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Cakkana

A lay disciple of Sri Lanka. While he was a boy, his mother once fell grievously ill and the doctors ordered her hare’s flesh. Cakkana was sent by his brother into the field, where he caught a hare which, however, out of compassion he set free. His brother blamed him, but Cakkana cured his mother by a vow of truth (saccakiriyā), saying that, inasmuch as he had never deprived anything of life, by the power of that truth his mother should recover. (SA.ii.112; the story is slightly different in MA.i.165). Cakkana’s abstinence is one that was maintained “in spite of opportunity” (sampattivirati) and when he had not undertaken to observe any precept. DhsA., p.103.