Saɱyutta Nikāya
3. Khandha Vagga
22. Khandha Saɱyutta
2. Dutiya Anicca Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
3. The Book Called the Khandhā-Vagga
Containing Kindred Sayings on the Elements of Sensory Existence and other Subjects
22. Kindred Sayings on Elements
2. The Second on Impermanence
Sutta 19
Dutiya Hetu Suttaɱ
Cause (2)
Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1][bodh][than] Thus have I heard:—
The Exalted One was staying at Sāvatthī.
The Exalted One said:
"Body, brethren, is ill.
That which is the cause,
that which is the condition
of the arising of body,
that also is ill.[ed1]
How, brethren, can a body
which is compounded of ill[1]
come to be ease?
■
Feeling is ill.
That which is the cause,
that which is the condition
of the uprising of feeling,
that also is ill.
How, brethren, can feeling
which is compounded of ill
come to be ease?
■
Perception is ill.
That which is the cause,
that which is the condition
of the uprising of perception,
that also is ill.
How, brethren, can perception
which is compounded of ill
come to be ease?
■
The activities are ill.
That which is the cause,
that which is the condition
of the uprising of the activities,
that also is ill.
How, brethren, can the activities
which are compounded of ill
come to be ease?
■
Consciousness is ill.
That which is the cause,
that which is the condition
of the uprising of consciousness,
that also is ill.
How, brethren, can consciousness
which is compounded of ill
come to be ease?
■
Thus seeing, brethren, the well-taught Ariyan disciple
is repelled by body,
is repelled by feeling,
is repelled by perception,
is repelled by the activities
is repelled by consciousness.
Being repelled
he lusts not
not lusting he is set free
in this freedom comes insight
that it is a being free.
Thus he realizes:
'Rebirth is destroyed,
lived is the righteous life,
done is my task,
for life in these conditions
there is no hereafter.'"
[1] Here especially the translation of dukkha-sambhūtaɱ, 'ill-put together,' will better bring out the idea of a compost. The universe would seem to be 'bungled' by its causes, as 'Nature trying her 'prentice band,' or 'created by some lesser god,' as Tennyson puts it in The Idylls of the Kinq. It is an experiment. This significance of 'ill-state' is suggested to me by Mr. J. van Manen. The phrase sukaɱ viharati, 'lives at ease,' means 'the miad-feeling-body-compound,' works perfectly, like a well-made and well-oiled machine.
[ed1] Woodward has here mistakenly retained 'impermanent' from the previous sutta.
