Saṃyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
35. Saḷāyatana Saṃyutta
§ II: Paññāsaka Dutiya
2. Migajāla Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
4. The Book Called the Saḷāyatana-Vagga
Containing Kindred Sayings on the 'Six-Fold Sphere' of Sense and Other Subjects
35. Kindred Sayings the Sixfold Sphere of Sense
§ II: The 'Second Fifty' Suttas
2. The Chapter on Migajāla
Sutta 69
Upasena Suttaṃ
Upasena
Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1][than][bodh] Thus have I heard:
Once the venerable Sāriputta and the venerable Upasena were staying near Rājagaha, in Cool Grove,
at Snakeshood Grotto.[1]
Now at that time a snake had fallen on the venerable Upasena's body.
Then the venerable Upasena called to the Brethren, saying:
"Come hither, friends,
lift this body of mine on to a couch
and take it outside
before it be scattered here and now,
just like a handful of chaff."
At these words the venerable Sāriputta said to the venerable Upasena:
"But we see no change in the venerable Upasena's body,
no change for the worse in his faculties."
Then the venerable Upasena repeated what he had said, adding:
"Friend Sāriputta, he who should think,
'I am the eye,' or
'the eye is mine,' or
'I am the ear,' or
'the ear is mine,' or
'I am the nose,' or
'the nose is mind,' or
'I am the tongue,' or
'the tongue is mine,' or
'I am the body,' or
'the body is mine,' or
'I am the mind,' or
'the mind is mine,' -
in him there would be a change in his body,
there would be a change for the worse in his faculties.
But I, friend, have no such ideas as:
'I am the eye,' or
'the eye is mine,' or
'I am the ear,' or,
'the ear is mine,' or
'I am the nose,' or
'the nose is mind,' or
'I am the tongue,' or
'the tongue is mine,' or
'I am the body,' or
'the body is mine,' or
'I am the mind,' or
'the mind is mine.'
How then could there be any change in my body,
any change for the worse in my faculties?"
■
"The venerable Upasena has long since quelled
the lurking tendencies
that make for 'I' and 'mine.'
Therefore the venerable Upasena has[ed1] no such ideas as,
'I am the eye,' or
'the [21] eye is mine,' or
'I am the ear,' or
'the ear is mine,' or
'I am the nose,' or
'the nose is mind,' or
'I am the tongue,' or
'the tongue is mine,' or
'I am the body,' or
'the body is mine,' or
'I am the mind,' or
'the mind is mine.'"
■
So those brethren put the venerable Upasena's body on a couch
and bore it outside.
And the venerable Upasena's body
there and then
was scattered just like a handful of chaff.
[1] Sappa-sondika-pabbhāra. Cf. Vin. ii, 76; D. ii, 116. Comy. says it was shaped like a snake's hood. Upasena was Sāriputta's younger brother. After his meal he was sitting in the shadow of the grotto, fanned by the gentle breeze, mending his outer robe. Two young snakes were sporting in the tendrils overhanging the cave. One fell on the elder's shoulder. He was bitten and the venom spread rapidly through his body.
[ed1] Woodward has worded this: "Now the venerable Upasena had ... Therefore the venerable Upasena had..." giving the impression that this is a comment being made by the narrator, but it is a comment being made in response to Upasena by Sāriputta so I have altered it slightly to make that point clearer. Bhk. Bodhi in his translation puts this more clearly.
