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CONVERSION OF THE LOW AND THE LOWLY
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a great crowd, preaching the Norm. So, seeing the Exalted One he thought : “No. There is no almsgiving here of food. It is Gotama the Samana preaching the Dhamma in the assembly. Suppose I were to listen to his teaching.”
So he sat down at one side, thinking, “I too will listen to the teaching.”
Now the Exalted One, reading with His thought the thoughts of that whole gathering, said to Himself, “Who, I wonder, of these present, is able to grasp the Truth ?” Then He saw Supprabuddha, the leper, sitting in the crowd : and at the sight of him He knew, “This one can grasp the Truth.”
So for the sake of Supprabuddha, the leper, the Master preached a sermon, dealing in due order with these topics. On alms-giving, on the holy life, and on the heaven-world : and He pointed out the meanness and vileness of sensual desires and the profit of freedom from the asavas.
Now when the Exalted One saw that the heart of Supprabuddha, the leper, was softened, pliant, set free, elated, and full of faith, then He set forth to him the Dhamma most excellent of the Buddha, to wit, suffering, the cause of suffering, the ceasing of suffering, and the path.
Then, just as a white cloth, free from stains, is ready to receive the dye, even so in Supprabuddha, the leper, as he sat there in that very place, arose the pure stainless insight of the Truth, the knowledge that whatsoever hath a beginning, that also must have an end. And Supprabuddha, the leper, saw the Truth, reached the Truth, perceived the truth, plunged into the Truth, crossed beyond doubting, was freed from all questionings, won confidence, and needing nothing further, being established in the Master’s teaching, sprang up from his seat and drew near to Him, and there he sat down at one side.
So seated he said to the Exalted One, “Excellent, O Lord Excellent, O, Lord, just as if, Lord, one should lift up the fallen, discover the hidden,
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