Saṃyutta Nikāya
5. Mahā-Vagga
45. Magga Saṃyutta
2. Vihāra Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
5. The Great Chapter
45. Kindred Sayings on the Way
2. Dwelling
Sutta 18
Kukkuṭ'Ārāma Suttaṃ
Cock's Pleasaunce (a)
Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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Once the venerable Ānanda
and the venerable Bhadda[1]
were staying at Cock's Pleasaunce
at Pāṭaliputta.[2]
Then the venerable Bhadda,
rising from his solitude at eventide,
came to see the venerable Ānanda,
and on coming to him
greeted him courteously,
and after the exchange of greetings and courtesies
sat down at one side.
So seated
the venerable Bhadda said this
to the venerable Ānanda:
"'The unrighteous life!
The unrighteous life!'
friend Ānanda,
is the saying.
Pray, friend, what is the unrighteous life?"
"Well said, well said, friend Bhadda![3]
Welcome is your penetration,[4]
welcome your ready wit,
and goodly is your [15] question.
You ask me the meaning of the unrighteous life,
do you not?"
"I do, friend."
"Well, friend, it is just that wrong eightfold way,
to wit:
Wrong view,
wrong aim,
wrong speech,
wrong action,
wrong living,
wrong effort,
wrong mindfulness
and wrong concentration."
[1] The same couple converse at the same place, infra text 171.
[2] Capital of Magadha. Cf. Rhys Davids's Buddhist India, pp. 203, 262; UdA. 416-9.
[3] At Brethren, 231 n. Mrs. Rhys Davids calls him Faustus ('lucky'). He puns on the name, as below loc. cit. and A. ii, 177. For Bhaddako cf. Vin. v, 144, bhaddako te ummango (sic.), yoniso paripucchasi At K.S. iv, 178, the same reply is given to another questioner, not Bhadda. So the fact of the pun is doubtful, or, as seems more probable, the facts are muddled in recording. For in a collection of this size (7,762 suttas?) learned by heart, some confusion is inevitable.
[4] Ummagga (lit. a tunnel, an underground way, a boring into). In bad sense, i.e. when contrasted as vāma-maggo (left-hand path) with dakkhiṇa-maggo it means 'wrong path,' as at Thig. 94, 1174; JA. v, 260, etc. Comy. defines as pāñña-ummagga, paññā-vimaṇsatta, paññā-gavesanaṇ.
