Saṃyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
39. Sāmaṇḍaka Saṃyutta

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
39. Kindred Sayings about Sāmaṇḍaka

Sutta 1

Nibbāna Suttaṃ

Nibbāna

Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids

Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[177]

[1] Thus have I heard:

Once the venerable Sāriputta was staying among the Vajjī,
at Ukkāvelā^[1]
on the banks of the river Ganges.

Then Sāmaṇḍaka,^[2] the Wanderer, came to visit the venerable Sāriputta,
and on coming to him
greeted him in friendly wise,
and after the exchange of greetings and courtesies
sat down at one side.

So seated, the Wanderer Sāmaṇḍaka said this to the venerable Sāriputta: -

"'Nibbāna, Nibbāna!' is the saying, friend Sāriputta.

Pray, friend, what is Nibbāna?'

"The destruction of lust,
the destruction of hatred,
the destruction of illusion, friend,
is called Nibbāna."

"But is there, friend, any path,
any approach
to the realization of this Nibbāna?"

"There is such a path, friend,
there is such an approach."

"And what is that path, friend,
what is that approach
to the realization of this Nibbāna?"

"It is this Ariyan Eightfold Path, friend,
for the realization of Nibbāna,
to wit:

Right view,
right aim,
right speech,
right action,
right living,
right effort,
right mindfulness,
right concentration.

Such, friend, is this path,
this approach
to the realization of Nibbāna."

[178] "A goodly path, friend,
a goodly approach
to the realization of this Nibbāna
and a proper occasion for earnestness too, friend!"

 

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^[1] Reading Ukkāvelā for text's Ukkavelā. At S. v, 163 we have Ukkacelā, and both here and there MSS. are confused. The letters v and c in Sinhalese are easily mistaken. I would read -vela at both places. The Udāna Comy. (p. 322) on Ud. vi, 1, calls it Ukkāvelā, a village near Vesāli, the capital of the Vajjī Cf. Uruvelā, Vin. i, etc.

^[2] The Sinhalese texts and Comy. read Sāmañcakāni and Sāmaṇḍakāni, possibly a corruption for Sāmannakāni, son of a wanderer, at Brethren, 40. I cannot find other mention of him.