Aṇguttara Nikāya
X. Dasaka-Nipāta
IX: Thera Vagga
The Book of Tens
Sutta 81
Bāhuna Suttaṃ
Old Man Bāhuna
Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds
Once upon a time The Lucky Man,
round-about Campā
bank of Gaggarā Lotus-pond.
There then Old Man Bāhuno approached the Lucky Man.
Having approached and paid respects,
he took a seat to one side.
Seated to one side
Old Man Bāhuno said this to The Lucky Man:
"How many things, Bhante, has the Tathāgata
put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart[1] made boundless?"
"There are these ten things, Bāhuno,
that a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
What ten?
Form,[2] Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Sense-experience, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Perception, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Own-making,[3] Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Consciousness,[4] Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Birth, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Aging, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Dying, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Pain, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
Slime, Bāhuno, a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
so as to live with a heart made boundless.
In the same way Bāhuno,
as the blue lotus,
or the red lotus,
or the white lotus,
born in the water,
growing up in the water,
rises above the water,
stands in the water,
but is not wet by the water,
even so, Bāhuno,
a Tathāgata has put away,
separated from,
shaken off,
these ten things
and lives with a heart made boundless."
[1] Cetasā. Heart. Bhk. Thanissaro has 'awareness'. This is not so much an awareness as a feeling (and not so much a feeling as an absence of or freedom from feeling); a state of the heart or mind, not a function. The idea of the sutta is the condition achieved through detachment from every existing thing whatsoever. That state may be accompanied by awareness but is not awareness.
[2] Rūpa. Previously I have favored 'shape' for rūpa, but am switching to 'form' to free up 'form' for use as 'Dhamma' when it is to stand for 'Good Form'. see: Rhys David's Buddhist India pg292.
I have, since the original translation of this sutta, switched back to 'form'. Nobody here hears 'Dhamma' when they see form.
[3] Saṇkhārā. These first five are the khandhas, the constituent parts of individuality. Saṇkhārā is the aspect of that which is the making of the world of individual experience by way of acts of mind speech and body.
[4] Viññāṇa. Consciousness. Re-knowing knowing knowledge. Here this means consciousness as an individual. Woodward's '(persisting) consciousness' appears to be an attempt to join this to theories of self and by that explain how it may be stripped off, but there is no idea in the Pāḷi of 'persisting'.
References:
Rhys David's Buddhist India
