So I have heard. At one time Venerable Bakkula was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.

Then the naked ascetic Kassapa, an old friend of Bakkula in the lay life, approached him, and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to Venerable Bakkula, “Reverend Bakkula, how long has it been since you went forth?”

“It has been eighty years, reverend.”

“But in these eighty years, how many times have you had sex?”

“You shouldn’t ask me such a question. Rather, you should ask me this: ‘But in these eighty years, how many times have sensual perceptions ever arisen in you?’”

“But in these eighty years, how many times have sensual perceptions ever arisen in you?”

“In these eighty years, I don’t recall that any sensual perception has ever arisen in me.”

This we remember as an incredible and amazing quality of Venerable Bakkula.

“In these eighty years, I don’t recall that any perception of ill will … or cruelty has ever arisen in me.”