a monk who had gone forth from the Buddha's own clan, the Shakya clan.

the kshatriya tribe like the Buddha he was a kshatriya, a warrior at the time of the episode recorded in the Sutta he was the Buddha's personal attendant he was with the Buddha all the time looking after him just being with him just as the more famous Ananda was some years later for a much longer period and we're told that one day having gone into the nearby village to collect his food for the day, his alms food, he happened to see a beautiful, green, cool, shady mango grove.

And he thought that would be a really delightful place in which to meditate.

Absolutely ideal.

So he came back to where the Buddha was staying.

He ate his alms food and then he approached the Buddha and he told the Buddha what he'd seen and what he'd thought and he asked the Buddha's permission to go and stay in that mango grove and meditate.

But the Buddha said, no, don't go.

He said, wait.

until some other monk comes.

He said, I'm alone, apart from you.

Wait until some other monk comes.

But still Maitreya pleaded.

He still insisted that he wanted to go off and meditate in this mango grove.

A second time the Buddha refused.

A third time Maitreya asked, In fact, he sort of pressed the Buddha.

He said, Lord, you've done everything that you needed to do.

You've gained enlightenment.

But what about me? I haven't gained enlightenment yet.

I need to meditate.

So when he used that sort of argument, what could the Buddha say? One can just imagine him as he was shrugging his shoulders and, well, the sutta says that he told Meghlia, do as you think best.

So off Meghlia went,

very happily, perhaps even triumphantly.