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- Samyutta Nikaya III.20
- Aputtaka Sutta
- Heirless (2)
- For free distribution only, as a gift of Dhamma
Translator's note: It might come as something of a surprise that the Buddha, in
this discourse, seems to speak favorably of the lavish enjoyment of sensual pleasures.
Taken in light of his teachings in AN V.41, his remarks here are less surprising. There he
points out that the enjoyment of pleasure is one of the legitimate rewards of wealth,
although the proper enjoyment of wealth doesn't end there. In this discourse, he speaks of
a man who, because of his past kamma, couldn't even enjoy sensual pleasures. This is a
useful discourse for illustrating the point that the Buddha's ultimate rejection of
sensual pleasure is not that of a man who was too aversive or stingy to enjoy them.
Rather, he rejects them because he was capable of enjoying them but realized that this
sort of enjoyment was not the path to true happiness.
As for the moneylender mentioned in this discourse, even though his inability to enjoy
his wealth can be traced to attitudes in the past, his unwillingness to make merit in this
lifetime is not the fault of his past kamma. People are always free to choose to practice
the Dhamma at any time. In his case, he chose not to. Thus he got no legitimate use out of
his wealth at all.
At Savatthi. Then King Pasenadi Kosala went to the Blessed One
in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, sat to one
side. As he was sitting there the Blessed One said to him, "Well now, great king,
where are you coming from in the middle of the day?"
"Just now, lord, a money-lending householder died in Savatthi. I have come from
conveying his heirless fortune to the royal palace: eight million in silver, to say
nothing of the gold. But even though he was a money-lending householder, his enjoyment of
food was like this: he ate broken rice & pickle brine. His enjoyment of clothing was
like this: he wore three lengths of hempen cloth. His enjoyment of a vehicle was like
this: he rode in a dilapidated little cart with an awning of leaves."
"That's the way it is, great king. That's the way it is. Once in the past that
money-lending householder provided alms for the Private Buddha named Tagarasikhi.
Saying [to his servant], 'Give alms to the contemplative,' he got up from his seat and
left. After giving, though, he felt regret: 'It would have been better if my slaves or
servants had eaten those alms.' And he also murdered his brother's only heir for the sake
of his fortune. Now, the result of his action in having provided alms for the Private
Buddha named Tagarasikhi was that he appeared seven times in a good destination, the
heavenly world. And through the remaining result of that action he acted as money-lender
seven times in this very same Savatthi. But the result of his action in feeling regret
after giving [those] alms -- 'It would have been better if my slaves or servants had eaten
those alms' -- was that his mind didn't lend itself to the lavish enjoyment of food,
didn't lend itself to the lavish enjoyment of clothing, didn't lend itself to the lavish
enjoyment of a vehicle, didn't lend itself to the lavish enjoyment of the five strands of
sensuality. The result of his action in having murdered his brother's
only heir for the sake of his fortune was that he boiled in hell for many years, many
hundreds of years, many thousands of years, many hundred-thousands of years. And through
the remaining result of that action he has left this seventh heirless fortune to the royal
treasury.
"Now, because of the wasting away of that money-lending householder's old merit
and his non-accumulation of new merit, he is today boiling in the Great
Roruva hell."
"So he has reappeared in the Great Roruva hell, lord?"
"Yes, great king. He has reappeared in the Great Roruva hell."
That is what the Blessed One said. Having said that, the One Well-Gone, the Teacher,
said further:
Grain, wealth, silver, gold,
or whatever other belongings you have;
slaves, servants, errand-runners,
& any dependents:
you must go without taking
any of them;
you must leave
all of them
behind.
What you do
with body, speech, or mind:
that is yours;
taking
that you go;
that's
your follower,
like a shadow
that never leaves.
Thus you should do what is fine
as a stash for the next life.
Acts of merit
are the support for beings
in their after-death world.
See also: SN III.19.