Saṃyutta Nikāya:
IV. Saḷāyatana Vagga
36: Vedanā Saṃyutta
Paṭhama Sagātha Vagga
Sutta 6
Sallattena Suttaṃ
By Arrow Shot
Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds
[1][pts][nypo][than][bodh] I Hear Tell:
Once Upon a Time, The Lucky Man,
Sāvatthī-town
Anāthapiṇḍika's Jeta Grove,
came-a revisiting.
There, to the Beggars gathered round, he said:
"Beggars!"
And the beggars responding:
"Broke Tooth!"
Bhagava said:
"The uneducated commoner, beggars,
pleased,
just experiences experience,
pained,
just experiences experience,
not-pained-but-not pleased,
just experiences experience.
The well-educated student of the Aristocrats, beggars,
pleased,
just experiences [208] experience,
pained,
just experiences experience,
not-pained-but-not pleased,
just experiences experience.
Therein, beggars,
what is the distinction,
what is the superiority,
what makes the difference
between the well-educated student of the Aristocrats
and the uneducated commoner?"
"For us Bhante,
things are best resorted to
rooted in the Lucky Man,
channeled through Bhagava.
It would be good, Bhante,
if further explanation of this point
were given by the Lucky Man.
That which is said by the Lucky Man
will be held in memory by the beggars."
"Then give ear, beggars.
Pay good attention!
I will speak!"
Then, the beggars saying
"Even so, Bhante!" in response,
the Lucky Man said this to them:
"The uneducated commoner, beggars,
on painful experience,
impacted by same,
grieves,
exhausts himself weeping and wailing,
beats his breast,
falls into confusion,
and so two experiences experiences:
of body and
of mind.
In just the same way, beggars
as a person,
arrow-shot,[1]
pierced,
he, by a second arrow pierced,
is thus, indeed, beggars,
a person who of two arrows
experiences experience.
Even so, beggars,
the uneducated commoner,
on painful experience,
impacted by same,
grieves,
exhausts himself weeping and wailing,
beats his breast,
falls into confusion,
and so two experiences experiences:
of body and
of mind.
Then even further,
being on painful experience,
impacted by same,
he at this painful experience,
is filled with rebellion
which is indulging[2] in painful-experience-rebellion-inclination.[3][4]
He on painful experience,
impacted by same,
seeks delight in sensual pleasure.
How come?
Indeed, beggars,
the uneducated commoner knows not,
other than through sensual pleasure,
the escape from painful experience.
Seeking delight in sensual pleasure,
which is indulging pleasure-experience-lust-inclination,
he, of this experience,
the self-arising and
settling down and
escape from it
does not understand as it is.
The self-arising and
settling down and
escape from
this experience not understanding as it is,
which is indulging in not-painful-but-not-pleasant-experience-blindness-inclination,
he, if pleasant experience experiences,
self-yoked he experiences it,
he, if unpleasant experience experiences,
self-yoked he experiences it,
he, if [209] not-painful-but-not-pleasant experience experiences,
self-yoked he experiences it.
This is called, beggars,
'The uneducated commoner
self-yoked to birth,
aging,
death,
grief,
lamentation,
pain,
misery,
despair —
connected to pain'
say I.
§
But then the well-educated student of the Aristocrats, beggars,
on painful experience,
impacted by same,
not grieving,
not exhausting himself weeping and wailing,
beating his breast,
or falling into confusion,
only one experience experiences:
of body
not of mind.
In just the same way, beggars
as a person arrow-shot,
pierced,
by a second arrow not pierced,
is thus, indeed, beggars, a person
who of only one arrow experiences experience.
Even thus then, beggars,
the well-educated student of the Aristocrats
on painful experience,
impacted by same,
not grieving,
not exhausting himself weeping and wailing,
beating his breast,
or falling into confusion,
only one experience experiences:
of body
not of mind.
Then even further,
being on painful experience,
impacted by same,
he at this painful experience
is not filled with rebellion,
which is not indulging in painful-experience-rebellion-inclination.
He, on painful experience,
impacted by same,
does not seek delight in sensual pleasure.
How come?
Understood, beggars,
by the well educated student of the Aristocrats,
is an escape from painful experience
other than through seeking delight in sensual pleasure,
which is not indulging in pleasure-experience-lust-inclination.
He, of this experience,
the self-arising and
settling down and
escape from it
does understand as it is.
