Udāna 65

Heartfelt Sayings 7.5

Another Discourse with Bhaddiya the Dwarf

1 So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then Venerable Bhaddiya the Dwarf, closely following several mendicants, approached the Buddha.

2 The Buddha saw Venerable Bhaddiya coming off in the distance—ugly, unsightly, deformed, and despised by most of the mendicants. The Buddha addressed the mendicants:

3 “Mendicants, do you see this monk coming—ugly, unsightly, deformed, and despised by most of the mendicants?” “Yes, sir.”

4 “That mendicant is very mighty and powerful. It’s not easy to find an attainment that he has not already attained. And he has realized the supreme culmination of the spiritual path in this very life. He lives having achieved with his own insight the goal for which gentlemen rightly go forth from the lay life to homelessness.”

5 Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:

6 “With faultless parts and white canopy,

the one-spoked chariot rolls on.

See it come, untroubled,

with stream cut, unbound.”