SN 1.36 - SN 1:36 Conviction | Saddhā Sutta
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN1_36.html
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Copyright: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017
License notice: Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Attribution: From Handful of Leaves, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu; https://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/Ebooks/SuttaPitaka_251113.epub. Copyright 2014 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, Revised edition 2017 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities. Questions about this book may be addressed to Metta Forest Monastery Valley Center, CA 92082-1409 U.S.A. Additional resources More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org. Printed copy A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: SN 1:59
Changes: Presentation only: original HTML markup reflowed into plain text; wording, numbering and source repetitions retained. No repetitions expanded.
Completeness: ABBREVIATED. Every source-unit character is preserved, including introductions, notes and verse structure. Thanissaro's collection-level note explicitly states that repetitions were cut: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/about.html. This is evidence about the translation method, not an assertion that every individual unit contains an omission; no repetitions reconstructed.

Conviction
 Saddhā Sutta (SN 1:36)

On one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then many devatās of the Satullapa host, in the far extreme of the night, their extreme radiance lighting up the entirety of Jeta’s Grove, went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to him, stood to one side. As they were standing there, one devatā recited these verses in the Blessed One’s presence:

Conviction is a person’s companion.1
When you don’t take a stand
in lack of conviction,
prestige & honor come to you from that.
You go to heaven
  on abandoning the body.

You should 	discard anger,2
			abandon conceit,
			transcend all fetters.
When you’re not adhering to name & form,
you have nothing—
  no bonds attack you.

They’re devoted to heedlessness
—dullards, fools—
while one who is wise
protects heedfulness
as his highest wealth.

Don’t devote yourself to heedlessness
	or to intimacy
	with sensual delight—
for a heedful person,
absorbed in jhāna,
attains the foremost ease.3

Notes

1. Compare this line with Iti 15.

2. The Burmese and Sri Lankan editions indicate that another devatā recites these verses, but the Thai edition doesn’t.

3. Aside from the final line, these last two verses are identical with Dhp 26–27. Here the final line reads, pappoti paramaṁ sukhaṁ, “attains the foremost ease,” while in Dhp 27 it reads, pappoti vipulaṁ sukhaṁ, “attains an abundance of ease.”