The Sutta Nipata
The "Sutta Collection"
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Sutta Nipata II.11
Rahula Sutta
Advice to Rahula
Translated from the Pali by John D. Ireland.
"Renouncing the five pleasures of sense that entrance
and delight the mind, and in faith departing from home, become one who makes an
end of suffering!
"Associate with good friends and choose a remote
lodging, secluded, with little noise. Be moderate in eating. Robes, alms-food,
remedies and a dwelling, -- do not have craving for these things; do not be one
who returns to the world. [1] Practice restraint
according to the Discipline, [2] and control the five
sense-faculties.
"Practice mindfulness of the body and continually
develop dispassion (towards it). Avoid the sign of the beautiful connected with
passion; by meditating on the foul [3] cultivate a
mind that is concentrated and collected.
"Meditate on the Signless [4]
and get rid of the tendency to conceit. By thoroughly understanding and
destroying conceit [5] you will live in the (highest)
peace."
In this manner the Lord repeatedly exhorted the Venerable
Rahula.
-- vv. 337-342
Notes
1. By being dragged back to it again
by your craving for these things (Comy).
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2. The Vinaya, or disciplinary code
of the community of Bhikkhus.
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3. The "foul," or asubha-kammatthana,
refers to the practice of contemplating a corpse in various stages of decay and
the contemplation on the thirty-two parts of the body, as a means of developing
detachment from body and dispassion in regard to its beautiful (or, "the
sign of the beautiful," subha-nimitta).
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4. The Signless (animitta) is
one of the three Deliverances (vimokkha) by which beings are liberated
from the world. The other two are Desirelessness (appanihita) and
Emptiness (sunnata). The Signless is connected with the idea of
impermanence of all conditioned things (cf. Visuddhi Magga, XXI 67f).
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5. The word "mana"
means both conceit and misconceiving.
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Contents
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