Aṇguttara Nikāya
Pañcaka Nipāta
III: Pañc'aṇgika Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
The Book of the Fives
III: The Fivefold
Sutta 29
Cankamā-Nisaṃsa Suttaṃ
The Alley-Walk
Translated by E. M. Hare
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1][olds][agku][bodh] Thus have I heard:
Once the Exalted One dwelt near Sāvatthī;
and there he addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
'Yes, lord,' they replied; and the Exalted One said:
"Monks, there are these five advantages of an alley-walk.[1]
What five?
It hardens[2] one for travelling;
it is good for striving;
it is healthy;
(its use) tends to good digestion after one has eaten and drunk, munched and crunched;
the concentration[3] won from (the thought of) an alley-walk lasts long.
Monks, these are the five advantages of an alley-walk.'
[1] Cankama (pron. chankāmā;). Later, it became a cloister or terraced walk; see Vin. ii, 190 (Vin Texts, iii, 103 f.); but originally it must have been merely a clearing in the land about a monk's dwelling; see Comy. at J. i, 7, which gives the five defects (Buddhism in Translations, Warren; Cf. Rh. Davids, Bud. Birth-stories, p. 89 [1925]).
[2] Comy. one is able to endure a long journey.
[3] At A. iv, 87 the Buddha exhorts Moggallāna to concentrate on his alley-walk to get rid of torpor. Comy. here observes: 'By fixing the attention on the alley-walk, a concentration of the eight attainments (A. iv, 410, omitting the last) is won.'
