Forest Meditations

 Introduction

The Verses of Talaputa Thera

        Talaputa lived in the Buddha time and when he was young was trained as an actor.  His fame grew and he became the manager of a travelling theatrical troupe or “five hundred” meaning a large company.  His company was famous for the entertainments it gave and people came from far and wide to attend these performances.  Talaputa came to know of Lord Buddha and his teachings and during this time, when he had not yet decided to go forth as a bhikkhu, he must have composed the first sixteen verses which show his aspiration to practice the homeless life.  These verses and indeed all of the fifty-five translated below, were not composed on one or even two occasions but in one’s and two’s through the years and later collected together. 

        The occasion of his going-forth is told in Samyuttanikaya, Gamani samyutta 2. He approached Lord Buddha in the Bamboo Grove at Rajagaha near the Squirrels’ feeding place.  Talaputa then said to the Exalted One:

        “I have heard, Lord, this ancient traditional saying of the actor-teachers who, when speaking of players, said:  ‘A player who on the stage or in the arena makes people laugh and delights them by his counterfeiting of the truth, when his body breaks up, after death is reborn in the company of the Laughing Gods.  What does the Exalted One say about this”

        Lord Buddha did not answer either the first or the second time when he asked this question, but the third time he agreed to answer it: “In the case of these beings, manager, who were not free of lust, aversion and delusion before but were bound with the bonds of lust, aversion and

Delusion; in such cases a player who on the stage or in the arena brings about lustful, averse or deluded states of mind so that such beings become still more lustful, averse or deluded; while he himself is heedless and slothful he makes others heedless and slothful,- such a one when the body breaks up, after death, is reborn in the  Hell of Laughter. And if his view is as you say:  that whatever player on the stage… the Laughing Gods, then I declare that he is of wrong view. Now, manager, I declare that for a person of wrong view there will be (rebirth in) one of two bourns: in hell or birth as animal.”

        When he heard these words, Talaputa wept, not because as he explained to Lord Buddha because of the answer that he had received but because he had been led astray and deceived by his teachers.  Then he praised Lord Buddha and asked for the going-forth and for Acceptance as a bhikkhu.  After living resolute and secluded “in no long time” –a phrase which usually means several years, he became an Arahant.

        The Commentary tells us that he had pupils to whom he recited the stanzas which he had composed at various times.  After the Mahaparinibbana, at the time of the First Council, these stanzas were brought together and added to the collection called the Theragatha-the Verses of the Elder Monks.  Three translations have been made of Talaputa Thera’s beautiful Pali, by Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids in  “Psalms of the Brethren” (P.T.S.) separately by Ven.Soma Thera in “His Last Performance” (Saccanubodha Samiti, Ceylon), and by K.R. Norman in “The Elders’ Verses I” (P.T.S.) 

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