SN 56.30PTS SN 5.4361 min read

With Gavampati

Gavampatisutta

Some mendicants are discussing whether the four truths are necessarily seen together. Venerable Gavampati asserts that he has learned it from the Buddha that they are: if you see one, you see them all.

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

0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 56.30Linked Discourses 56.30
0.23. Koṭigāmavagga3. At the Village of Koṭi

0.3GavampatisuttaWith Gavampati

1.1Ekaṁ samayaṁ sambahulā therā bhikkhū cetesu viharanti sahañcanike.At one time several mendicants were staying in the land of the Cetīs at Sahajāti.¹1.2Tena kho pana samayena sambahulānaṁ therānaṁ bhikkhūnaṁ pacchābhattaṁ piṇḍapātapaṭikkantānaṁ maṇḍalamāḷe sannisinnānaṁ sannipatitānaṁ ayamantarākathā udapādi:Now at that time, after the meal, on return from almsround, several senior mendicants sat together in the pavilion and this discussion came up among them:

1.3“yo nu kho, āvuso, dukkhaṁ passati dukkhasamudayampi so passati, dukkhanirodhampi passati, dukkhanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadampi passatī”ti.“Reverends, does someone who sees suffering also see the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering?”

2.1PTS 5.437Evaṁ vutte, āyasmā gavampati thero bhikkhū etadavoca:When they said this, Venerable Gavampati said to those senior mendicants:²

2.2“sammukhā metaṁ, āvuso, bhagavato sutaṁ, sammukhā paṭiggahitaṁ:“Reverends, I have heard and learned this in the presence of the Buddha:³2.3‘yo, bhikkhave, dukkhaṁ passati dukkhasamudayampi so passati, dukkhanirodhampi passati, dukkhanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadampi passati.‘Someone who sees suffering also sees the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.2.4Yo dukkhasamudayaṁ passati dukkhampi so passati, dukkhanirodhampi passati, dukkhanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadampi passati.Someone who sees the origin of suffering also sees suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.2.5Yo dukkhanirodhaṁ passati dukkhampi so passati, dukkhasamudayampi passati, dukkhanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadampi passati.Someone who sees the cessation of suffering also sees suffering, the origin of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.2.6Yo dukkhanirodhagāminiṁ paṭipadaṁ passati dukkhampi so passati, dukkhasamudayampi passati, dukkhanirodhampi passatī’”ti.Someone who sees the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering also sees suffering, the origin of suffering, and the cessation of suffering.’”

2.7Dasamaṁ.

2.8Koṭigāmavaggo tatiyo.

3.0Tassuddānaṁ

3.1Dve vajjī sammāsambuddho,3.2arahaṁ āsavakkhayo;3.3Mittaṁ tathā ca loko ca,3.4pariññeyyaṁ gavampatīti.

Translator’s notes

The Cetīs were a rather obscure people living in the Bundelkhand division of Madhya Pradesh, south of Vaccha and west of Magadha, around the Vettavatī river (Sanskrit vetravatī, modern Betwa), a tributary of the Yamunā flowing from the Vindhya ranges to the south. Apart from this Sutta, three discourses feature Mahācunda there (AN 6.46, AN 10.24, AN 10.85). A century after the Buddha, Revata stopped there heading south from Saṅkassa, where ten leading monks met him to discuss the dispute at the upcoming Second Council (Kd 22:1.9.39).
The spelling of the city is highly uncertain: sayaṁjāti, sahajāti, sañjāti, sahañcanika, sahajaniya. The commentary to Ja 422 says the name of the Cetī capital was Sotthivatī, sometimes identified with Śuktimatī found in Sanskrit sources. Possibly these variants reflect attempts to render the local dialect. The sense of the name is “one’s own caste”, perhaps suggesting they were an insular people.
↩ sn56.30:1.1
Gavampati (“lord of cows”) appears in DN 23:33.1, where he is said to spend his days meditating in a celestial palace. That Sutta, like the present one, does not speak of the Buddha as still living, although the current Sutta asserts that he heard this teaching from the Buddha. He also has a single verse at Thag 1.38, where he is said to have stilled the mighty Sarabhū river with his powers. Gavampati was also said to have been among the friends of Yasa who were among the earliest ordained monks (Kd 1:9.1.1). The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya says that he was invited to the First Council after the Buddha’s passing, but declined as his own time was drawing near. These passages, slight as they are, suggest a somewhat mystical figure, whose legend perhaps grew due to his reclusive nature. In later years he came to be regarded as one of the 80 great disciples, and he remains an object of worship in South-east Asia.
Read there bhikkhū.
This passage is cited at Kv 2.9:26.3.
↩ sn56.30:2.1
Despite this claim, the following passage is not found elsewhere in the Pali.
↩ sn56.30:2.2