Aṅguttara-Nikāya
II. Duka-Nipāta
I. Kamma-Karana Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
or
More-Numbered Suttas
II. The Book of the Twos
I. Punishments
Honour to that Exalted One, Arahant, the Fully Enlightenend One
Punishments
Suttas 1-10
Translated from the Pali by
F.L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
For details see Terms of Use.
Chapter I.
§§ 1-10. Punishments.[1]
Sutta 1. Untitled
[1] THUS have I heard:
Once the Exalted One was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
Then the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
'Lord,' replied those monks to the Exalted One.
The Exalted One said this:
"Monks, there are these two faults.[2]
What two?
That which has its result
in this very life,
and that which has its result
in some future life.
Now, monks, what is a fault
that has its result
in this very life?
In this connexion, monks,
one sees rulers seize a robber,
a miscreant,
and subjecting [sic] him
to divers forms of punishment:[3]
flogging him with whips,
with canes,
with cudgels:[4]
cutting off his hand,
his foot,
hand and foot,
his ear,
nose,
ear and nose:
torturing him with the "gruel-pot,"[5]
with the "chankshave,"[6]
torturing him with "Rāhu's mouth,"[7]
with the "fire- [43] garland,"[8]
with the "flaming hand,"[9]
with the "hay-twist,"[10] the "bark-dress,"[11]
"the antelope"[12]
with "flesh-hooking,"[13]
with the "disc-slice,"[14]
with the "pickling process,"[15]
with "circling the pin,"[16]
with the "straw mattress."[17]
Then they spray him with boiling oil,
give him as food to dogs,
spit him alive on a stake
or chop his head off.
The observer (of all this) thinks thus:
If I were to do such deeds
as those for which the rulers seize a robber,
a miscreant,
and so treat him ...
they would surely treat me in like manner.
Thus scared at the thought
of a fault (which has its result) in this very life,
he goes not about
plundering others' property.
This, monks, is called
"a fault with immediate retribution."
And what is
a fault with future retribution?
In this connexion
someone may thus reflect:
Evil in the future life
is the fruit of bodily offence.
Evil is the fruit of offence by word,
by 'thought,
in the future life.
If I offend in deed,
in word,
in thought,
should not I,
when body breaks up,
after death
be reborn in the Waste,
the Way of Woe,
the Downfall,
in Purgatory?
[44] Thus scared at the thought
of a fault to be atoned for in a future life,
he abandons immorality
in deeds of body
and practises morality
in deeds of body:
abandons immorality
in the practice of speech and thought,
and cultivates morality therein
and conducts himself[18]
with utter purity.
This, monks, is called
"a fault with future retribution."
These are the two faults.
Wherefore, monks, I say unto you:
Thus must ye train yourselves:
— "We will fear faults with immediate,
we will fear faults with future retribution.
We will shun[19] faults,
we will see danger in faults."
Of one who does so, monks,
it may be expected
that he will be released from all faults.
Sutta 2. Untitled
[2] Monks, these two struggles
are hard to undergo in the world.
What two?
The struggle of householders
who live at home
to provide clothing, food, lodging,
medicines for the sick,
and provision of necessaries:
and the struggle of those
who have gone forth from home to the homeless,
to renounce all substrates of rebirth.
These are the two struggles ...
Of these two, monks,
the latter is the more important.
Wherefore I say unto you:
Thus must ye train yourselves: —
"We will undertake the struggle
to renounce all substrates of rebirth."
That is how ye must train yourselves, monks.
Sutta 3. Untitled
[3] Monks, there are these two things
that sear[20] (the conscience).
What two?
Herein a certain one
has done an immoral act of body:
he has done immoral acts
in speech and thought,
has omitted moral acts
in speech and thought.
He is seared (with remorse)
at the thought:
I have done wrong in body,
speech and thought.
I have left undone
the good deed in body,
speech and thought.
And he burns at the thought of it.
These, monks, are the two things
that sear (the conscience).
Sutta 4. Untitled
[4] [45] Monks, there are these two things
that sear not (the conscience).
What two?
Herein a certain one
has done moral acts of body,
speech and thought:
has left undone immoral acts ...
His conscience is not seared
when he thinks:
I have done moral deeds ...
It is not seared
when he thinks:
I have left undone
immoral deeds of body,
speech and thought.
These are the two things
that sear not (the conscience).
Sutta 5. Untitled
[5][than] Two things, monks,
I have realized:
To be discontented in good states
and not to shrink back from the struggle.[21]
Without shrinking back, monks,
I struggle on thus:
"Gladly[2] would I have
my skin and sinews and bones wither
and my body's flesh and blood dry up,
if only I may hold out
until I win what may be won
by human strength,
by human energy,
by human striving."
By my earnest endeavour, monks,
I won enlightenment,
I won the unrivalled freedom from the bond.[23]
And ye too, monks, —
do not ye decline the contest,
but struggle on,
saying to yourselves:
"Gladly would I have
my skin and sinews and bones wither
and my body's flesh and blood dry up,
if only I may hold out
until I win what may be won
by human strength,
by human energy,
by human striving";
then ye too, monks,
in no long time
shall win that goal
for which the clansmen
rightly leave home
for the homeless life,
even that unrivalled goal
of righteous living,
realizing it for yourselves
even in this very life;
and having reached it
ye shall abide therein.
Wherefore I say unto you, monks:
Thus must ye train yourselves:
"We will not decline the contest,
but will struggle [46] on,
with this thought:
Let skin and sinews and bones wither ...
That is how ye must train yourselves, monks.
