[Buddha-l] Rice & Dragons

[Jo]

OK, found it:  
PTS: Sn 116-142 
Vasala Sutta: Discourse on Outcasts

The whole discourse, but here is a simple statement from it that birth does not convey virtue or mean anything of importance: 21. "Not by birth is one an outcast; not by birth is one a brahman. By deed one becomes an outcast, by deed one becomes a brahman.

Joanna
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What I had in mind were the Buddha's sermon(s) on whether or not Brahmins are "born instead of made", so to speak. This is in the Pali suttas. His point during the discussion with a Brahmin interlocutor was that only by observing sila and the other virtues can one claim to be a Brahmin. Being born one does not endow the owner of the caste title with virtue or automatic social precedence.  Right now I can't find the sutta--sorry.