Snp 5.1 - Sn 5:1 Ajita’s Questions Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu Source: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/StNp/StNp5_1.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. 5:1 Ajita’s Questions With what is the world shrouded? Because of what doesn’t it shine? With what is it smeared? Tell me. What is its great danger & fear? The Buddha: With ignorance the world is shrouded. Because of stinginess, heedlessness,1 it doesn’t shine. With longing it’s smeared—I tell you. Suffering-stress: its great danger & fear. Ajita: They flow every which way, the streams.2 What is their blocking, what their restraint—tell me— with what are they finally stopped? The Buddha: Whatever streams there are in the world: Their blocking is mindfulness, mindfulness is their restraint—I tell you— with discernment they’re finally stopped. Ajita: Discernment & mindfulness, name-&-form, dear sir: Tell me, when asked this, where are they brought to a halt? The Buddha: This question you’ve asked, Ajita, I’ll answer it for you— where name-&-form are brought to a halt without trace: With the cessation of consciousness they’re here brought to a halt.3 Ajita: Those here who have fathomed the Dhamma, those who are learners, those who are run-of-the-mill: When you, dear sir, astute, are asked this, tell me their manner of life.4 The Buddha: He should not hanker for sensual pleasures, should be limpid in mind. Skilled in all mental qualities, he, the monk, should wander mindfully. vv. 1032–1039 Notes 1. The Thai edition notes that this word, in terms of the meter of the line, is excessive. 2. According to Nd II, the streams that ‘flow every which way’ are the streams of craving, views, conceit, defilement, corruption, and ignorance that flow out the six sense media. The first two lines in the translation of Ven. Ajita’s second set of questions (the first half-line in the Pali) is identical to the first half-line in Dhp 340. 3. See DN 11, DN 15, MN 49, and SN 12:67. Asaṅga, in the Yogācārabhūmi, quotes a Sanskrit translation of this sutta that inserts at this point the final question and answer, on the topic of how consciousness is brought to a halt, occurring at the end of the Pali version of Sn 5:13. A manuscript found in Turfan contains a Sanskrit version of this sutta that inserts the same question at the same point, and includes traces of other insertions as well. 4. In SN 12:31, the Buddha quotes this question to Ven. Sāriputta and asks him to answer it. With a little prodding, Ven. Sāriputta gives this extended answer, on which the Buddha places his seal of approval: “One sees with right discernment that ‘this has come into being.’ Seeing with right discernment that ‘this has come into being,’ one practices for disenchantment with, for dispassion toward, for the cessation of what has come into being. One sees with right discernment that ‘it has come into being from this nutriment.’ Seeing with right discernment that ‘it has come into being from this nutriment,’ one practices for disenchantment with, for dispassion toward, for the cessation of the nutriment by which it has come into being. One sees with right discernment that ‘from the cessation of this nutriment, what has come into being is subject to cessation.’ Seeing with right discernment that ‘from the cessation of this nutriment, what has come into being is subject to cessation,’ one practices for disenchantment with, for dispassion toward, for the cessation of what is subject to cessation. This is how one is a learner. “And how is one a person who has fathomed the Dhamma? “One sees with right discernment that ‘this has come into being.’ Seeing with right discernment that ‘this has come into being,’ one is—through disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, through lack of clinging/sustenance—released from what has come into being. One sees with right discernment that ‘it has come into being from this nutriment.’ Seeing with right discernment that ‘it has come into being from this nutriment,’ one is—through disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, through lack of clinging/sustenance—released from the nutriment by which it has come into being. One sees with right discernment that ‘from the cessation of this nutriment, what has come into being is subject to cessation.’ Seeing with right discernment that ‘from the cessation of this nutriment, what has come into being is subject to cessation,’ one is—through disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, through lack of clinging/sustenance—released from what is subject to cessation. This is how one is a person who has fathomed the Dhamma.”