Sutta 6. Untitled
[6] Monks, there are these two things.
What two?
Looking with satisfaction[24]
on things which are as fetters that bind (to rebirth),
and looking with disgust thereon.
Monks, he who dwells
looking with satisfaction
on things that bind like fetters
abandons not lust,
abandons not hatred,
abandons not illusion.
He who abandons not these
is not released from rebirth,
from old age and decay,
from death, sorrow and grief,
from woe, lamentation and despair.
He is not released from Ill,
I declare.[25]
But, monks, he who dwells
looking with disgust
on things which are as fetters that bind,
abandons lust, hatred and delusion.
Abandoning these
he is released from old age and decay ...
he is released from Ill,
I declare.
These, monks, are the two things.
Sutta 7. Untitled
[7] Monks, these two states are dark.[26]
What two?
Shamelessness and recklessness.
These are the two states that are dark.
Sutta 8. Untitled
[8] Monks, there are two states that are bright.
What two?
Sense of shame and fear of blame.
These two states are bright.
Sutta 9. Untitled
[9][than][olds][irel] Monks, these two bright states
protect the world.
What two?
Sense of shame[27] and fear of blame.
Monks, if these two states
did not protect the world,
then there would be seen[28]
no mother or mother's sister,
no uncle's wife nor teacher's wife,
nor wife of honourable men;
but the world would come to confusion,
— promiscuity such as exists
among goats and sheep,
fowls and swine,
dogs and jackals.
But, monks, since these two bright states
do protect the world,
therefore there are seen mothers ...
and the rest.
Sutta 10. Untitled
[10] Monks, there are two periods
of entering on residence[29]
during the rainy season.
What two?
The earlier and the later.
These are the two.'
[1] Kamma-kāraṇa.
[2] Vajjāni, def. at Pts. i, 122.
[3] These punishments may be read in full at M. I, 87 (Further Dialogues i, 61; A. ii, 122; Mil. Pañh. trans. i, 276).
[4] Aḍḍha-daṇḍaka (short sticks). Ace. to Comy. 'clubs; or, to produce more effective blows, a stick of four hands (? a cubit) is split in two by (?) cross-pieces.' It is evidently a birch-rod.
[5] Bilanga-thālikaṅ Acc. to Comy. they took off the top of the skull and, taking a red-hot iron ball with pincers, dropped it in so that the brains boiled over.
[6] Sankha-mukhaṅ. 'Sand-papering' the scalp with gravel till it was as smooth as a sea-shell.
[7] Rāhu-mukhaṅ. Rāhu, the Asura, was supposed to swallow the moon and cause its eclipse. They opened the culprit's mouth with a skewer and inserted oil and a wick and lit it.
[8] Joti-mālikaṅ. The body was smeared with oil and set alight.
[9] Hattha-pajjotikaṅ. The hand was made into a torch with oil-rags and set alight.
[10] Eraka-vattikaṅ. The skin was flayed from the neck downwards, twisted below the ankles into a band by which he was hung up.
[11] Cīraka-vāsikaṅ. The skin was cut into strips and tied up into a sort of garment.
[12] Eneyyakaṅ. The victim was trussed up and spitted to the ground with an iron pin and roasted alive.
[13] Balisa-maṅsikaṅ. He was flayed with double fish-hooks.
[14] Kahāpaṇakaṅ. Little discs of flesh of the size of a copper coin were cut off him.
[15] Khārāpatacchikaṅ. The body was beaten all over with cudgels, and the wounds rubbed with caustic solution by combs. It is not clear what apatacchika means. I suggest khāra-āpa-tacchika ('caustic-water-planing').
[16] Paligha-parivattikaṅ. The body was pinned to the ground through the ears and twirled round by the feet.
[17] Palāla-pīṭhakaṅ. The body was beaten till every bone was broken and it became as limp as a mattress.
[18] Attānaṅ pariharati.
[19] Vajja-bhīruno (= bhīrukā. Comy.).
[20] Tapanīyā. It. 24, 25. Cf. Buddhism, 202; Expos. ii, 498; UdA. 269; Dhp. v. 17.
[21] For this formula. cf. M. i, 481; K.S. ii, 24; Compend. 179. At Buddh. Psych. Ethics, 358, 'The phrase "And the not shrinking back in the struggle" means the thorough and persevering and unresting performance, the absence of stagnation, the unfaltering volition, the unflinching endurance, the assiduous pursuit, exercise and repetition which attend the cultivation of good states.'
[22] Kāmaṅ (used adverbial1y) = libenter.
[23] Yoga-khema.
[24] Anupassitā = passana-bhāvo. Comy.
[25] Cf. K.S. iii, 142, etc.
[26] For kaṇhā, and sukkā cf. M. 1, 389; It. 36; Dhp. v. 87; Mil. 200; Asl. 129,389 (Expos. ii, 498); Buddh. Psych. Eth. 339.
[27] Hiri = conscientiousness.
[28] Na paññāyetha.
[29] Vassūpanāyikā = vass'upagamanāni. 'From the day after the full moon of Āsā'hā (June-July) for three months preceding the full moon of Kattikā (October-November) is the earlier three months' residence: from a month after the full moon of Āsā'hā for three months, ending after the full moon of Kattikā.' Comy. — i.e., to begin either in the last month of the dry season (VvA. 307) in India (but not in Ceylon), or the first month of the rains down to the end of the rains. For the practices followed by the monks in residence cf. SA. i, 291, 295, etc. In Ceylon there are two rainy seasons — viz., May, June, July, and October, November, December (the periods when the S.W. and N.E. monsoons are blowing).
