Aṇguttara Nikāya
4. Catukka Nipāta
III. Uruvelā Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
The Book of the Fours
Chapter III: Uruvelā
Sutta 24
Kāḷakārāma Suttaṃ
Kāḷaka[1]
Translated from the Pali by F. L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
For details see Terms of Use.
[1][than][bodh] Thus have I heard:
On a certain occasion the Exalted One was staying at Sākete, in Kāḷaka's Park.
Then the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
[27] 'Yes. lord,' replied those monks to the Exalted One.
The Exalted One said:
"Monks, whatsoever in the world,
with the world of Maras,
Brahmas,
together with the host of recluses and brahmins,
of devas and mankind,
is seen,
heard,
sensed,
cognized,
attained,
searched into,
pondered over by the mind, -
all that do I know.
Whatsoever in the world,
with the world of Maras,
Brahmas,
together with the host of recluses and brahmins,
of devas and mankind,
is seen,
heard,
sensed,
cognized,
attained,
searched into,
pondered over by the mind, -
that have I fully comprehended.
All that is understood by the Tathāgata,
but the Tathāgata is not subject to it.[2]
If I were to say:
"I [don't][ed1] know whatsoever in the world,
with the world of Maras,
Brahmas,
together with the host of recluses and brahmins,
of devas and mankind,
is seen,
heard,
sensed,
cognized,
attained,
searched into,
pondered over by the mind,"
it would be a falsehood in me.
If I were to say:
"I both know and know not whatsoever in the world,
with the world of Maras,
Brahmas,
together with the host of recluses and brahmins,
of devas and mankind,
is seen,
heard,
sensed,
cognized,
attained,
searched into,
pondered over by the mind,"
it would be a falsehood in me.
If I were to say:
"I neither know it nor am ignorant of whatsoever in the world,
with the world of Maras,
Brahmas,
together with the host of recluses and brahmins,
of devas and mankind,
is seen,
heard,
sensed,
cognized,
attained,
searched into,
pondered over by the mind,"
it would be a falsehood in me,
that would be a fault in me.[3]
Thus, monks, a Tathāgata is a seer of what is to be seen,
but he has no conceit[4] of what is seen:
he has no conceit of what has not been seen,
he has no conceit of what is to be seen,
he has no conceit about the seer.
Hearing what is to be heard,
he has no conceit of what has been heard
he has no conceit of what has not been heard
he has no conceit of what is to be heard,
he has no conceit about the hearer.
So also sensing what is to be sensed,
he has no conceit of what has been sensed
he has no conceit of what has not been sensed
he has no conceit of what is to be sensed,
he has no conceit about he who is the senser.
Cognizing the cognizable
he has no conceit of the thing cognized
he has no conceit of what has not been cognized
he has no conceit of what is to be cognized
he has no conceit about he who has cognition.
Thus, monks, the Tathāgata,[5]
being such an one in things seen,
heard,
sensed,
cognized,
is "such."
Moreover, than "he who is such "
there is none other greater
or more excellent,
I declare.
[28] Whate'er is seen, heard, sensed or clung to is esteemed
As truth by other folk. 'Midst those who are convinced[6]
Not such am I, not one to claim that what they say,
Be it true or false, is ultimate.[7] I long ago[8]
Beheld this barb whereon mankind are hooked, impaled.
I know, I see, to that cling not Tathāgatas.'
[1] Acc. to Comy. he was a rich man who gave a park to the Order. Sākete was a town in Kosala. Cf. Buddh. India, 39.
[2] Taṃ Tathāgato na upaṭṭhāsi. Comy. has na upagañchi (by way of the sense-doors). This is expl. by next line of gathas, etaṃ ajjhositaṃ n'atthi. The reading at UdA. 130, where this passage is quoted, is taṃ Tathāgatassa na upaṭṭhāsi, 'did not occur to (? was not invented or imagined by) the T.'
[3] Kali-doso. Comy.
[4] Deeming, fancy: maññati, as at S. iv, 22; K.S. iv, 12.
[5] The text is confused here. Comparing Comy. and Sinh. text and punctuating, I get the reading dhammesu tādiso yeva, tadi: tamhā ca pana tāditamhā (abl. of tādiso) añño tādī uttaritaro vā, etc. Tādī = arahā, ariya. (Cf. Sn. 522, Nāgo tādi pavuccate tathattā.) Full comments on Tathāgata will be found at UdA. 128, 130, where this sutta is quoted.
[6] Saya-saṇvutesu = diṭṭhi-gatikā. Comy.
[7] Paraṃ = uttamaṃ katvā. Comy., which quotes the common boast 'idam eva saccaṃ, mogham aññan' ti.
[8] Paṭigacca. 'Under the Bodhi tree,' says Comy.
[ed1] Woodward follows the PTS Pali here and does not have this "don't". In the Pali this makes the first statement a lie. If the first statement had been "This the Tathāgata knows"; the second: "This the Tathāgata understands (Woodward's 'fully comprehend'), then the idea might have been the avoidance of the use of "I". But this is not the case in any version of the Pali, and it is a clearly understood principle that the "I" and so forth is permissible to use in conventional speech. Further, the four positions taken with regard to knowing are usually: "I know", "I do not know" "I both know and do not know" and "I neither know nor do not know." But there are only three positions given here. Surely this is the simple error of having neglected to insert the 'na', in the first of the three.
