Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
20. Opamma Saṃuttaṃ
Sutta 7
Āṇi Suttaṃ
The Peg
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Proofed against and modified in accordance with the revised edition at dhammatalks.org
Provenance, terms and conditons
[1] Staying near Sāvatthi.
[2] "Monks, there once was a time when the Dasārahas had a large drum called 'Summoner.'
[3] Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasārahas inserted another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.[1]
[4] "In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathāgata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited.
They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering.
[6] But they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of outsiders, words of disciples — are recited.
They will lend ear and set their hearts on knowing them.
They will regard these teachings as worth grasping and mastering.
"In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the Tathāgata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — will come about.
[7] "Thus you should train yourselves:
'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathāgata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited.
We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping and mastering.'
That's how you should train yourselves."
[1] The Commentary notes that the drum originally could be heard for twelve leagues, but in its final condition couldn't be heard even from behind a curtain.
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