Aṅguttara Nikāya
IX. Navaka Nipāta
II. Sīhanāda Vagga

The Book of Nines

Sutta 15

Gaṇḍ'Opama Suttaṃ

The Boil Simile

Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds

 

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[1][pts][upal][than] I hear tell:

Once upon a time
in Sāvātthi-town.

In the same way, beggaars,
as a boil
swelling for several years
might have nine lesion-fishers
nine stubborn^[1] fishers,
from these anything whatever
that seeped out,
just filth seeped out,
just bad smells seeped out,
just the detestable seeped out.

Anything whatever
that came from it,
just filth came from it,
just bad smells came from it,
just the detestable came from it.

'Boil,' Beggars,
is a metaphor for body,
made up from
the four great components of beings,^[2]
originating from mother and father,
sustained by rice boiled in sour milk,
subject to change,
decay
abrasion,
breaking, and
destruction,
with its nine lesion-fishers,
nine stubborn fishers —
and from these,
anything whatever
that seeps out,
just filth seeps out,
just bad smells seep out,
just the detestable seeps out.

Anything whatever
that comes from it,
just filth comes from it,
just bad smells come from it,
just the detestable comes from it.

Therefore, beggars: Enough of this body!"

 

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^[1] [a]bhedana The word means "unbroken', leading Bhikhu Thanissaro to translate it as 'unlanced'. Hare translates it as 'natural' which tries (it looks like) for our meaning; Sister Upalavana goes with "not opened' but terms meaning unbroken go against the idea in the simile of oozing or leaking. If we understand the term a little more freely and relate it to what the simile is standing for, we can see that the idea is that these nine apertures are a stubborn, unremovable, inescapable, aspect bound up with having a body. That is the meaning I am aiming for here.

^[2] cātu-m-mahā-bhutikassa: Paṭhavi = Earth, solidity; āpo = water, liquidity; tejo = firelight, heat, intelligence; vāyo = wind, motion, animation. See dhātu #1

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