[Buddha-l] Non attached & mindful culinary triumphalism?

[Artur Karp]

Dear All,

I have always wondered about Mahakassapa's triumphant shout, as
expressed in the Mahākassapattheragāthā (ThG), where he confesses to
eating almsfood obtained from a leper and containing his fallen off
rotten finger, and he, Mahakassapa, kind of enthuses about his feeling
no disgust, "neither while eating it, nor having eaten [it]".

1057. senāsanamhā oruyha, nagaraṃ piṇḍāya pāvisiṃ.
bhuñjantaṃ purisaṃ kuṭṭhiṃ, sakkaccaṃ taṃ upaṭṭhahiṃ.

Coming down from my dwelling place,
I entered the city for alms,
stood courteously next to a leper
eating his meal.

1058. so me pakkena hatthena, ālopaṃ upanāmayi.
ālopaṃ pakkhipantassa, aṅguli cettha chijjatha.

He, with his rotting hand,
tossed me a morsel of food,
and as the morsel was dropping,
a finger fell off
    right there.

1059. kuṭṭamūlañca nissāya, ālopaṃ taṃ abhuñjisaṃ.
bhuñjamāne vā bhutte vā, jegucchaṃ me na vijjati..

 Sitting next to a wall,
I ate that morsel of food,
and neither while eating it,
nor having eaten,
did I feel
any disgust.

1060. uttiṭṭhapiṇḍo āhāro, pūtimuttañca osadhaṃ.
senāsanaṃ rukkhamūlaṃ, paṃsukūlañca cīvaraṃ.
yassete abhisambhutvā, sa ve cātuddiso naro.

Whoever has mastered
    left-over scraps for food,
    smelly urine for medicine,
    the foot of a tree for a dwelling,
    cast-off rags for robes:
He is a man
of the four directions.

1061. yattha eke vihaññanti, āruhantā siluccayaṃ.
tassa buddhassa dāyādo, sampajāno patissato.
iddhibalenupatthaddho, kassapo abhirūhati.

Where some are exhausted
climbing the mountain,
there
the Awakened One's heir
    -- mindful, alert,
    buoyed by his psychic power --
Kassapa climbs.

[Transl. by Thanissaro]


Your learned comments, please?


Regards from Warsaw,

Artur Karp