Snp 4.2 - Sn 4:2 The Cave Octet Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp4_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: SN 35:189; Thag 16:4; Sn 4:15 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. 4:2 The Cave Octet Staying attached to the cave, covered heavily over,1 a person sunk in confusion is far from seclusion— for sensual pleasures sensual desires2 in the world are not lightly let go. Those chained by desire, bound by becoming’s allure, aren’t easily released for there’s no liberation by others. Intent, in front or behind,3 on hunger for sensual pleasures here or before— greedy for sensual pleasures, busy, deluded, ungenerous, entrenched in the discordant way,4 they—impelled into pain—lament: “What will we be when we pass on from here?” So a person should train right here-&-now. Whatever you know as discordant in the world, don’t, for its sake, act discordantly, for that life, the enlightened say, is short. I see them, in the world, floundering around, people immersed in craving for states of becoming. Base people moan in the mouth of death, their craving, for states of becoming & not-,5 unallayed. See them, floundering in their sense of mine, like fish in the puddles of a dried-up stream— and, seeing this, live with no mine, not forming attachment for states of becoming. Subdue desire for both sides,6 comprehending7 sensory contact, with no greed. Doing nothing for which he himself would rebuke himself, the enlightened person doesn’t adhere to what’s seen, to what’s heard. Comprehending perception, he’d cross over the flood— the sage not stuck on possessions. Then, with arrow removed, living heedfully, he longs for neither— this world, the next. vv. 772–779 Notes 1. Nd I: “Cave” = the body. “Covered heavily over” = having defilements and unskillful mental qualities. 2. “Sensual desires/sensual pleasures”: two possible meanings of kāma. According to Nd I, both meanings are intended here. 3. Nd I: “In front” means experienced in the past (as does “before” two lines down); “behind” means to-be-experienced in the future. 4. Nd I: “The discordant (visama) way” means the ten types of unskillful action (see MN 41, MN 97, and AN 10:176). See also Sn 1:12, note 11. 5. States of not-becoming are oblivious states of becoming that people can get themselves into through a desire for annihilation, either after death or as a goal of their religious striving (see Iti 49 and MN 49). As with all states of becoming, these states are impermanent and stressful. 6. According to Nd I, “both sides” here has several possible meanings: sensory contact and the origination of sensory contact; past and future; name and form; internal and external sense media; self-identity and the origination of self-identity. It also might mean states of becoming and not-becoming, mentioned in the previous verse and below, in Sn 4:5. 7. Nd I: Comprehending sensory contact has three aspects: being able to identity and distinguish types of sensory contact; contemplating the true nature of sensory contact (e.g., inconstant, stressful, and not-self); and abandoning attachment to sensory contact. The same three aspects would apply to comprehending perception, as mentioned in the following verse.