Dhammapada Stories - The Monk Whose Body Stunk

Once when The Buddha was wandering about teaching and preaching, he came upon a community of his monks in which one of them was suffering from a debilitating skin disease.

Sores that continually oozed blood and pus covered his body from head to foot. Too weak to wash himself or his stained robes, a nauseating stench had settled about him which none of his brother monks could bear.

And so he was left alone, unable to fend for himself. It was in this pitiful state that the Buddha found him and immediately proceeded to look after him. First, the Buddha went to boil some water and brought it back to bathe the monk. Then, as he was trying to carry the monk outside to bathe him, the other monks saw him
and came to help.

They all took hold of the couch that the sick monk was lying on and carried him to a place where he was gently scrubbed clean. In the meantime, his clothes were taken away and washed. When they were dry, they dressed the sick monk in fresh clean robes, which made him also feel clean and fresh.

The Buddha then admonished the bhikkhus present, saying, “Bhikkhus, here you have no mother or father to take care of you when you are sick. Who will take care of you then if you don’t take care of one another? Remember whenever you look after a sick person, it is as if you were looking after me myself.”

He then followed with a small sermon in which he said that although it was true that the body would one day be as useless as a fallen log, while it was still alive, it should be taken care of. In the state of heightened alertness in which the sick monk dwelled, brought on in part by the fresh bath and fresh clothes, he attained enlightenment at the end of the sermon.

Before long, alas, this body will lie lifeless on the ground, discarded like a useless log.