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Mahakashyapa was immensely courageous to be utterly silent for twenty years, not even to ask the
master, but just to wait: ”Whenever the time is ripe, the master will deliver the truth.” And it happened,
and it happened in a strange way.
The emperor Prasenjita has come to offer Gautam Buddha some flowers out of season. And at the
same time a great philosopher, whom Prasenjita has up to now believed to be his teacher, has come
with Prasenjita.
Prasenjita introduced his teacher, Maulingaputta, and said to Gautam Buddha, ”I offer my gratitude
that you are staying in my kingdom; just let me know if anything is needed by the great assembly
of monks. One thing more I ask you: I have brought my teacher, Maulingaputta, and he has come
with his five hundred followers. He is a great philosopher, a man of tremendous knowledge, very
articulate in discussing things. I pray to you to give him a chance to discuss ultimate problems with
you.”
Gautam Buddha turned to Maulingaputta and said, ”I am ready. But are you ready?”
Maulingaputta could not understand what readiness was needed.
Gautam Buddha said, ”Readiness means, are you capable of being silent, utterly silent, not a single
thought passing through your mind?”
He said, ”Thought is my life, I am a thinker; philosophy is my profession. All that I know about mind
is that it is a thinking process. Beyond that I don’t know any silence you are talking about.”