Bahiya Sutra - the story of...

The Buddha was begging in town. The sangha had set up camp on the outskirts and every day he and the sangha would come into town for their daily bread - quite literally.

It was a hot and dusty day. The market place was crowded at noon. As the tall figure of Buddha made his way through the melee of the bazaar, he was accosted by Bahiya. Now, Bahiya was a seeker. And a persistent one at that. And he wanted his answers - right there. He begged the Buddha to show him the truth, the path to the end of all suffering.

Story goes that Buddha tried to fob him off : later, not now, come to the camp in the evening, may be tomorrow. But Bahiya insisted. Now, he said, I want it now. And so the Buddha stopped and looked deep into his eyes and said:

“In the seen, let there be only the seen.  In the heard, let there be only the heard.  In the sensed, let there be only the sensed.  In the cognized, let there be only the cognized.  That is how you should train yourself.
When for you there is only the seen in the seen, only the heard in the heard, only the sensed in the sensed, only the cognized in the cognized, then you will not be reckoned by it.  When you are not reckoned by it, you will not be in it.  When you are not in it, you will be neither "here” nor “there” nor between the two.

This, just this, is the end of suffering.“

Bahiya stood there, his mind dissolving and his world changed in that second - he realised the Truth. The Buddha ? He carried on, begging for food, slowly wending his way to the camp on the outskirts of town.

This is the story of the origins of the beautiful and powerful Bahiya Sutra.