Kudakkha Nikāya
Khuddakapāṭha

The Minor Readings

[Index]

 

Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli

 

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[v]

Translator's Introduction

This — the shortest of all the books in the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka — might be regarded as a sort of handbook, a practical vade mecum whose contents represent the central doctrines of the Buddha's teaching. It comes first among the fourteen books that make up the Fifth Nikāya, or Collection of Minor Books, in the Sutta Piṭaka of the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka. Its traditional history is given in the Commentary.

It has already been translated once into English as it stands, namely, in Minor Anthologies, Vol. I, by Mrs. C.A.F. Bhys Davids [Sacred Books of the Buddhists, London, 1931). But its. contents almost all appear also in other canonical books, and so several other versions of them will be found in the respective translations. The following list shows in what books:

In spite of this fact, a new translation was decided on. This was not undertaken either out of any expectation to outdo what others have already done or 'to carp at others and give blame' (KhpA. Ch. i, § 2) — great and never-ending fun as that is, of course —; it was simply dictated by the need for coherence in the renderings of technical terms, which became so desirable as to claim necessity when the Commentary was being translated and coordinated. One advantage of this was that it saved the translator the invidious task of picking and choosing between the existing excellent translations.

[vi] As to the alternatives of prose or verse, the latter was decided on in spite of the risks. Rhymes seemed out of place here, and the choice of metre has been arbitrary with no attempt to reflect Pāḷi rhythms, which the supple analytical English idiom does not support. The foremost aim throughout has been accuracy with literalness (recalling, however, that the more literal the rendering of an idiomatic phrase is the less accurate it will be); other aims, such as style and language shades have been subordinated. Also a brevity has been sought that does not draw up into the rendering of the verses the Commentary's explanations of them. In fact, when verses are of such a nature as to allow of more than one interpretation in the Pāḷi (for instance, such elliptic lines as those at No. VIII, v. 8 and No. IX, v. 1), the attempt has deliberately been made to reproduce that effect, and, so far as has been possible, to make the English as difficult as the original though not more so, and difficult in the same or a parallel way, leaving the Commentary to do its work of expansion and explanation (with the addition of some notes).

Other matters of a general nature affecting translation are dealt with in the Introduction to the Commentary.

The following acknowledgements are due. First to all those Theras of Ceylon and Burma with whom the translator has had the opportunity to discuss the Dhamma and the Pāḷi language, without whose readily given help this translation of the Commentary would not have taken shape. Again, in general, to other translators from Pāḷi, because their work is a standing help, stimulation and encouragement. And the translator gladly expresses his gratitude in particular to the Burmese authorities and to the Assistant Librarian at Ceylon University for the information about the lost Tīkā (see Introduction to Commentary, p. v); to the Pāḷi Text Society for undertaking to publish this translation, and to Miss I.B. Horner for most kindly consenting to read through the MS and for many valuable suggestions and help with the proofs.

 

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It was with deep grief that we heard of the sudden death of the Ven. Ñāṇamoli on March 8th, 1960. He had corrected the proofs but had not seen the revises of this book. I have therefore been responsible for them. He was a scholar of rare and valuable qualities and his death has dealt a severe blow to Pāḷi studies.

I.B.H.

 

[vii]

Contents

THE MINOR READINGS
(Khuddakapāṭha)

 

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[1]

The Minor Readings

I. ☝

The Three Refuges

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

I go for refuge to the Enlightened One.
I go for refuge to the True Idea.
I go for refuge to the Community.

For the second time I go for refuge to the Enlightened One.
For the second time I go for refuge to the True Idea.
For the second time I go for refuge to the Community.

For the third time I go for refuge to the Enlightened One.
For the third time I go for refuge to the True Idea.
For the third time I go for refuge to the Community.

 

§

 

II. ☝

The Ten Training Precepts

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

[1.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from killing breathing things.

[2.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from taking what is not given.

[3.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from unchastity.

[4.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from speaking falsehood.

