Snp 4.8 - Sn 4:8 To Pasūra
Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu
Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp4_8.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: MN 18; MN 36; MN 58; MN 101; SN 42:8; AN 2:36; AN 3:62; AN 3:68; AN 3:73
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4:8 To Pasūra

“‘Only here is there purity’
  —that’s what they say—
‘No other doctrines are pure’
  —so they say.
Insisting that what they depend on is good,
they are deeply entrenched
in idiosyncratic truths.1

Seeking controversy, they plunge into an assembly,
regarding one another as fools.
Relying on others’ authority,
they speak in debate.
Desiring praise, they claim to be skilled.

Engaged in disputes in the midst of the assembly,
  —anxious, desiring praise—
the one defeated is
  chagrined.
Shaken with criticism, he seeks for an opening.

He whose doctrine is [judged as] demolished,
  defeated, by those judging the issue:
He laments, he grieves—the inferior exponent.
  ‘He beat me,’ he mourns.

These disputes have arisen among contemplatives.
In them are
          elation,
          dejection.
Seeing this, one should abstain from disputes,
  for they have no other goal
  than the gaining of praise.

While he who is praised there
  for expounding his doctrine
  in the midst of the assembly,
laughs on that account & grows haughty,
  attaining his heart’s desire.

That haughtiness will be grounds for his damage,
  for he’ll speak in pride & conceit.
Seeing this, one should abstain from debates.
No purity is attained by them, say the skilled.

Like a strong man nourished on royal food,
you prowl about, roaring, searching out an opponent.
Wherever the battle is,
  go there, strong man.
As before, there’s none here.

Those who dispute, taking hold of a view,
saying, “This, and this only, is true,”
  those you can talk to.
Here there is nothing—
  no confrontation
  at the birth of disputes.2

Whom would you gain as opponent, Pasūra,
among those who live above confrontation—
  not pitting view against view—
  who have nothing here grasped as supreme?

So here you come,
  conjecturing,
your mind thinking up
  viewpoints.
You’re paired off with a pure one
  and so cannot proceed.”

vv. 824–834

Notes

1. Pacceka-sacca. The word pacceka can also mean singular, personal, or individual. AN 10:20 lists the following views as idiosyncratic truths. “The cosmos is eternal,” “The cosmos is not eternal,” “The cosmos is finite,” “The cosmos is infinite,” “The soul & the body are the same,” “The soul is one thing & the body another,” “After death a Tathāgata exists,” “After death a Tathāgata does not exist,” “After death a Tathāgata both does & does not exist,” “After death a Tathāgata neither does nor does not exist.” These truths are distinct from noble truths, in that the word for “noble”—ariya—can also mean “universal.”

2. See AN 10:93.

On the Buddha as a debater, see Skill in Questions, chapter 5.