Saɱyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
12. Nidāna Saɱyutta
2. Āhāra Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
Part II. The Book Called the Nidāna-Vagga
Containing Kindred sayings on Cause
and Other Subjects
12. The Kindred Sayings on Cause
2. Sustenance-Suttas
Sutta 18
Timbaruka Suttaɱ
Timbaruka
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by F. L. Woodward
Originally Published by
The Pali Text Society
Public Domain
[1][bodh][than] Thus have I heard:
The Exalted One was once staying near Sāvatthī at the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
Now the wanderer Timbaruka came up to the Exalted One and greeted him:
and when compliments of friendship and courtesy had been exchanged,
he sat down at one side.
So seated he spoke thus to the Exalted One:
"Now then, Master Gotama,
is pleasure and pain wrought by one's self?"
"Not so verily, Timbaruka,"
said the Exalted One.
"What then, Master Gotama,
is one's pleasure and pain wrought by another?"
[18] "Not so verily, Timbaruka,"
said the Exalted One.
"What then, Master Gotama,
is pleasure and pain wrought both by one's self
and by another?"
"Not so verily, Timbaruka,"
said the Exalted One.
"What then, Master Gotama,
has [the] pleasure and pain [which is] wrought neither by myself
nor by another,
befallen me by chance?"
"Not so verily, Timbaruka,"
said the Exalted One.
"What then, Master Gotama,
is pleasure and pain non-existent?"
"Nay, Timbaruka, pleasure and pain is not non-existent;
pleasure and pain is."
"Then Master Gotama
neither knows nor sees pleasure and pain?"
"Nay, Timbaruka, I am not one who knows not pleasure and pain
nor sees it.
I am one that knows pleasure and pain, Timbaruka,
I am one that sees pleasure and pain."
"How now, Master Gotama?
When asked:
'is pleasure and pain wrought by one's self?'
you have answered:
'Not so verily, Timbaruka.'
When asked:
'What then, Master Gotama,
is one's pleasure and pain wrought by another?'
you have answered:
'Not so verily, Timbaruka.'
When asked:
'What then, Master Gotama,
is pleasure and pain wrought both by one's self
and by another?'
you have answered:
'Not so verily, Timbaruka.'
When asked:
'What then, Master Gotama,
has [the] pleasure and pain [which is] wrought neither by myself
nor by another,
befallen me by chance?'
you have answered:
'Not so verily, Timbaruka.'
When asked:
'What then, Master Gotama,
is pleasure and pain non-existent?'
you have answered:
'Not so verily, Timbaruka.'
When asked:
'Then Master Gotama
neither knows nor sees pleasure and pain?'
you have answered:
'Nay, Timbaruka, I am not one who knows not pleasure and pain
nor sees it.
I am one that knows pleasure and pain, Timbaruka,
I am one that sees pleasure and pain.'
Declare then to me, Master, Exalted One,
[the nature of] pleasure and pain.
Teach me, Master, Exalted One,
the nature of pleasure and pain."
"'The experience and he who experiences[1] [hereafter]
are one and the same:'
-this, Timbaruka, which you called at first
'pleasure and pain self-wrought,'
I declare this is not so.
''The experience and he who experiences [hereafter],
are different one from the other:'
this, Timbaruka, which
to one [19] smitten by the feeling
occurs as
'pleasure and pain caused by another,'
I declare this is not so.
To you, Timbaruka, the Tathāgata,
not approaching either extreme,
teaches the Norm by a middle [way]:
Conditioned by ignorance activities come to pass,
conditioned by activities consciousness;
conditioned by consciousness, name-and-shape;
conditioned by name-and-shape, sense;
conditioned by sense, contact;
conditioned by contact, feeling;
conditioned by feeling, craving;
conditioned by craving, grasping;
conditioned by grasping, becoming;
conditioned by becoming,
birth,
decay-and-death,
grief,
suffering,
sorrow,
despair come to pass.
But from the utter fading away and ceasing of ignorance [comes] ceasing of activities;
from ceasing of activities ceasing of consciousness;
from ceasing of consciousness ceasing of name-and-shape;
from ceasing of name-and-shape ceasing of sense;
from ceasing of sense ceasing of contact;
from ceasing of contact ceasing of feeling;
from ceasing of feeling ceasing of craving;
from ceasing of craving ceasing of grasping;
from ceasing of grasping ceasing of becoming;
from ceasing of becoming ceasing of birth;
from ceasing of birth,
old age-and-death,
grief,
lamenting,
suffering,
sorrow,
despair cease.
Such is the ceasing of this entire mass of ill."
When this had been said Timbaruka said to the Exalted One:
"Most excellent, lord!
Most excellent!
Just as if a man were to set up
that which had been thrown down,
or were to reveal
that which was hidden away,
or were to point out the right road
to him who had gone astray,
or were to bring a lamp into the darkness,
so that those who had eyes could see shapes, -
even so, lord, has the lord Gotama shown me
his doctrine in various ways.
I, even I, lord, betake myself to the Exalted One as my refuge,
to the Norm
and to the Order.
May Master Gotama accept me as a follower,
as one who from this day forth,
as long as life lasts,
has taken his refuge therein!"
[1] Sa vedanā so vediyati ti. The verb is causal passive of vidati, vedeti (to be known or felt), used actively (v. Andersen, Pali Glossary). The mistaken views which by Timbaruka, as by Kassapa, were expressed in terms partly of action, partly of feeling, are here by Gotama expressed in terms of feeling only. The root vid, ved being in its ultimate sense cognitive, I have used 'experience' as making the Master's riddle more intelligible in our tongue. The Commentary again makes it clear that the second clause refers to resulting experience, the first clause to a former experience ('doer's feeling' - kāraka-vedanā) as incurring that result. The Middle [Way] shows that the subject of the resulting experience is himself a result of the subject of the causal experience, as much and as little identical as is, say, the tree from the seedling Cf. § 17.
