Katyayana

Katyayana (Skt. Kātyāyana; Tib ཀཱ་ཏྱཱ་ཡ་ན།, Wyl. kA tyA ya na) — one of the principle disciples of Buddha Shakyamuni who wrote down one section of the Abhidharma.

Quotation

ཕ་ཤ་ཟ་ཞིང་མ་ལ་རྡེག །

ལས་ངན་དགྲ་བོ་པང་ན་བཟུང༌། །
ཆུང་མས་ཁྱོ་ཡི་རུས་པ་འཆའ། །

འཁོར་བའི་ཆོས་ལ་གད་མོ་བྲོ། །

He eats his father’s flesh while striking his own mother,
And cradles in his lap the enemy he killed,
The wife is gnawing at her husband’s bones.
Saṃsāra is enough to make you laugh out loud!

Kātyāyana

Further Reading

• Nyanaponika Thera, The Great Disciples of the Buddha: Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy (Wisdom Publications, 2003).
• The Hundred Deeds, Part One, The Story of She Who Gathers