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- Sutta Nipata II.11
- Rahula Sutta
- Advice to Rahula
- Translated from the Pali by John D. Ireland
- For free distribution only,
by arrangement with the Buddhist Publication Society
- From The Discourse Collection: Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipata (WH 82),
translated by John D. Ireland (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983).
"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). [Go back]
2. The Vinaya, or disciplinary code of the community of
Bhikkhus. [Go back]
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). [Go back]
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). [Go back]
5. The word "mana" means both conceit and
misconceiving. [Go back]