15: The Buddha’s Visit to Rājagaha – 546
Countrymen, the exalted Buddha, possessing the yellow colour of the best
refined gold, at the request of the King of Magadha, with his two feet
moving like the sun and the moon has entered the city of Rājagaha
together with 1,000 Arahats, former recluses whom the Buddha himself
has tamed by giving the deathless elixir: whom the Buddha, the leading
bull – himself released from the three states of existences and the three
cycles of sufferings – has released from these states of existences and
cycles of suffering by teaching the essence of Dhamma.
The three cycles of suffering (
tivaṭṭa
): 1) The cycle (round) of defilements
comprising ignorance (
avijjā
), craving (
taṇhā
) and clinging (
upadāna
)
(
kilesa
-
vaṭṭa
); 2) the productive deeds or rebirth producing volitions
(
saṅkhāra
) and mental phcnomena associated therewith (
kamma
-
vaṭṭa
); 3)
the resultant rebirth-process comprising consciousness (
viññāṇa
), mind and
matter (
nāma-rūpa
), the sense spheres (
āyatana
), contact (
phassa
) and
feeling (
vedanā
) (
vipāka
-
vaṭṭa
).
Mutto muttehi saha purāṇa-jaṭilehi, vippamutto vippamuttehi,
siṅgī-nikkhasa-vaṇṇo, Rājagahaṁ pāvisi Bhagavā.
The three states of existence (
tibhava
): 1) The sense world (
kāma-bhava
); 2)
the form worlds (
rūpa-bhava
); and 3) the formless worlds (
arūpa-bhava
).
The three rounds of suffering (
tivaṭṭa
) are: 1) The rounds of defilements
comprising ignorance, craving and clinging (
kilesa-vaṭṭa
); 2) comprising
rebirth producing volitions and mental phenomena associated therewith
(
kamma-vaṭṭa
); and 3) the resultant rebirth-process comprising
consciousness), mind and matter, the sense spheres, contact and feeling
(
vipāka-vaṭṭa
).
Countrymen, the exalted Buddha, possessing the yellow colour of the best
refined gold, at the request of the King of Magadha, with his two feet
moving like the sun and the moon, has entered the city of Rājagaha
together with the 1,000 Arahats, former recluses whom the Buddha
himself emancipated from Māra’s snare in the cycle of 1,500 defilements,
has emancipated them from that snare of Māra by showing them the way-
out; whom the Buddha, the leading bull – himself released from the three
states of existences and the three cycles of suffering – has released from
those states of existences and cycles of suffering by teaching the essence
of Dhamma.