[5.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from any opportunity for negligence due to liquor, wine, and besotting drink.

[6.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from untimely eating.

[7.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from dancing, singing, music, and contortionist shows.

[8.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from any opportunity for wearing garlands, smartening with scents, and embellishment with unguents.

[9.] I undertake the training precept of abstention from [the use of] high couches and large couches.

[10.] [2] I undertake the training precept of abstention from accepting gold and silver.

 

§

 

III. ☝

The Thirty-Two-Fold Aspect

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

There are in this body
head-hairs,
body-hairs,
nails,
teeth
skin,
flesh,
sinews,
bones,
bone-marrow,
kidney,
heart,
liver,
midriff,
spleen,
lights,
bowels,
entrails,
gorge,
dung,
bile,
phlegm,
pus,
blood,
sweat,
fat,
tears,
grease,
spittle,
snot,
oil-of-the-joints,
urine, and
brain in the head.

 

§

 

IV. ☝

The Boy's Questions

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

One is what?
All creatures subsist by nutriment.

Two is what?
Name and form.

Three is what?
Three kinds of feeling.

Four is what?
Four Noble Truths.

Five is what?
Five categories of what is affected by clinging.

Six is what?
Six bases in oneself.

Seven is what?
Seven enlightenment factors.

Eight is what?
The Noble Eightfold Path.

Nine is what?
Nine abodes of creatures.

Ten is what?
He that is endowed with ten factors is declared an Arahant.

 

§

 

V. ☝

The Good Omen Discourse

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

Thus I heard.

On one occasion the Blessed One was living near Savatthi in Jeta's Wood, Anathapindika's Park.

A certain deity then in the night's last extreme, the extreme of whose brilliance set the whole of Jeta's Wood aglow, approached the Blessed One, and, after showing respect to him, stood at one side.

And so standing, the deity addressed the Blessed One in verses thus:

1. Gods and men there are full many
That have tried to find good omens
Which, they hope, will bring them safety:

Tell, then, the supreme good omen.

 

■

 

2. [3] Not consorting with the foolish,
Rather with the wise consorting,
Honouring the honourable:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

3. Living in befitting places,
Having in the past made merit,
Right direction in self-guidance:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

4. Ample learning, and a craft, too,
With a well-trained disciplining,
Any speech that is well spoken:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

5. Aid for mother and for father,
And support for wife and children,
Spheres of work that bring no conflict:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

6. Giving, True-Ideal conduct,
With support for kin provided,
Unexceptionable actions:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

7. Shrinking, abstinence, from evil,
From besotting drink refraining,
Diligence in True Ideals:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

8. Then respect, and humble manner,
With content, and grateful bearing,
Hearing Truth when it is timely:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

9. Patience, meekness when corrected,
Seeing monks, and then discussion
Of the Truth when it is timely:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

10. [4] Ardour, a Divine Life leading,
Seeing Truths that are called Noble,
Realization of Extinction:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

11. Though by worldly ideas tempted
Ne'er his cognizance shall waver,
Sorrowless, secure, stainless:

This is a supreme good omen.

 

■

 

12 Since by working suchlike [omens]
Men are everywhere unvanquished
And go everywhere in safety,

That is their supreme good omen.

 

§

 

VI. ☝

The Jewel Discourse

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

1. Whatever beings are assembled here
— So be they native to the earth or sky —
Let beings each and all have peace of mind
And also listen closely to these words.

2. Therefore, 0 beings, give attention all:
Work lovingkindness for the race of men;
By day, by night, their offerings they bring,
Wherefore protect them well with diligence.

