Aṇguttara Nikāya
Sattaka Nipāta
Avyākata Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
The Book of the Sevens
Chapter VI: The Unexplained
Sutta 60
Kodhana Suttaṃ
Anger[1]
Translated from the Pali by E.M. Hare.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
For details see Terms of Use.
[1][than][ati-nymo] THUS have I heard:
Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Sāvatthī, at Jeta Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park;
and there he addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
'Yes, lord,' they replied;
and the Exalted One said:
"Monks, there are these seven conditions,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,[2]
which come upon an angry woman or man.
What seven?
[59] Monks, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that he were ugly!"
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a handsome rival.
Monks, this sort of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
and however well he be bathed, anointed, trimmed
as to the hair and beard,
clad in spotless linen;[3]
yet for all that he is ugly,
being overwhelmed by anger.
Monks, this is the first condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry woman or man.
■
Again, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that he might sleep badly!"[4]
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a rival to sleep well.
Monks, this sort of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
and in spite of his lying on a couch,
spread with a fleecy cover,
spread with a white blanket,
spread with a woollen coverlet,
flower embroidered,
covered with rugs of antelope skins,
with awnings above;
or on a sofa,
with crimson cushions at either end;[5]
yet for all that he lies in discomfort,
being overwhelmed by anger.
Monks, this is the second condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry woman or man.
■
Again, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that he might not prosper!"[6]
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a rival to prosper.
Monks, this sort of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
making a loss, he thinks:
"I have made a profit";
making a profit, he thinks:
"I have made a loss."
Overwhelmed by anger,
these things cause enmity towards others;
they conduce to his ill and misfortune
for many a day.
Monks, this is the third condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry woman or man.
■
Again, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that he had no wealth!"
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a rival to be wealthy.
Monks, this sort [60] of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
and whatever his possessions,
earned by vigorous industry,
got together by the strength of his arm,
piled up by the sweat of his brow,
gotten righteously and lawfully,[7]
rajahs will order them to be sent to the royal treasury,
because he is overwhelmed by anger.
Monks, this is the fourth condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry woman or man.
■
Again, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that he were without fame!"
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a rival to be famous.
Monks, this sort of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
and whatever his fame,
diligently earned,
it falls away from him,
because of his anger.
Monks, this is the fifth condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry woman or man.
■
Again, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that he were without friends!"
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a rival to have friendships.
Monks, this sort of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
whatever friends, intimates, relations and kinsmen he may have,
they will avoid and keep far away from him,
because he is overwhelmed by anger.
Monks, this is the sixth condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry woman or man.
■
Again, there is the case of the rival,
who wishes thus of a rival:
"Would that on the breaking up of the body after death
he might be reborn in the untoward way,
the ill way,
the abyss,
hell!"[8]
And why?
A rival, monks, does not like a rival to go to heaven.
Monks, this sort of person,
being angry,
is overwhelmed by anger;
he is subverted by anger:
and he misconducts himself in deed,
in word and
thought;
so living,
so speaking and
so thinking,
on the breaking up of the body after death
he is reborn in the untoward way,
the ill way,
the abyss,
hell.
Monks, this is the seventh condition,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which comes upon an angry [61] woman or man.
Verily, monks, these are the seven conditions,
fostered by rivals,
causing rivals,
which come upon an angry woman or man.
How ugly is an angry man! His sleep
Is comfortless; with fortune in his hands
He suffers loss; and being full of wrath
He wounds by act and (bitter) word. O'erwhelmed
By rage, his wealth he wastes away. Made mad
And crazy by his bile, his name's bemired
With odium.[9] Shunned and forsaken is
An angry man by friend and relative.
By[10] wrath is loss incurred; by wrath the mind
Is racked. Irate, he knows not that within
Fear is engendered, nor knows the goal.
When anger-bound, man Dhamma cannot see;
When anger conquers man, blind darkness reigns.
A man in wrath finds pleasure[11] in bad deeds
As in good deeds; yet later, when his wrath
Is spent, he suffers like one scorched by fire:[12]
As flame atop of smoke, he staggers on,[13]
When anger spreads,[14] when youth becomes incensed.
No shame, no fear of blame, no reverence
In speech[15] has he whose mind is anger rent;
[62] No island of support[16] he ever finds.
