en
rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I support myself by my own earnings--so said the herdsman
Dhaniya--and my children are around me and healthy; I hear
no wickedness of them--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I am the servant of none--so said the Blessed One--with what
I have gained I wander about in all the world; I have no
need to serve--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I have cows, I have calves--so said the herdsman
Dhaniya--cows in calf and heifers also; and I have a bull as
lord over the cows--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

I have no cows, I have no calves--so said the Blessed
One--no cows in calf, and no heifers; and I have no bull as
a lord over the cows--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

The stakes are driven in and cannot be shaken--so said the
herdsman Dhaniya--the ropes are made of holy-grass, new and
well-made; the cows will not be able to break them--then
rain if thou wilt, O sky!

Like a bull I have rent the bonds--so said the Blessed
One--like an elephant I have broken through the ropes, I
shall not be born again--then rain if thou wilt, O sky!

Then the rain poured down and filled both sea and land. And
hearing the sky raining, Dhaniya said: Not small to us the
gain in that we have seen the Blessed Lord; in thee we take
refuge, thou endowed with (wisdom's) eye; be thou our
master, O great sage! My wife and myself are obedient
to thee. If we lead a pure life we shall overcome birth and
death, and put an end to pain.

He that has sons has delight in sons--so said the Evil
One--he that has cows has delight in cows, for substance is
the delight of man, but he that has no substance has no
delight.

He that has sons has care with his sons--so said the Blessed
One--he that has cows has likewise care with his cows, for
substance is (the cause of) care, but he that has no
substance has no care.

From Buddha's sermons choice extracts were gathered at an early date,
which, as well as the few longer discourses, that have been preserved
in their entirety, do more to tell us what was the original Buddha,
before he was enwrapped in the scholastic mysticism of a later age,
than pages of general critique.

Thus in the _Mah[=a]parinibb[=a]na_ casual allusion is made to
assemblies of men and of angels (divine beings), of the great
thirty-thre