3. Whatever to be prized, what rarest jewel,
Is found here or beyond or in the heavens,
None is there equal to a Perfect One:

This jewel rare is in the Enlightened One;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

4. Such waning, fading, as is deathless, rarest,
The Sakyan Sage in concentration found;
That True Ideal no equal has at all:

This jewel rare is in the True Idea;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

5. [5] The Enlightened One, most high, a Pureness praised,
Calling it. 'Concentration straight-resulting
No equal is there to such concentration:

This jewel rare is in the True Idea;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

6. Whom those at Peace extol are the Eight Persons,
Which are Four Pairs, they merit offerings,
And they are the Sublime One's [true] disciples;
Gifts given them repay a rich reward:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

7. Such as by strength of mind in true vocation
Desireless dwell in Gotama's Dispensation,
Their goal they reached encountering the Deathless;
They savour without loss the quenching gained:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So by this very truth may there be safety.

8. As a locking-post deep-planted in the earth
Would stand unshaken by the four winds' blast,
So too, indeed, is the True Man, I say,
That sees the Noble Truths by undergoing:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So by this very truth may there be safety.

9. Such as clearly evince the Noble Truths
Well taught by Him Profound in Understanding,
Although they may be mightily neglectful,
Still they can never take an eighth existence:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

10. Along, too, with his excellence in seeing
He comes to have abandoned three ideas:
View of embodiment, uncertainty,
[Misapprehending] virtue and duty, all;
Immune from the four states of deprivation,
He cannot do the major six wrongdoings:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

11. [6] Though he can still perform an evil action
By body even, or by speech or mind,
Yet he cannot conceal it, and this fact
Proclaims him that has seen the State [of Peace]:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

12. As a tall forest tree with blossom crowned
In the warm summer month, the early heat,
Such the glorious Ideal he displayed,
Extinction-leading, for the weal supreme:

This jewel rare is in the Enlightened One;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

13. Glorious knower, giver, bringer of glory,
Peerless, he taught the glorious True Ideal:

This jewel rare is in the Enlightened One;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

14. Consumed the old, the new no more gives being,
From cognizance lust faded for new being,
The germ consumed, they have no more zeal for growth,
And steadfast, they go out, as did this lamp:

This jewel rare is in the Community;
So may there by this very truth be safety.

 

■

 

15. Whatever beings are assembled here
— So be they native to the earth or sky —
Come, let us laud the Enlightened One, thus-gone,
Honoured of gods and men: May there be safety.

16. Whatever beings are assembled here
— So be they native to the earth or sky —
Come, let us laud the True Ideal, thus-gone,
Honoured of gods and men: May there be safety.

17. Whatever beings are assembled here
— So be they native to the earth or sky —
Come, let us laud the Community, thus-gone,
Honoured of gods and men: May there be safety.

 

§

[7]

VII. ☝

The Without-the-Walls Discourse

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

1. Without the walls they stand and wait,
And at the junctions and road-forks;
Returning to their erstwhile homes,
They wait beside the jambs of gates.

2. But when a rich feast is set out
With food and drink of every kind,
The fact that no man does recall
These creatures stems from their past acts.

3. So they who are compassionate
At heart do give for relatives
Such drink and food as may be pure
And good and fitting at these times:

4. 'Then let this be for relatives;
'May relatives have happiness.'
These ghosts of the departed kin
Foregathered and assembled there

5. Will eagerly their blessing give
For [plentiful] rich food and drink:
'So may our relatives live long,
'Owing to whom we have this gain;

6. 'For honour to us has been done,
'No giver ever lacked the fruit.'
Now there is never ploughing there,
Nor any cattle-herding found,

7. Nor merchandizing just the same,
Nor bartering for coin of gold:
The ghosts of the departed kin
Live there on giving given here;

8. As water showered on the hill
Flows down to reach the hollow vale,
So giving given here can serve
The ghosts of the departed kin.

9. As river-beds when full can bear
The water down to fill the sea,
So giving given here can serve
The ghosts of the departed kin.

10. 'He gave to me, he worked for me,
'He was my kin, friend, intimate'.
[8] Give gifts, then, for departed ones,
Recalling what they used to do.

11. No weeping, nor yet sorrowing,
Nor any kind of mourning, aids
Departed Ones, whose kin remain
[Unhelpful to them acting] thus.

