Summary: Bāhiya Dārucīriya is the canonical paradigm of instantaneous awakening. A trader who had survived a shipwreck and lived as a wanderer wearing bark-cloth on the sea-coast, he received the briefest recorded teaching from the Buddha and immediately attained arahantship — only to be killed by a cow moments later. The Udāna canonical text (Ud 1.10 (cited; not yet ingested)) records both the teaching and the Buddha's verse of mourning.
(This page draws on canonical references; full ingest of cited sources pending.)
Life in the canon
The canonical account (Ud 1.10 (cited; not yet ingested)) records that Bāhiya Dārucīriya was a merchant living on the sea-coast near Suppāraka, regarded by many as an arahant because of his ascetic appearance. A devatā (deity) who had been his companion in a past life warned him that he had not yet attained what he was presumed to have attained and directed him to seek the Buddha at Sāvatthi.
Bāhiya travelled urgently and found the Buddha on alms round. Despite the Buddha's initial response that this was not the time for a teaching, Bāhiya pressed three times, saying: "I might die, or you might die, without my ever hearing the teaching." The Buddha then gave the Bāhiya Sutta teaching — one of the most compressed and celebrated formulations in the canon:
"In what is seen, there must be only the seen; in what is heard, only the heard; in what is sensed, only the sensed; in what is cognized, only the cognized. That, Bāhiya, is how you should train yourself. When, Bāhiya, in the seen there is only the seen … then you, Bāhiya, are not thereby; when you are not thereby, you are not therein; when you are not therein, you are neither here nor beyond nor between the two. That is the end of suffering." — (Ud 1.10 (cited; not yet ingested))
Hearing this, Bāhiya attained arahantship. Shortly afterward he was killed by a cow (or, in some accounts, a cow-demon). The Buddha declared him foremost among quick attainers (khippābhiññā) (AN 1.191 (cited; not yet ingested)) and composed a verse mourning him.
The Sahassavagga (Vagga 8) vatthu attributes Dhp 101 (Bāhiyadārucīriyattheravatthu) to his story (commentary — not canonical).
Key teachings given or received
- Ud 1.10 (cited; not yet ingested) — the Bāhiya Sutta: the three-fold "in the seen only the seen" teaching; one of the canon's shortest and most direct pointers to liberation
Related pages
- dhammapada 08 sahassavagga — Dhp 101 vatthu attribution
- arahant — his liberation; he attained instantly