The Sutta Nipata
The "Sutta Collection"
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Sutta Nipata IV.4
Suddhatthaka Sutta
Pure
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Read an alternate translation by John D. Ireland
"I see the pure, the supreme,
free from disease.
It's in connection
with what's seen
that a person's purity
is."[1]
Understanding thus,
having known the "supreme,"
& remaining focused
on purity,
one falls back on that knowledge.
If it's in connection
with what is seen
that a person's purity is,
or if stress is abandoned
in connection with knowledge,
then a person with acquisitions
is purified
in connection with something else,[2]
for his view reveals that
in the way he asserts it.
No brahman[3]
says purity
comes in connection
with anything else.
Unsmeared with regard
to what's seen, heard, sensed,
precepts or practices,
merit or evil,
not creating
anything here,
he's let go
of what he had embraced,
he's let go of self.
Abandoning what's first,
they depend on what's next.[4]
Following distraction,
they don't cross over attachment.
They embrace & reject
-- like a monkey releasing a branch
to seize at another[5]
--
a person undertaking practices on his own,
goes high & low,
latched onto perception.
But having clearly known
through vedas,[6] having encountered
the Dhamma,
one of profound discernment
doesn't go
high & low.
He's enemy-free[7]
with regard to all things
seen, heard, or sensed.
By whom, with what,[8]
should he
be pigeonholed
here in the world?
-- one who has seen in this way,
who goes around
open.[9]
They don't conjure, don't yearn,
don't proclaim "utter purity."
Untying the tied-up knot of grasping,
they don't form a desire for
any
thing
at all in the world.
The brahman
gone beyond territories,[10]
has nothing that
-- on knowing or seeing --
he's grasped.
Unimpassionate for passion,
not impassioned for dis-,[11]
he has nothing here
that's he's grasped as supreme.
Notes
1. An ancient Indian belief, dating
back to the Vedas, was that the sight of certain things or beings was believed
to purify. Thus "in connection with what's seen" here means both that
purity is brought about by means of seeing such a sight, and that one's purity
is measured in terms of having such a sight. This belief survives today in the
practice of darshan.
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2. In other words, if purity were
simply a matter of seeing or knowing something, a person could be pure in this
sense and yet still have acquisitions (= defilements), which would not be true
purity.
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3. "Brahman" in the
Buddhist sense, i.e., a person born in any caste who has become an arahant.
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4. Nd.I: Leaving one teacher and
going to another; leaving one teaching and going to another. This phrase may
also refer to the mind's tendency to leave one craving to go to another.
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5. "Like a monkey releasing a
branch to seize at another" -- an interesting example of a whole phrase
that functions as a "lamp," i.e., modifying both the phrase before it
and the phrase after it.
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6. Vedas -- Just as the word
"brahman" is used in a Buddhist sense above, here the word veda
is given a Buddhist sense. According to the Commentary, in this context it means
the knowledge accompanying four transcendent paths: the paths to stream-entry,
once-returning, non-returning, and arahantship.
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7. Nd.I: The enemies here are the
armies of Mara -- all unskillful mental qualities. For a detailed inventory of
the armies of Mara, see Sn III.2.
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8. By whom, with what -- two
meanings of the one Pali word, kena.
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9. Nd.I: "Open" means
having a mind not covered or concealed by craving, defilement, or ignorance.
This image is used in Ud V.5. It is in
contrast to the image discussed in note 1 to Sn IV.2.
An alternative meaning here might be having one's eyes open.
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10. Nd.I: "Territories"
= the ten fetters (samyojana) and seven latent tendencies (anusaya).
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11. Nd.I: "Passion" =
sensuality; "dispassion" = the jhana states that bring about
dispassion for sensuality.
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