12. But when this offering is given
Well placed in the Community
For them, then it can serve them long
In future and at once as well.

13. The True Idea for relatives has thus been shown,
And how high honour to departed ones is done,
And how the bhikkhus can be given strength as well,
And how great merit can be stored away by you.

 

§

 

VIII. ☝

The Treasure-Store Discourse

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

1. A man a treasure store lays by
Deep in a water-level pit;
He thinks 'If need arise for aid,
It will be there to aid me then,

2. For my discharge from kings, were I
Denounced, or from a brigand, else
If held to ransom, or of debts,
In famines, or in accidents':
With suchlike aims, what in the world
Is called a store will be laid by.

3. Though be it ne'er so well laid by
Deep in a water-level pit,
Not all of it will yet suffice
To serve him all the time; and then

4. The store gets shifted from its place,
Or he perhaps forgets the marks,
Or Nāga-Serpents hale it off,
Or spirits fritter it away,

5. Or else the heirs he cannot bear
Abstract it while he does not see;
And when his merit is consumed,
The whole will vanish utterly.

6. But when a woman or a man
[9] Shall have with gifts or virtuousness
Or with refraining or constraint
A store of merit well laid by

7. In shrines or the Community,
Or in a person or in guests
Or in a mother or a father,
Even in an elder brother,

8. This treasure store is well laid by,
A follower unlosable:
Among what by abandoning
Have to be gone [to] he goes with this.

9. No others have a share in it,
And robbers cannot steal this store;
So let the steadfast merit make,
The store that is their follower.

10. This is a store can satisfy
Every desire of god or man;
No matter what they aspire to have:
All that is got by merit's grace.

11. Beauty of looks, beauty of voice,
Beauty of figure, beauty of form,
And lordliness and retinue:
All that is got by merit's grace.

12. A local kingship, empire, too,
Bliss of Wheel-turning Monarchy,
And godly rule in paradise:
All that is got by merit's grace.

13. And every human excellence,
Any delight in a godly world,
Even extinction's excellence:
All that is got by merit's grace.

14. A man has excellence in friends;
Devoting reason right, he wins
True knowledge and deliverance:
All that is got by merit's grace.

15. Discriminations, liberations,
Perfection of disciples, too,
And both kinds of enlightenment:
All that is got by merit's grace,

16. So great are the rewards it gives,
Simply, this merit's excellence:
[10] For that the steadfast and the wise Commend a store of merit made.

 

§

 

IX. ☝

The Lovingkindness Discourse

[pali][chld][nymo][than]

1. What should be done by one with skill in good
The State of Peace to have attained is this.

He would be able, right, upright,
And meek and gentle and not proud,

2. Contented, easy to support,
Unbusy, frugal, and serene
In faculties, prudent, modest,
Not fawning upon families.

3. He would no slight thing do at all
That other wise men might deplore.

[Then he would think] 'Joyful and safe
Let every creature's heart rejoice.

4. 'Whatever breathing beings there are,
No matter whether frail or firm,
With none excepted, long or big
Or middle-sized or short or small

5. Or thick, or those seen or unseen,
Or whether dwelling far or near,
That are or that yet seek to be,
Let every creature's heart rejoice.

6. Let none another one undo
Or slight him at all anywhere;
Let them not wish each other ill
With provocation or resistive thought.'

7. Thus, as a mother with her life
Might guard her son, her only child,
Would he maintain unboundedly
His thought for every living being.

8. His thought of love for all the world
He would maintain unboundedly,
Above, below, and all around,
Unchecked, no malice with or foe.

9. [11] Standing or walking, seated too,
Or lying down the while undrowsing,
He would pursue this mindfulness:
This is Divine Abiding here, they say.

10. But he that traffics not with views
Is virtuous with perfected seeing
Till, purged of greed for sense-desires,
He will surely come no more to any womb.

 

END OF THE MINOR READINGS