Snp 1.5 - Sn 1:5 Cunda
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp1_5.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: DN 16; AN 10:176
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.

1:5 Cunda

Cunda the smith:
I ask the sage of abundant discernment,
awakened, lord of the Dhamma, free
of craving,
  supreme
among two-legged beings,
  best
of charioteers:
  How many contemplatives
  are there in the world?
      Please tell me.

The Buddha:
Four contemplatives, there is no fifth.
Being asked in person, I disclose them to you:
  the path-victor, the path-explainer,
  one who lives by the path,
  and the path-corrupter.

Cunda:
Whom do the awakened call
the path-victor?
How is one unequaled
in pointing out the path?
When asked, tell me about
the one who lives by the path.
Then disclose the path-corrupter to me.

The Buddha:
Whoever, de-arrowed,
has crossed over doubt,
is refreshed in unbinding,
devoid of greed,
a guide to the world along with its devas:
The awakened call such a person
  path-victor.

Whoever here knowing
the foremost as foremost,
who points out,
who analyzes the Dhamma right here,
he, the cutter of doubt, the sage unperturbed,
is called the second of monks:
  path-explainer.

Whoever lives by the path,
the Dhamma-way well-explained,
restrained, mindful,
partaking of blameless ways,
is called the third of monks:
  with the path as his life.

Making a façade of good practices,
brash, reckless, a corrupter of families,1
idle, deceitful, unrestrained,
& going about as a counterfeit:
  He is a path-corrupter.

And when any householder
  —an instructed disciple of the noble ones,
      discerning—
understands these,
knowing, “Not all are like that one,”2
seeing one like that
doesn’t kill his conviction.
For how would one equate
the corrupt with the uncorrupt,
the impure with the pure?

vv. 83–90

Notes

1. A corrupter of families is a monk who ingratiates himself into a family’s affections by performing services for them that are inappropriate for a monk to do, thus diverting their faith away from those who live by the Dhamma and Vinaya. For more on this term, see The Buddhist Monastic Code, Saṅghādisesa 13.

2. “That one” = the path-corrupter.