The self-arising and
settling down and
escape from
this experience understanding as it is,
which is not indulging in not-painful-but-not-pleasant-experience-blindness-inclination,
he, if pleasant experience experiences,
un-self-yoked he experiences it,
he, if unpleasant experience experiences,
un-self-yoked he experiences it,
he, if not-painful-but-not-pleasant experience experiences,
un-self-yoked he experiences it.
This is called, beggars,
'The well-educated student of the Aristocrats —
un-self-yoked to birth,
aging,
death,
grief,
lamentation,
pain,
misery,
despair —
he is un-self-yoked to pain'
say I.
This then, beggars,
is the distinction,
this is the superiority,
this makes the difference between the well-educated student of the Aristocrats
and the uneducated commoner."
Not experiencing experience,[5] the wise,
just the pleasant, just the painful, the well-educated just
in this firm,[6] from the commoner
great difference in skillfulness has.
Having made of Dhamma a thing well-studied
beholding this world and the beyond,
the wished-for not turning the mind,
the unwished-for not being resisted,
satisfied and ended,
extinguished, settled down, not being,
he walks knowing dispassion, sorrowless,
consummately understanding, being one gone beyond.
[1] This reads 'a person, arrow-pierced', not 'a person pierced by an arrow', so really it means 'arrowed', or, if it were a spear, 'speared'. It was probably heard as we hear 'shot'.
[2] Anuseti. anu = follow after; seti = set; incline towards. PED: [anu + seti. cp. Sanskrit anushayate or* shete, from shi] to "lie down with", i.e. (1) trs. to dwell on, harp on (an idea) 2. (of the idea) to obsess, to fill the mind persistently, to lie dormant and be continually cropping up. Woodward: 'fastens on'; Bhk. Bodhi: 'lies behind this'; Bhk. Thanissaro: 'obsesses.' Nayanaponika Thera: 'comes to underlie (his mind)'.
[3] [rebellion-, lust-, blindness] -Anusaya. anu + sayati = 1. = seti, to lie down; 2. to lean on; to be supported etc.: PED: Bent, bias, proclivity, the persistence of a dormant or latent disposition, predisposition, tendency. Woodward: 'Lurking Tendency to repugnance, etc.'; Bhk. Bodhi: 'underlying tendency to aversion'; Bhk. Thanissaro: 'resistance, etc. -obsession' Nayanaponika Thera: 'an underlying tendency of resistance.'
[4] yo dukkhāya [etc] vedanāya paṭighānusayo so anuseti
Woodward: 'Feeling that repugnance for the painful feeling, the lurking tendency to repugnance fastens on him.'
Bhk. Bodhi: 'When he harbors aversion towards painful feeling, the underlying tendency to aversion towards painful feeling lies behind this.'
Bhk. Thanissaro: 'Any resistance-obsession with regard to that painful feeling obsesses him.'
Nayanaponika Thera, 'in him who so resists (and resents) that painful feeling, an underlying tendency of resistance against that painful feeling comes to underlie (his mind).
I am saying that 'dukkhāya [etc] vedanāya paṭighānusayo is a Germanic-like compound. 'Yo' = (who, what which; he whoever). So the meaning of the whole is that he who resents painful sensation is indulging in an inclination towards resentment, in indulging in an inclination towards resentment he seeks escape in sensual pleasure; he who seeks escape in sensual pleasure is indulging in an inclination towards lust; indulging in an inclination towards lust he is blind to the real way of escape in understanding the arising, settling down and escape that is understood when not-indulging; he who does not understand the escape is indulging in an inclination towards blindness the culmination of the series is being yoked to aging and death, etc.
[5] That's what it says: Na vedanaṃ vediyati. This would appear to contradict the opening statement. This could be an actual contradiction if the verses are taken to be commentary. But here the missing 'ti' at the end would seem to indicate that this was actually spoken by Gotama. How do we resolve it if it is not a contradiction? I see it as being a matter of the first case not necessarily being the arahant that is being spoken of, where in the verse we have the condition of the arahant. The well educated student of the Aristocrats still experiences experience, meaning feels sensations, or has 'experience through the senses' or in other terms still 'exists' where the arahant, no longer existing, has no experience through the senses. Neither Woodward nor Bhk. Bodhi nor Bhk. Thanissaro see it this way, but are forced to go beyond what is in the Pāḷi to make their renderings make sense.
[6] Not going beyond the initial impact to mental concern with it.
