Linked Discourses 7.17

1. Lay Followers

The Builder

At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.

Now at that time the brahmin Bhāradvāja the Builder was having some building work done in that jungle thicket.

He saw the Buddha sitting down cross-legged at the root of a certain sal tree, his body set straight, and mindfulness brought to the present.

Seeing this, it occurred to him,

“I enjoy having this building work done here in the jungle.

I wonder what the ascetic Gotama enjoys having done?”

Then Bhāradvāja the Builder went up to the Buddha and addressed him in verse:

“What kind of works are done by you,

a mendicant in the sal jungle?

How do you find enjoyment

alone in the wilderness, Gotama?”

“There’s nothing I need do in the jungle;

my jungle’s cut at the root, it’s withered away.

Free of snarls and thorns in the jungle,

I enjoy solitude, having given up discontent.”

When he had spoken, the brahmin Bhāradvāja the Builder said to the Buddha,

“Excellent, worthy Gotama …

From this day forth, may the worthy Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge for life.”