The Sutta Nipata
The "Sutta Collection"
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Sutta Nipata II.10
Utthana Sutta
On Vigilance
Translated from the Pali by John D. Ireland.
Read an alternate translation by Thanissaro
Bhikkhu
"Rouse yourself! Sit up! What good is there in sleeping?
For those afflicted by disease (suffering), struck by the arrow
(craving), what sleep is there?
"Rouse yourself! Sit up! Resolutely train yourself to
attain peace.[1] Do not let the king of death,[2]
seeing you are careless, lead you astray and dominate you.
"Go beyond this clinging,[3]
to which devas and men are attached, and (the pleasures) they seek. Do not waste
your opportunity. When the opportunity has passed they sorrow when consigned to Niraya-hell.
"Negligence is a taint, and so is the (greater)
negligence growing from it. By earnestness and understanding withdraw the arrow
(of sensual passions)."
-- vv. 331-334
Notes
1. "Peace" is a synonym for
Nibbana, the final goal.
[Go back]
2. The king of death (maccuraja), or
Mara (death), is the personification of everything that binds us to this world
and prevents the gaining of deliverance.
[Go back]
3. This clinging to pleasures of the
senses.
[Go back]
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Contents
| Ch I
| Ch II |Ch
III | Ch IV|
ChV
