Of Yearnings

[1][wrrn][rhyt][pts][ntbb][upal][than] THUS have I heard:

Once when the Lord was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's pleasaunce,
he addressed the Almsmen as follows:

Let your lives conform to the codes of Virtue and of Obligations;
let your lives be restrained by the restraint of the Obligations
and ordered on the plane of right behaviour;
be scrupulous in observing the precepts of conduct,
seeing peril in small offendings.

Should an Almsman yearn to be dear to his fellows in the higher life
and beloved by them,
revered and famed among them, -
let him fulfil the whole code of virtue,
calm his heart within him,
cultivating the Ecstasies,
fostering Insight,
and perfecting himself in inward detachment.

Let him do this too,
if his yearning is either
that he may be given robes,
food,
lodging
and medicaments; -
or that the donors of such gifts to [24] him
may reap a rich reward
and blessing therefrom; -
or that such of his own kith and kin
departed in the faith
who keep him in mind,
may reap a rich reward
and blessing therefrom; -
or that he may overcome,
and not be overcome by,
discontent and sensuality,
and fear and dread; -
or that, without toil and travail,
he may have fruition of the Four Ecstasies
with their illumination
and the satisfaction they bring here and now; -
or that he may enter on
and abide in
physical experience of those excellent Deliverances^[1]
which transcend visible form
and are formless;
-or that, by destroying the (first) three Bonds,
he may enter on conversion's first stage,
secure thenceforth
against rebirth in any state of woe
and assured of ultimate Enlightenment; -
or that, by destroying the three Bonds
and reducing to small dimensions
passion,
hate
and delusion,
he may enter on conversion's second stage
and have to return but once more to this world
in order to make an end of Ill; -
or that, by destroying all five Bonds
which bind him to this lower world,
he may be translated elsewhere
(to the higher Brahma world),
there to pass utterly away
without any return thence; -
or that it may be his to enjoy in turn
each and every form of psychic power, -
from being one to become manifold,
from being manifold to become one,
to be visible or invisible,
to pass at will through wall
or fence
or hill
as if through air;
to pass in and out of the solid earth
as if it were water,
to walk on the water's unbroken surface
as if it were the solid earth,
to glide in state through the air
like a bird on the wing,
to touch and to handle the moon and sun
in their power and might,
and to extend the sovereignty of his body
right up to the Brahma world; -
or that, with the Ear Celestial
which is pure and far surpasses the ear of men,
he may hear both heavenly and human sounds,
sounds near and sounds afar; -
or that he may comprehend with his own heart
the hearts of other creatures
and of other men
so as to know them for just [25] what they are, -
filled with passion or free from passion,
hating or free from hate,
filled with delusion or free therefrom,
focussed or wandering,
large-minded or small-minded,
inferior or superior,
stedfast or unstedfast,
Delivered or lacking Deliverance; -
or that he may recall to mind
his divers existences in the past, -
a single birth,
then two ... [and so on to'] ... a hundred thousand births,
many an aeon of disintegration of the world,
many an seon of its redintegration,
and again many an seon both of its disintegration and of its redintegration, -
remembering, in every detail and feature,
that in this or that former existence
such and such was his name,
his sept,
his class,
his diet,
his joys and sorrows,
and his term of life,
ere, passing thence,
he came by such and such subsequent existence,
wherein such and such was his name and so forth,
right up to the time when he passed to his present life here; -
or that with the Eye Celestial,
which is pure
and far surpasses the human eye,
he may see creatures in the act of passing hence
and re-appearing elsewhere, -
creatures high and low,
fair or foul to view,
in bliss or woe,
all faring according to their past
(etc, as in Sutta No. 4); -
or that, by eradicating the Cankers,
he may-here and now,
of and by himself -
comprehend,
realize,
enter on,
and abide in,
the Deliverance of heart and mind
which knows no Cankers.

It was to this intent
that I have said:

'Let your lives conform
to the codes of Virtue
and of Obligations;
let your lives be restrained
by the restraint of the Obligations
and ordered on the plane of right behaviour;
be scrupulous in observing the precepts of conduct,
seeing peril in small offendings.'

Thus spoke the Lord.

Glad at heart, those Almsmen rejoiced in what the Lord had said.

^[1] See Dialogues II, 118.

Majjhima Nikāya 1. Mūla-Paṇṇāsa 1. Mūla-Pariyāya Vagga

Sacred Books of the Buddhists Volume V Dialogues of the Buddha Part IV

Further Dialogues of the Buddha Volume I

Sutta 6

Ākankheyya Suttaɱ

Of Yearnings

Majjhima Nikāya
1. Mūla-Paṇṇāsa
1. Mūla-Pariyāya Vagga

Sacred Books of the Buddhists
Volume V
Dialogues of the Buddha
Part IV

Further Dialogues of the Buddha
Volume I