Aṅguttara Nikāya
X. Dasaka-Nipāta
II. Nātha Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
X. The Book of the Tens
II: Things Making for Warding
Sutta 15
Appamāda Suttaɱ
Seriousness
Translated from the Pali by F. L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1][than][olds][bodh] Monks, as compared with creatures,
whether footless, bipeds, quadrupeds,
or those of many feet,
with form or void of form,
with sense or void of sense,
or indeterminate in sense,
a Wayfarer,
an arahant,
a fully enlightened one
is reckoned chief of them,
even so, monks, whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states
seriousness is reckoned chief.[1]
■
Just as, monks, of all the foot-characteristics
of such creatures as roam about[2]
are joined together in the foot of the elephant,
and as the elephant's foot
in size
is reckoned chief,
even so, whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as, monks, in a peaked house
all the rafters whatsoever
go together to the roof-peak,
slope to the roof-peak,
are joined together in the roof-peak,
and of them
the roof-peak is [17] reckoned chief,
even so, monks, whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
[22]Just as, monks, of all root scents,
black gum[3] is reckoned chief,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as of all wood scents
red sandalwood is reckoned chief,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as of all flower scents
the jasmine is reckoned chief,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as all petty princes whatsoever
follow in the train of the universal monarch
and he is reckoned chief of them,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as of all starry bodies whatsoever
the radiance does not equal one-sixteenth part
of the radiance of the moon
and the moon's radiance is reckoned chief of them,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as in the autumn season,
when the sky is opened up
and cleared of clouds,
the sun leaping up into the firmament
drives away all darkness
and shines and burns and flashes forth,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
■
Just as, monks, whatsoever great rivers there be,[4]
such as Gangā, Yamunā, Aciravatī, Sarabhū and Mahī,
all of them make for,
flow to,
slide
and tend to the ocean,
and the mighty ocean is reckoned chief of them,
even so whatsoever good states there be,
all of them are rooted in seriousness,
unite in seriousness,
of those states seriousness is reckoned chief.
[1] Cf. A. ii, 34; iii, 35 = G.S. ii, 38; iii, 26.
[2] Reading jangamānaṅ for text's jangalānaṅ; cf. K.S. v, 34 ff. and notes.
[3] Kāḷāṇusārī. P. Dict. 'a fragrant black substance.' According to Benfey's Sanskrit Dict. (ref. to Sucr. ii, 94, 21) it is benzoin; 'gum benjamin' is a thick juice flowing from cuts in the bark of a tree in Sumatra. Elsewhere I have wrongly translated (K.S. iii, 132; v, 35) as 'dark sandalwood.'
