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SN 12.13PTS SN 2.141 min read

Ascetics and Brahmins

Samaṇabrāhmaṇasutta

One who does not understand dependent origination is no true ascetic.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 12.13Linked Discourses 12.13
  • 0.22. Āhāravagga2. Fuel

0.3SamaṇabrāhmaṇasuttaAscetics and Brahmins

1.1PTS 2.15Sāvatthiyaṁ viharati.At Sāvatthī.1

1.2“Ye hi keci, bhikkhave, samaṇā vā brāhmaṇā vā jarāmaraṇaṁ nappajānanti, jarāmaraṇasamudayaṁ nappajānanti, jarāmaraṇanirodhaṁ nappajānanti, jarāmaraṇanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ nappajānanti;“Mendicants, there are ascetics and brahmins who don’t understand old age and death, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation.21.3jātiṁ …pe…They don’t understand rebirth …1.4bhavaṁ …continued existence …1.5upādānaṁ …grasping …1.6taṇhaṁ …craving …1.7vedanaṁ …feeling …1.8phassaṁ …contact …1.9saḷāyatanaṁ …the six sense fields …1.10nāmarūpaṁ …name and form …1.11viññāṇaṁ …consciousness …1.12saṅkhāre nappajānanti, saṅkhārasamudayaṁ nappajānanti, saṅkhāranirodhaṁ nappajānanti, saṅkhāranirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ nappajānanti,They don’t understand choices, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation.1.13na me te, bhikkhave, samaṇā vā brāhmaṇā vā samaṇesu vā samaṇasammatā brāhmaṇesu vā brāhmaṇasammatā; na ca pana te āyasmanto sāmaññatthaṁ vā brahmaññatthaṁ vā diṭṭheva dhamme sayaṁ abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja viharanti.I don’t deem them as true ascetics and brahmins. Those venerables don’t realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and don’t live having realized it with their own insight in this very life.3

2.1Ye ca kho keci, bhikkhave, samaṇā vā brāhmaṇā vā jarāmaraṇaṁ pajānanti, jarāmaraṇasamudayaṁ pajānanti, jarāmaraṇanirodhaṁ pajānanti, jarāmaraṇanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ pajānanti;There are ascetics and brahmins who do understand old age and death, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation.2.2jātiṁ …pe…They understand rebirth …2.3bhavaṁ …continued existence …2.4upādānaṁ …grasping …2.5taṇhaṁ …craving …2.6vedanaṁ …feeling …2.7phassaṁ …contact …2.8saḷāyatanaṁ …the six sense fields …2.9nāmarūpaṁ …name and form …2.10viññāṇaṁ …consciousness …2.11saṅkhāre pajānanti, saṅkhārasamudayaṁ pajānanti, saṅkhāranirodhaṁ pajānanti, saṅkhāranirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ pajānanti,They understand choices, their origin, their cessation, and the practice that leads to their cessation.2.12te kho me, bhikkhave, samaṇā vā brāhmaṇā vā samaṇesu ceva samaṇasammatā brāhmaṇesu ca brāhmaṇasammatā; te ca panāyasmanto sāmaññatthañca brahmaññatthañca diṭṭheva dhamme sayaṁ abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja viharantī”ti.I deem them as true ascetics and brahmins. Those venerables realize the goal of life as an ascetic or brahmin, and live having realized it with their own insight.”

2.13Tatiyaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. Each item in dependent origination is treated according to the four noble truths.

    ↩ sn12.13:1.1

  2. The terms “ascetics and brahmins” is often used as a generic catch-all for ‘religious practitioners” (SN 3.1:2.1).

    “Ascetics” (samaṇa) include the renunciate practitioners of the non-Vedic religions such as the Buddhists, Jains, and Ājīvakas. Such religious movements typically rejected Vedic authority and caste system, and proposed their own philosophy and practice (DN 2:2.2).

    “Brahmins” were a hereditary caste of Vedic priests charged with maintaining scripture and performing rituals. In the Vedas, brahmins served worldly prosperity and, more vaguely, heavenly rebirth. Perhaps under the influence of the ascetics, they later developed a renunciate movement of contemplatives who looked for a merger with Divinity beyond the cycle of rebirth.

    ↩ sn12.13:1.2

  3. Literally, “they are not deemed by me as ascetics among ascetics, or brahmins among brahmins”. The Buddha recognized these terms as spiritually valid, even if the individuals sometimes do not live up to them. This distinction is not uniquely Buddhist, for we find it among the Jains (eg. Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 17) and brahmins (eg. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.8.10).

    ↩ sn12.13:1.13