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SN 22.136PTS SN 3.1771 min read

Burning Chaff

Kukkuḷasutta

The aggregates are like burning chaff.

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

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.136Linked Discourses 22.136
  • 0.214. Kukkuḷavagga14. Burning Chaff

0.3KukkuḷasuttaBurning Chaff

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2“Rūpaṁ, bhikkhave, kukkuḷaṁ, vedanā kukkuḷā, saññā kukkuḷā, saṅkhārā kukkuḷā, viññāṇaṁ kukkuḷaṁ.“Mendicants, form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are burning chaff.1

1.3Evaṁ passaṁ, bhikkhave, sutavā ariyasāvako rūpasmimpi nibbindati, vedanāyapi nibbindati, saññāyapi nibbindati, saṅkhāresupi nibbindati, viññāṇasmimpi nibbindati.Seeing this, a learned noble disciple grows disillusioned with form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness.1.4Nibbindaṁ virajjati; virāgā vimuccati. Vimuttasmiṁ vimuttamiti ñāṇaṁ hoti.Being disillusioned, desire fades away. When desire fades away they’re freed. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed.

1.5‘Khīṇā jāti, vusitaṁ brahmacariyaṁ, kataṁ karaṇīyaṁ, nāparaṁ itthattāyā’ti pajānātī”ti.They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is nothing further for this place.’”

1.6Paṭhamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. “Burning chaff” (kukkūla) is the name of a hell (MN 130:21.1). Some later Buddhists argued that this description meant that all conditioned things were nothing but scorching pain with no pleasure at all, against which the Theravadins cited a series of Sutta texts (Kv 2.8). Compare SN 22.60.

    ↩ sn22.136:1.2