Snp 3.2 - Sn 3:2 Exertion Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp3_2.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. Publisher references (not part of the sutta): See also: MN 70; SN 4; AN 2:5; AN 5:53 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. 3:2 Exertion To me— my mind resolute in exertion near the river Nerañjarā, making a great effort, doing jhāna to attain rest from the yoke— Nāmuci1 came, speaking words of compassion: “You are ashen, thin. Death is in your presence. Death has 1,000 parts of you. Only one part is your life. Live, good sir! Life is better. Alive, you can do acts of merit. Your living the holy life and performing the fire sacrifice will heap up much merit. What use is exertion to you? Hard to follow —the path of exertion— hard to do, hard to sustain.” Saying these verses, Māra stood in the Awakened One’s presence. And to that Māra, speaking thus, the Blessed One said this: “Kinsman of the heedless, Evil One, come here for whatever purpose: I haven’t, for merit, even the least bit of need. Those who have need of merit: Those are the ones Māra’s fit to address. In me are conviction austerity, persistence, discernment. Why, when my mind is resolute, do you petition me to live? This wind could burn up even river currents. Why, when my mind is resolute, shouldn’t my blood dry away? As my blood dries up, gall & phlegm dry up, as muscles waste away, the mind grows clearer; mindfulness, discernment, concentration stand more firm. Staying in this way, attaining the ultimate feeling,2 the mind has no interest in sensuality. See: a being’s purity! Sensual passions are your first army. Your second is called Discontent. Your third is Hunger & Thirst. Your fourth is called Craving. Fifth is Sloth & Torpor. Sixth is called Cowardice. Your seventh is Uncertainty. Hypocrisy & Stubbornness, your eighth. Gains, Offerings, Fame, & Status wrongly gained, and whoever would praise self & disparage others: That, Nāmuci, is your army, the Dark One’s commando force. A coward can’t defeat it, but one having defeated it gains bliss. Do I carry muñja grass?3 I spit on my life. Death in battle would be better for me than that I, defeated, survive.4 Sinking here, they don’t appear, some brahmans & contemplatives. They don’t know the path by which those with good practices go. Seeing the bannered force on all sides— the troops, Māra along with his mount— I go into battle. May they not budge me from my spot. That army of yours, that the world with its devas can’t overcome, I will smash with discernment— as an unfired pot with a stone. Making my resolve mastered, mindfulness well-established, I will go about, from kingdom to kingdom, training many disciples. They—heedful, resolute in mind, doing my bidding— despite your wishes, will go where, having gone, there’s no grief.” Māra: “For seven years, I’ve dogged the Blessed One’s steps, but haven’t gained an opening in the One Self-Awakened & glorious. A crow circled a stone the color of fat —’Maybe I’ve found something tender here. Maybe there’s something delicious’— but not getting anything delicious there, the crow went away. Like the crow attacking the rock, I weary myself with Gotama.” As he was overcome with sorrow, his lute fell from under his arm. Then he, the despondent spirit, right there disappeared. vv. 425–449 Notes 1. Māra. 2. The highest equanimity that can be attained through jhāna. 3. Muñja grass was the ancient Indian equivalent of a white flag. A warrior expecting that he might have to surrender would take muñja grass into battle with him. If he did surrender, he would lie down with the muñja grass in his mouth. The Buddha, in asking this rhetorical question, is indicating that he is not the type of warrior who would carry muñja grass. If defeated, he would rather die than surrender. 4. This line is repeated in Thag 2:37.