Manopubbangama dhamma
Manosettha manomaya
Manasa ce pathutthena
Bhasati va karoti va
Tato nam dukkamanveti
Cakkham va vahato padam.
All mental states have mind as their forerunner,
mind is their chief, and they are minded-made.
If, with an impure mind, one speaks or acts,
then suffering follows, even as the wheel
follows the hoof of the ox(who is drawing a cart).
Story
An old man named Cakkhupala became a monk and was leading a forest monk life. As a result of his attempt he realized Arahantship but went blind. One day he unintentionally killed many insects. Some visiting monks, seeing the blood-stained ambulatory, told the Buddha that he had committed the offence of killing. The Buddha told the monks that Cakkhupala had killed them unintentionally and he was an Arahant.
The monks then wanted to know the cause of his blindness. The Buddha told that in a past life, that Cukkhupala ,as a physician, had given an ointment to a woman to restore her eyesight. She promised that she along with her children would become his servant if her eyesight was restored. The physician’s ointment proved effective, but the woman did not want to keep her promise and pretended that her eyes were still worse. The physician thought that the woman was bad and he gave her bad ointment which blinded her eyes in retaliation. In connection with his this past karma Cakkhupala became blind.
