This
is why I choose monkhood." The uncle approved of his words and gave over
urging him. When his mother also died, it appeared how great had been
the affection for her of his fine nature; but after her burial he
returned to the monastery.
On one occasion he was cutting rice with a score or two of his
fellow-disciples, when some hungry thieves came upon them to take away
their grain by force. The other Sramaneras all fled, but our young hero
stood his ground, and said to the thieves, "If you must have the grain,
take what you please. But, sirs, it was your former neglect of charity
which brought you to your present state of destitution; and now, again,
you wish to rob others. I am afraid that in the coming ages you will
have still greater poverty and distress; I am sorry for you beforehand."
With these words he followed his companions to the monastery, while the
thieves left the grain and went away, all the monks, of whom there were
several hundred, doing homage to his conduct and courage.
When he had finished his novitiate and taken on him the obligations of
the full Buddhist orders, his earnest courage, clear intelligence, and
strict regulation of his demeanor, were conspicuous; and soon after, he
undertook his journey to India in search of complete copies of the
Vinaya-pitaka. What follows this is merely an account of his travels in
India and return to China by sea, condensed from his own narrative, with
the addition of some marvellous incidents that happened to him, on his
visit to the Vulture Peak near Rajagriha.
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