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Verse 64: The Story of Thera Udayi

While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (64) of this book, with
reference to Thera Udayi, a pretentious Bhikkhu.

Thera Udayi would often go and sit on the platform from which learned theras delivered their
discourses. On one occasion, some visiting Bhikkhus, taking him for a very learned thera, put to him
some questions on the five aggregates (khandhas). Thera Udayi could not answer, because he did
not know anything of the dhamma. The visiting Bhikkhus were greatly astonished to find, that one
staying in the same monastery with the Buddha knew so very little about the khandhas and the
ayatanas (sense-sources = sense-organs + sense-objects).

To them, the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 64. A fool, even though he is associated with a wise man all his life,  cannot
understand the Dhamma, just as a spoon cannot come to know the taste of soup.

At the end of the discourse, all the visiting Bhikkhus attained Arahatship.

Translated by Daw Mya Tin, M.A.,
Burma Pitaka Association, Rangoon, Burma 1986.