Pāḷi English Dictionary
Sutta SearchAṅguttara Nikāya
VIII. Navaka Nipāta
III. Sattāvāsa Vagga
The Book of Nines
Sutta 30
Āghāta-Paṭivinaya Suttaṃ
Fending Off Hatred
Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds
Once upon a time The Lucky Man
Sāvātthi-town revisiting
Anāthapiṇḍika's Jetavana sporting ground.
There then the Lucky Man said this
to the beggars:
There are nine ways, beggars,
to fend off hatred.
What nine?
Thinking:
'A disservice was done to me,
but where is the gain here?'[1],
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A disservice is being done to me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A disservice will be done to me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A disservice was done to
one loved and close to me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off to hatred.
Thinking:
'A disservice is being done to
one loved and close to me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A disservice will be done to
one loved and close to me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A service was done to
one unloved and disliked by me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A service is being done to
one unloved and disliked by me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
Thinking:
'A service will be done to
one unloved and disliked by me,
but where is the gain here?',
fends off hatred.
These then, beggars, are those
nine ways to fend off hatred.
[1] taṃ kut'ettha labbhā. Hare translates: "but wherein lies the gain to him from this?" Bhikkhu Bodhi translates: "... but how can that be obtained?" The literal translation ("but where is the gain here?") following PED, is what I have used. I suggest this is intended to turn the thinking here to an examination of the situation. For example the gain could be seen as the thinker's if he were thinking of the end of his experience of kamma. Or it could be thought that there was no gain, only loss to the doer of the disservice. In other words, think through the situation from the point of view of the gain because no one specific answer covers all the possibilities.
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