When Mulinkyaputta first came to the Buddha, he asked many questions. Buddha said:
- Wait, wait. Are you asking to solve these questions, or are you asking to get answers?
Mulinkyaputta said:
- I came to ask you, and you ask me! Let me think.
He thought it over and the next day said:
- I came to resolve them.
Buddha asked:
—Have you asked these same questions to anyone else?
Mulinkyaputta replied:
— I asked many wise men constantly, for 30 years.
Buddha said:
— After asking for 30 years, you must have received many answers. But was any of them truly the answer?
Mulinkyaputta replied:
- No.
Then Buddha said:
- I won’t give you answers, over 30 years you have collected a lot of answers. I could add more new ones to them, but that won't help. So I will give you a solution, not an answer.
“Okay, give me a solution,” Mulinkyaputta agreed.
But Buddha replied:
“I can’t give it to you: it must grow in you.” So stay with me; but during the year you cannot ask a single question. Remain completely silent, be with me, and in a year you can ask. Then I will give you a solution.
Sariputta, a disciple of the Buddha, was sitting nearby under a tree and laughed. Mulinkyaputta asked:
- Why is he laughing? What's so funny?
Buddha said:
“Ask him yourself, for the last time.”
Sariputta said:
- If you want to ask, ask now. This person will deceive you, it happened to me too, in a year he will not give you any answers, because the very source of questions is transformed.
Then Buddha said:
- I will be true to my promise. Sariputta, it is not my fault that I did not give you answers, because you yourself did not ask!
A year passed and Mulinkyaputta remained silent: he meditated and became more and more silent. He became a quiet backwater, without vibrations, without waves, and forgot that a year had passed and the day had come when he had to ask his questions. Buddha said:
“There was a man here named Mulinkyaputta. Where is he? Today he must ask me his questions.
There were many disciples there, and everyone was trying to remember who this Mulinkyaputta was. Mulinkyaputta also began to remember, looking around.
Buddha beckoned him and said:
-Why are you looking around? It's you! And I must fulfill my promise. So, ask and I will give you the answer.
Mulinkyaputta said:
- The one who asked died. That's why I looked around, looking for who this man, Mulinkyaputta, was. I also heard this name, but it is long gone!
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru