SN 22.31PTS SN 3.321 min read

The Root of Gloom

Aghamūlasutta

The aggregates are misery, desire for them is the root of misery.

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

0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 22.31Linked Discourses 22.31
0.23. Bhāravagga3. The Burden

0.3AghamūlasuttaThe Root of Gloom

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2“Aghañca, bhikkhave, desessāmi aghamūlañca.“Mendicants, I will teach you gloom and the root of gloom.¹1.3Taṁ suṇātha.Listen …

1.4Katamañca, bhikkhave, aghaṁ?And what is gloom?1.5Rūpaṁ, bhikkhave, aghaṁ, vedanā aghaṁ, saññā aghaṁ, saṅkhārā aghaṁ, viññāṇaṁ aghaṁ.Form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness are gloom.1.6Idaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, aghaṁ.This is called gloom.

1.7Katamañca, bhikkhave, aghamūlaṁ?And what is the root of gloom?1.8Yāyaṁ taṇhā ponobhavikā nandīrāgasahagatā tatratatrābhinandinī;It’s the craving that leads to future lives, mixed up with relishing and greed, taking pleasure there wherever it alights. That is,1.9Seyyathidaṁ—kāmataṇhā, bhavataṇhā, vibhavataṇhā.craving for sensual pleasures, craving for continued existence, and craving for nonexistence.1.10Idaṁ vuccati, bhikkhave, aghamūlan”ti.This is called the root of gloom.”

1.11Dasamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

“Gloom” (agha) seems to have originally had the sense of “darkness, void”, a name for the black, starless reaches of space (MN 123:7.4; cf. Rig Veda 10.85.13, for which read “blacknesses”). Legend depicts Agha as a vast serpent of foul-smelling, cave-like maw who devours the innocent. Hence the black evil of agha is driven away by the blazing fire (Rig Veda 1.97). But whereas the Vedic usage associates agha with evil, malignant deeds—and hence the second noble truth, that which perpetuates suffering—in Buddhism it is associated with the first noble truth, suffering itself.
↩ sn22.31:1.2