Aṇguttara Nikāya
VIII. Navaka Nipāta
IV. Mahā Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
VIII. The Book of the Nines
Chapter IV: The Great Chapter
Sutta 40
Āraññaka-Nāg'Opama Suttaṃ
The Tusker[1]
Translated.from the Pali by E.M. Hare.
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Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Savatthī, at Jeta Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
There the Exalted One said this to the Monks:
"Monks, when bull or cow or young or baby elephant,
browsing on the grass-tops,
forestalls some forest tusker about to take his feed,
so that he is plagued, provoked and vexed;
when bull or cow or young or baby elephant
devouring the bunches[2] of broken boughs
forestalls some forest tusker about to take his feed,
so that he is plagued, provoked and vexed;
when bull or cow or young or baby elephant,
[292] stirring up the water with his trunk,
forestalls the forest tusker,
gone down to the water-hole
so that he is plagued, provoked and vexed;
when cow elephants go and rub against the body of the tusker, gone down to the water-hole,
so that he is plagued, provoked and vexed:
then, monks, the forest tusker thinks:
'I'faith, I live now in a crowd of bull elephants,
cow elephants,
young elephants,
baby elephants;
I eat merely grass-stubble;
they eat my bunches of broken boughs;
I drink muddied water;
and cow elephants come and rub against my body
when I've gone to the water-hole!
What if I dwell alone,
withdrawn from the herd?'
And presently, monks, he dwells alone,
withdrawn from the herd;
and he eats uncropped grass,
and none devours his bunches of boughs;
he drinks unmuddied water,
and cow elephants come not and rub against him in the water-hole.
■
And at that time he thinks:
'In the past I dwelt in a crowd of bull elephants,
cow elephants,
young elephants,
baby elephants;
I ate merely grass-stubble;
they ate my bunches of broken boughs;
I drank muddied water;
and cow elephants came and rubbed against my body
when I went to the water-hole;
but now I dwell alone,
withdrawn from the herd;
and I eat uncropped grass,
and none devours my bunches of boughs;
and I drink unmuddied water,
and cow elephants come not and rub against me in the water-hole.'
and breaking off a bunch of boughs with his trunk,
he rubs his body with it and joyfully allays the itch.
§
And it is just so, monks,
when a monk lives in a crowd of monks, nuns, lay-disciples,
both men and women,
rajahs, their ministers,
course-setters and their disciples;
he thinks:
'Truly I now live in a crowd of monks, nuns, lay-disciples,
both men and women,
rajahs, their ministers,
course-setters and their disciples!
What if I were to live alone,
withdrawn from the horde?'
■
And he resorts to some secluded dwelling:[3] forest,
tree-root,
mountain,
glen,
cliff-cave,
cemetery,
wooded upland,
open space
or heap of straw -
and come to forest,
tree-root
or empty hut,
he sits crossed legged,
holds his body erect
and sets mindfulness before him.
■
And putting away worldly coveting,
he abides with mind freed therefrom;
he purges his mind of coveting:
putting away ill-will and hatred,
he abides with mind free therefrom;
kindly, compassionate towards all creatures,
he purges his mind of ill-will and hatred;
putting away sloth and torpor,
he abides freed therefrom;
conscious,
alert,[4]
mindful,
self-possessed,
he purges his mind of sloth and torpor:
putting away flurry and worry,
he abides unflurried;
with mind inwardly calmed,
he [293] purges his mind of flurry and worry;
putting away doubt,
he abides with doubt passed by;
no 'how? how?' questioner,
he purges his mind of doubt as to right things.[5]
■
And putting away these five hindrances,
weakening the mind's corruptions
by wisdom,
aloof from sense desires,
aloof from evil ideas,
he enters and abides in the first musing,
wherein applied and sustained thought works,
which is born of solitude
and is full of zest and ease.
■
Suppressing applied and sustained thought,
he enters and abides in the second musing,
which is self-evolved,
born of concentration,
full of zest and ease,
free from applied and sustained thought,
wherein the mind becomes calm and one-pointed.
■
Free from the fervour of zest,
mindful and self-possessed,
he enters and abides in the third musing,
and experiences in his being
that ease whereof the Ariyans declare:
'He that is tranquil and mindful dwells at ease.'
■
By putting away ease and by putting away ill,
by the passing away of happiness and misery he was wont to feel,
he enters and abides in the fourth musing,
which is utter purity of mindfulness and poise
and is free of ease and ill.
■
By passing wholly beyond perceptions of form,
by the passing away of the perceptions of sense-reactions,
unattentive to the perceptions of the manifold,
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite space, thinking:
'Space is infinite'.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite space,
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite consciousness, thinking:
'Consciousness is infinite'.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite consciousness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of nothingness, thinking:
'There is nothing'.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of nothingness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception,
he enters and abides in the ending of perception and feeling
and seeing by wisdom that the cankers are completely destroyed, he rejoices greatly at having allayed the irritant."
[1] Nāga, UdA. 250; Mahāhatthi, yūthapati. The simile is used.at Ud. 41, Vin. i. 353, Dhp. i. 58 (1925 ed. 48).
[2] Obhagg'obhaggaṃ sākhābhaṇgaṃ; cf. J. iii, 407, tesaṃ upari sākhābhaṇgaṃ attharitvā, P.E.D. 'layer'; literally 'break' (cf. the English use in billiards and croquet; also, similarly, in trade as a number or group of things, a 'line,' a 'break' - e.g., of tea; this latter use is omitted.from the Shorter O.E.D.). Cf. above, p. 135, n. 6.
[3] D. i, 71; ii, 242; iii, 49; M. i, 269; A. i, 241; ii, 210; Vin. ii, 146.
[4] Āloka, on the look-out.
