The Transitory

[277] [313]

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

Once when the Lord was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's pleasaunce,
he was alone with his meditations
when the thought came to him that,
as Rāhula was now ripe
in the qualities which mature unto Deliverance,
he might school him in the eradication of the Cankers.

So when next morning,
duly robed and bowl in hand,
he had been into Sāvatthī for alms
and was back again after his meal,
the Lord told Rāhula to bring a mat to sit on
and they would go together
to pass the heat of the day in Andha-vana.

[278] Obedient to the Lord's commands,
the reverend Rāhula took a mat
and followed behind in the Lord's footsteps.

Now at that time some thousands of deities followed [314] after the Lord,
because the Lord would that day
school Rāhula in the eradication of the Cankers.

Plunging into Andha-vana's glades,
the Lord took his seat at the foot of a tree
on the mat set for him;
and Rāhula too,
with salutations,
seated himself hard by.

As Rāhula sat there,
the Lord put this question to Rāhula: -

Is sight permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent, sir.

Is the impermanent fraught with Weal or Ill.

With Ill.

Is it proper,
when a thing is fraught with Ill and change,
to regard it as -
Mine,
or this is I,
or this is My Self?

No, sir.

Is form permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent, sir.

Is the impermanent fraught ...
this is my Self?

[279] No, sir.

Is visual Contact permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent, sir.

Is the impermanent fraught ...
this is my Self?

No, sir.

Are feelings,
or perception
or factors
or the consciousness
which arises under the conditions of visual contact, -
permanent or impermanent?

Impermanent, sir.

Is the impermanent fraught ...
this is my Self?

No, sir.

And is all this equally true
of hearing,
smelling,
tasting,
touching
and the mind
and of their respective sense-objects?

Yes, sir.

When he sees all this, Rāhula,
the disciple of the Noble
becomes sick and weary of
sight,
form,
visual contact
and of the feelings and so forth thence arising;
sick and weary of
hearing,
sounds,
auditory contact,
and the feelings and so forth thence arising;
sick and weary of
smell,
odours,
olfactory contact,
and the feelings and so forth thence arising;
sick and weary of
taste,
savours,
gustatory contact,
and the feelings and [315] so forth thence arising;
sick and weary too of
mind,
mental objects,
mental contact,
and the feelings and so forth thence arising; -
[280] sick and weary of it all;
and so is Delivered
and to him, being Delivered,
comes the knowledge of his Deliverance
in the conviction that this is his last birth,
that he has lived the highest life,
that his task is done
and that now for him
there is now no more of what he has been.

Thus spoke the Lord.

The reverend Rāhula rejoiced in what the Lord had said.

While this exposition was being spoken,
the reverend Rāhula's heart was delivered from the Cankers
by leaving nothing to support them.

There arose, too,
in all those thousands of deities
the passionless and stainless Eye of Truth,
whereby they saw
how everything that originates
must also cease to be.

Majjhima Nikāya III. Upari Paṇṇāsa 5. Saḷāyatana Vagga

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

Further Dialogues of the Buddha Volume II

Sutta 147

Cūḷa Rāhul'Ovāda Suttaɱ

The Transitory

Majjhima Nikāya
III. Upari Paṇṇāsa
5. Saḷāyatana Vagga

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

Further Dialogues of the Buddha
Volume II