Saṃyutta Nikāya
I. Sagātha Vagga
2. Devatta Saṃyutta
I. Nandana Vagga

The Section with Verses

Sutta 17

 

Difficult
or
The Tortoise

Translated from the Pāḷi
by
M. O'C. Walshe

Originally published as
Wheel No. 318-321
Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, 1985.
Volume 3 of
Samyutta Nikaya: An Anthology

Sourced from Access to Insight.
Transcribed from the print edition
by arrangement with the
Buddhist Publication Society.

© 2007

For free distribution only.

 

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[17.1][rhyc][bodh][than] Thus have I heard.

At one time the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī, at Jeta Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍika's park.

Now a certain deva, as the night was passing away, lighting up the whole Jeta Grove with his effulgent beauty, approached the Blessed One and, having approached, stood on one side.

Standing thus on one side, the deva spoke this verse before the Blessed One:

Hard it is to keep, and hard to bear,
Recluse-life for him who lacks the skill.
Obstacles abound, the fool is lost.
How long can he endure the holy life,
If he cannot hold his heart in check?
Caught now here, now there, he stumbles, falls.

[The Blessed One replied:]

As the tortoise draws into his shell
Each limb, the monk, withdrawn, with mind applied,
Unattached, and doing harm to none,
Passions wholly stilled, dwells blaming none.^[1]

 

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^[1] Cf. Bhagavadgiitaa ii, 58: "He who withdraws his senses on all sides from sense-objects as the tortoise draws in his limbs, is firmly established in wisdom." The same image occurs in SN 35.199.