Aṇguttara Nikāya
X. Dasaka-Nipāta
V. Akkosa Vagga
The Book of Tens
Sutta 48
Dasa-Dhamma Suttaṃ
Ten Things
Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds
[1][pts][than][piya] I Hear Tell:
Once the Lucky Man Sāvatthī-town revisiting.
There he addressed the beggars, saying:
"Beggars!"
And "Bhante!" they replied
Then the Lucky Man said this to them:
"Ten, beggars, are things
on which one who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect.
What ten?
'Castless have I now become'.
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'Bound up in the reactions of others is my life'.
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'What is proper for me to do is now different.'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'Is there now in me any ethical position for which the self would blame me?'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'Is there now in me any ethical position for which discerning fellows in the godly life would blame me?'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'All that I love and find pleasurable will become alien, become not so.'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'Kamma[1] is now my inheritance,
kamma my lot,
kamma my starting point,
whatsoever intent I form
fair or foul
of such I become the remainderman.'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'In what way do I live as night and day fly by?'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'Now then, am I highly delighted with my empty hut?'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
'Now then, is there in me any super-human thing,
any sufficiently extraordinary attainment
of aristocratic-knowledge-and-vision
such that no trouble will beset me
if questioned at the last moment
by those of the godly life?'
One who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect on this.
These, beggars, are the ten things
on which one who has gone forth should repeatedly reflect."
[1] Kamma. = Intent.
