SN 35.136 - SN 35:136 Delight in Forms | Rūpārāma Sutta
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN35_136.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 22:1; SN 22:94
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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.

Delight in Forms
 Rūpārāma Sutta (SN 35:136)

“Monks, devas & human beings take pleasure in forms, delight in forms, rejoice in forms. With the change, fading away, & cessation of forms, devas & human beings dwell in suffering & stress.

“Devas & human beings take pleasure in sounds… take pleasure in aromas… take pleasure in flavors… take pleasure in tactile sensations…

“Devas & human beings take pleasure in ideas, delight in ideas, rejoice in ideas. With the change, fading away, & cessation of ideas, devas & human beings dwell in suffering & stress.

“But the Tathāgata, monks—worthy & rightly self-awakened—knowing, as they have come to be, the origination, the disappearance, the allure, the drawbacks of—and escape from—forms, doesn’t take pleasure in forms, delight in forms, rejoice in forms. With the change, fading away, & cessation of forms, the Tathāgata dwells happily.

“Knowing, as they have come to be, the origination, the disappearance, the allure, the drawbacks of—and escape from—sounds… aromas… flavors… tactile sensations…

“Knowing, as they have come to be, the origination, the disappearance, the allure, the drawbacks of—and escape from—ideas, he doesn’t take pleasure in ideas, delight in ideas, rejoice in ideas. With the change, fading away, & cessation of ideas, the Tathāgata dwells happily.”1

“All sights, sounds, aromas, flavors,
tactile sensations, & ideas
that are welcome,
  appealing,
agreeable—
as long as they’re said
  to exist,
are supposed by the world
together with its devas
  to be bliss.
But when they cease,
that’s supposed by them
  to be stress.
The stopping of self-identity
is viewed by the noble ones
      as bliss.
This, when seen,
runs counter
to the whole world.

What others say is blissful,
the noble ones say is stress.
What others say is stressful,
the noble know as bliss.
See the Dhamma, hard to understand!
  Here those who don’t know
  are confused.
For those who are veiled,
  it’s darkness,
  blindness
  for those who don’t see.
But for the good it’s blatant,
like light for those who see.

Though in its very presence,
they don’t understand it—
dumb animals, unadept in the Dhamma.
It’s not easy
for those overcome
  by passion for becoming,
flowing along
  in the stream of becoming,
falling under Māra’s sway,2
  to wake up
  to this Dhamma.

Who, apart from the noble,
is worthy to wake up
to this state?—
  the state that,
  through rightly knowing it,
  they totally unbind,
          effluent-free.”

Notes

1. The poem that follows is identical to the final poem in Sn 3:12.

2. On Māra’s sway, see SN 4:19, SN 35:115, SN 35:189, and SN 35:199.