The deeds which bring remorse,[17] far from right states,
These I'll proclaim. List how they come about.
A man in anger will his father kill,
In wrath, his very mother will he slay,
Brāhman[18] and common folk[19] alike he'll kill.
'Tis but by mother's care man sees the light
Of day, yet common average folk, in wrath,
Will still destroy that fount of life (and love).
Self-mirrored all these beings are; each one
Loves most the self. In wrath the common folk[20]
Kill self, by divers forms distraught: by sword
Men kill the self; in madness poison take;
And in some hollow of a mountain glen[21]
They hide, and bind themselves with ropes and die.
Thus ruin runs in wake of wrath, and they,
Who act in wrath, perceive not that their deeds,
Destroying life,[22] bring death unto the self.
Thus lurking in the heart is Mara's snare[23]
In anger's loathsome form. But root it out
By insight, zeal, right view, restraint; the wise
Would one by one each evil state root out
And thus in Dhamma would he train himself:
Be not our minds obscured, but anger freed
And freed from trouble, greed and coveting.
The well controlled, the canker-freed, become,
When anger's stilled, wholly, completely cool.'[24]
[1] Cf. Vism. 299; trsl. ii, 344; Sn.A. 11.
[2] Karaṇa. Comy. atthakaraṇa.
[3] This phrase recurs at D. i, 104; ii, 325; S. i, 79; iv. 343.
[4] Dukkhaṃ sayeyya.
[5] This passage recurs at D. i, 7 (see D.A. i, 87); ii, 187; Vin. i, 192; ii, 163; A. i, 137; iii, 50; below, pp. 156 and 264; in the Mahāyāna: the Larger Sukhāvatī-Vyūha, § 41 (S.B.E. xlix, pt. ii, 64).
[6] Pacurattho, lit. much good; Comy. much benefit.
[7] This passage recurs at A. ii, 67; iii, 46, 76; below, p. 188.
[8] It may be noted that Bu. at Vism. 299 does not quote this passage accurately, according to our text. Thus he reads na kāyassa bhedā, ... sugatiṃ saggaṃ for kāyassa bhedā ... apāyaṃ duggatiṃ vinipātaṃ nirayaṃ; see Mrs. Rhys Davids at Vism. 766 on similar misquotations.
[9] Āyasakyaṃ. Comy. ayasābhāvaṃ, ayaso, niyaso.
[10] The five following lines recur at It. 83 f. with kuddho, wrath, substituted by lobho, gain; doso, hatred; duṭṭho, evil; and moho, confusion. See also D.A. i, 54; Sn.A. 12, 20; Netti. 12.
[11] Reading uparocati (v.l. -eti) - S.e. with text - for uparodheti; so the line might be translated: A man in wrath destroys fine work as though of no account (sukaraṃ viya dukkaraṃ).
[12] Cf. Dhp. 136; J. vi. 437, 442; Pv. i, 7, 4 for simile.
[13] The text reads: dhūmaggimi va; Siṇh, edit., dhūmaggi viya; P.E.D. s.v., paduseti: -aggimihi, s.v. maṇku: aggamhi; we could translate:
As flame in smoky fire, his mind's obscured.
Cf. the Bhagavad Gītā, iii, 37-8; Mrs. Besant's and Bhagavan Das's translation: It is wrath ... as a flame ... enveloped by smoke.
[14] Patāyati. Comy. nibbattati.
[15] Reading vācā for vā cā.
[16] So Comy.; cf. K.S. iii, 27; Dial. ii, 108; Sn. 501; Dhp. 236; Th. i, 412.
[17] Tapanīyāni kammāni. Comy. tāpajanakāni; cf. It. 24; A. i, 49, v. 276.
[18] Comy. khīnāsava.
[19] Puthujjana, the many (average) folk.
[20] Text puthuttānaṃ; so S.e., see P.E.D. s.v. puthutta.
[21] Pabbatā-m-api kandare. Comy. pabbatakandare patitvā.
[22] Bhūnahaccani kammāni. Comy. hatavaḍḍhīni, see F. Dial. i, 357; Mil. 428 (Q. of M. ii, 183); J. vi, 579; S.e., Comy. and most MSS. bhūta-.
[24] Parinibbiṃsu.
