Snp 1.9 - Sn 1:9 Hemavata Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp1_9.html License: CC-BY-NC-4.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 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. 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. 1:9 Hemavata Sātāgira the yakkha: Today is the fifteenth, the uposatha day. A divine night is at hand. Let’s go see Gotama, the Teacher perfectly named. Hemavata the yakkha: Is his mind well-directed, Such,1 toward all beings? Are his resolves mastered regarding what’s desirable & not? Sātāgira the yakkha: His mind is well-directed and Such toward all beings. And his resolves are mastered regarding what’s desirable & not. Hemavata the yakkha: Does he not take what’s not given? Is he restrained toward beings? Is he far from complacency? Does he not neglect jhāna?2 Sātāgira the yakkha: He doesn’t take what’s not given, and he’s restrained toward beings. He’s far from complacency and, awakened, he does not neglect jhāna. Hemavata the yakkha: Does he not tell lies? Do his ways of speaking not cut things off? Does he not speak destructively? Does he not speak idly?3 Sātāgira the yakkha: He doesn’t tell lies. His ways of speaking don’t cut things off. He doesn’t speak destructively. Deliberating, he speaks what’s of benefit. Hemavata the yakkha: Is he not passionate for sensuality? Is his mind unmuddied? Has he gone beyond delusion? Does he have an Eye with regard to phenomena? Sātāgira the yakkha: He’s not passionate for sensuality. His mind is unmuddied. He has gone beyond all delusion. Awakened, he has an Eye with regard to phenomena. Hemavata the yakkha: Is he consummate in clear-knowing? Is he pure in his conduct?4 Are his effluents ended? Does he have no further becoming? Sātāgira the yakkha: He is both consummate in clear-knowing & pure in his conduct. All his effluents are ended. He has no further becoming. Hemavata the yakkha: Consummate the mind of the sage in action & in ways of speech, you rightly praise him as consummate in clear-knowing & conduct. Consummate the mind of the sage in action & in ways of speech, you rightly rejoice in him as consummate in clear-knowing & conduct. Consummate the mind of the sage in action & in ways of speech, let’s go see Gotama, consummate in clear-knowing & conduct. Come, let’s go see Gotama, enlightened, with legs like an antelope, thin, eating little, not greedy, doing jhāna in the forest. Having gone to the nāga,5 the lion wandering alone, indifferent to sensuality, let’s ask him about release from Death’s snare. Let’s ask Gotama, proclaimer, preacher, attained to the far shore of all phenomena: awakened, gone past animosity & fear. * * * Hemavata the yakkha: In what has the world arisen? In what does it make acquaintance? From clinging to what is the world? In what is the world afflicted? The Buddha: In six has the world arisen.6 In six does it make acquaintance. From clinging just to six is the world, in six is the world7 afflicted. Hemavata the yakkha: Which is that clinging where the world is afflicted? When asked the way leading out, please tell how is one released from suffering & stress. The Buddha: The five strings of sensuality in the world,8 with the heart described as the sixth: Being dispassioned for desire there: That’s how one’s released from suffering & stress. That is the way leading out of the world proclaimed to you as it really is, I have proclaimed to you: That’s how one is released from suffering & stress. Hemavata the yakkha: Who here crosses over the flood? Who here crosses over the ocean? Unestablished, without support,9 who doesn’t sink into the deep? The Buddha: Always consummate in virtue, discerning, well-centered, internally percipient,10 mindful, one crosses over the flood hard to cross. Abstaining from perceptions of sensuality, overcoming all fetters, having totally ended delight in becoming, one doesn’t sink into the deep.11 Hemavata the yakkha: The one deeply discerning, seeing the subtle goal, having nothing, unattached in sensual becoming: See him, everywhere released,12 the great seer, going the divine way! Perfectly named, seeing the subtle goal, granting discernment, unattached to sensual nostalgia: See him, all-knowing, wise, the great seer, going the noble way! Truly, it was well-seen today, well-dawned, well-arisen, that we saw the One Self-Awakened, crossed over the flood, effluent-free. These ten hundred yakkhas, powerful, prestigious, all go to you for refuge. You are our teacher unexcelled. We will wander from village to village, town to town, paying homage to the One Self-Awakened & to the Dhamma’s true rightness. vv. 153–180 Notes 1. Such (tādin): An adjective applied to the mind of one who has attained the goal. It indicates that the mind “is what it is”—indescribable but not subject to change or alteration. 2. See MN 6 and AN 10:71. 3. According to SnA, these four questions deal with the four forms of wrong speech: telling lies, speaking harshly, engaging in divisive tale-bearing, and engaging in idle chatter. 4. See MN 53. 5. See AN 6:43 and Thag 15:2. 6. According to SnA, the “six” are the six internal and external sense media. See the definition of “world” in SN 35:82. 7. The phrase, “is the world,” functions as a lamp here. 8. See Sn 1:3, note 5. 9. On unestablished consciousness, see Ud 8:1, SN 12:64, SN 22:87, and the discussion in The Paradox of Becoming, chapter 7. 10. Reading ajjhatta-saññī with the Thai edition. The other editions read ajjhatta-cintī, “internally thinking.” 11. See SN 1:1. 12. On the phrase, “everywhere released,” see The Paradox of Becoming, chapter 7.