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Snp 4.11 
Sutta Nipāta 
Aṭṭhaka Vagga 
 
Kalahavivāda Sutta  
“On Fighting & Conflicts” 
 
Translated by Bhikkhu Candana 
 
Copyright © Bhikkhu Candana 2023 
 
 
“How do fighting, conflicts, arguments, grief and many tears, avarice, arrogance, conceit, 
along with slandering, begin? Please tell me, how do these things find their start?” 
“Holding things close to your heart is what leads to fighting, conflicts, arguments, grief and 
many tears, avarice, arrogance, conceit, along with slandering, as they find their beginning when 
things become dear to you. Fighting and conflicts are soon joined by avarice, all of which pave 
the way for slander to take place.” 
“Where do they originate, the things people grab and hold onto while calling them: ‘Dear’?” Or 
those things one greedily yearns for in the world? How about the hoping and longing for the 
other, for which people cast their hooks to rebecome in future births; where do they find their 
start?” 
“It is because of desiring that people grab and hold onto things, calling them: ‘Dear.’ And, it is 
desire too, whereby greedily yearning for things in the world finds its origin. As for hoping and 
longing for the other, for which people cast their hooks to rebecome into future births, that again, 
finds its start within desire itself.” 
“And how does desire itself arise in the world, and from where do discriminations originate, 
along with anger, lies, doubts, and all the other things that are taught by the shaven-headed 
Recluse?” 
“It is from liking the pleasurable and disliking the painful, that desire finds its origin, whence it 
arises. By having seen and witnessed the presence and absence of things relatable, people go on 
discriminating as: ‘I like this,’ and ‘I don’t like that.’” 
“Anger, lies and doubts, along with all the deceptive mental states, are the results of the same old 
pair: liking and disliking. Therefore, the one still suffering from confusion must train himself in 
the path of knowledge, for it is only through the means of knowledge and personal understanding 
that the Great Recluse speaks on these matters.”

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“And how do those two, the liking and disliking, find their start? And through the disappearance 
and vanishing of what do they also cease and are no more? And by the way, please tell me also 
how and where this ‘arising and vanishing’ originate?” 
“It is in contact that liking and disliking both originate and arise from. For when contact 
disappears and vanishes, then they too cease and are no more. As for ‘arising and vanishing,’ 
well, these also find their origin within the same: they both arise because of contact itself.” 
“And from where does contact arise in the world? And what is the reason for there to be so much 
grabbing and holding on to things? What is it that once vanished, it leads to the disappearance of 
the wanting to grab and hold on to things, in the first place? And the disappearance of what does 
also end the very possibility for contacts to ever lead to more contact?” 
“Contact arises in the presence of name and form. When there is longing, then there is grabbing 
and holding on to things. Once longing vanishes, then the wanting to grab and hold on to things 
also disappears. And it is through the disappearance of all forms that contacts cease from leading 
to more contact.” 
“And through what means could one experience the disappearance of all forms? In what way 
could happiness and suffering both cease and just vanish? Please tell me, what could make these 
two disappear, for these are very important things for us to know!” 
“It is neither through blind obedience to perception or one’s mental associations, nor by relying 
on wrong perception; neither through the absence of perceptions or understanding, nor by 
pondering on what was perceived in the past. In this manner, one experiences the disappearance 
of all forms, because the origin lies in perception itself that keeps working behind the scenes, 
always constructing, the true architect of all mental proliferations in the world.” 
“Whatever we have asked, you’ve answered them all. But we have one more to ask.  
“Please, do explain to us this: is it true what some wise men say, that the highest potential for the 
purity of Yakkhas extends only this much, or could there be something else for us to know on 
this?” 
“It is true that some wise men do say that, in fact, ‘the highest potential for the purity of Yakkhas 
extends only this much.’ It must be said, however, that there are others, who teach that in time, 
with skillful application, one can go beyond this, and experience Full Liberation that is without 
any residues remaining. 
“But understanding the role of conditionality in all these, while investigating the underlying fact 
of dependency in all things and by realizing this directly, the truly wise is liberated, without ever 
getting involved in debates with anyone, cutting himself free from further births.” 
 
Sādhu  
Sādhu  
Sādhu
