old-path-white-clouds-thich-nhat-hanh

Chapter Seventy-One
The Art of Stringing a Sitar
When the retreat season ended, the Buddha returned south. He stopped by the Deer Park in Isipatana, the place he had delivered his first
Dharma talk on the Four Noble Truths thirty-six years earlier. Though it seemed like only yesterday, much had changed since then. Since
the first turning of the wheel of Dharma, the Dharma had been carried throughout all the countries in the Ganga basin. The local people in
Isipatana had built a stupa to commemorate the first turning, and a monastery had been built, where many bhikkhus lived and practiced.
After teaching the Dharma and encouraging the community there, the Buddha departed for Gaya.
He stopped by Uruvela to visit the ancient bodhi tree, which he found more lovely and green than ever. Many huts were now scattered
throughout the forest. King Bimbisara was also planning to build a stupa that would commemorate the spot where the Buddha attained
Awakening. The Buddha stopped to visit the village children. They were no different from the children of years gone by. The buffalo boy
Svasti was now forty-seven years old and a respected elder in the sangha. The village children gathered ripe papayas to offer the Buddha.
Every child in the village could recite the three refuges.
From Gaya, the Buddha headed northeast to Rajagaha. As soon as he reached the capital, he headed for Vulture Peak. There he met
Venerable Punna, who told him all about his work to teach the Dharma on Sunaparanta island. Punna had just completed a retreat season
there with several other bhikkhus. The number of people in Sunaparanta who had taken refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha had
already risen to five hundred.
Throughout the following days, the Buddha visited the spiritual centers scattered throughout the region. One night while sitting in
meditation at one center, he heard a monk chanting sutras. There was something disturbing about the voice, as though the monk was tired
and discouraged. The Buddha could tell that the monk was encountering difficulties in his practice. The next morning he asked Venerable
Ananda about it and learned that the monk chanting the sutras in the night was Sona. The Buddha remembered meeting Sona several years
before in Savatthi.
Venerable Sona Kulikanna was ordained under the guidance of Venerable Maha Kaccana and studied with him for several years on
Pavatta mountain in the Kururaghara region. Sona was a young man from a wealthy family. He was refined and intelligent but had a frail
constitution. He had to make great efforts to endure the homeless life of a bhikkhu, eating only one meal a day and sleeping beneath the
trees. But his devotion to the practice never wavered. After a year, he was brought by his teacher to meet the Buddha in Savatthi.
That first time in Savatthi, Buddha asked Sona, “Sona, are you enjoying good health? Are you experiencing any difficulties in your
practice, in begging, or in spreading the Dharma?”
Sona answered, “Lord, I am very happy. I am not experiencing any difficulties.”
The Buddha instructed Ananda to prepare a place for Sona to sleep that night in the Buddha’s hut, and so Venerable Ananda placed
another bed there. That night the Buddha sat in meditation outside until three in the morning. Aware of that, Sona was unable to fall asleep.
When the Buddha entered the hut, he asked Sona, “Aren’t you asleep yet?”
“No, Lord, I am still awake.”
“Aren’t you sleepy? Well then, why don’t you recite some gathas you have memorized.”
Venerable Sona recited the sixteen gathas contained in the Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing. His voice was as clear as a bell.
He did not stumble over any word or leave any word out. The Buddha praised him,
“You recite most beautifully. How many years has it been since you were ordained?”
“Lord, it has been a little more than a year. I have the experience of only one retreat season.”
That was the first time the Buddha and Sona met. Now, when the Buddha heard Sona’s chanting, he knew that Sona had overexerted
himself. He asked Ananda to accompany him to Sona’s hut. Seeing the Buddha, Sona stood up at once to greet him. Buddha asked both
Sona and Ananda to be seated beside him, and then he asked Sona, “Before you became a monk, you were a musician, were you not?
You specialized in the sixteen- string sitar, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Lord, that is correct.”
The Buddha asked Sona, “If you play the sitar while the strings are slack, what is the result?”
Sona answered, “Lord, if the strings are slack, the sitar will be out of tune.”