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Snp 4.2PTS Snp 1511 min read

Eight on the Cave

Guhaṭṭhakasutta

Those who remain attached to the body, to sensuality, and to their sense of “mine” will have a hard time freeing themselves from fear of death and from further becoming.

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

  • 0.1Sutta Nipāta 4.2Anthology of Discourses 4.2

0.2GuhaṭṭhakasuttaEight on the Cave

1.1Satto guhāyaṁ bahunābhichanno,Trapped in a cave, thickly overspread,1.2Tiṭṭhaṁ naro mohanasmiṁ pagāḷho;sunk in delusion they stay.1.3Dūre vivekā hi tathāvidho so,That sort is far from seclusion,1.4Kāmā hi loke na hi suppahāyā.for sensual pleasures in the world <j>are not easy to give up.

2.1Icchānidānā bhavasātabaddhā,The chains of desire, the bonds of life’s pleasures2.2Te duppamuñcā na hi aññamokkhā;are hard to escape, for one cannot free another.12.3Pacchā pure vāpi apekkhamānā,Looking to the past or the future,2.4Ime va kāme purime va jappaṁ.they pray for these pleasures or former ones.2

3.1Kāmesu giddhā pasutā pamūḷhā,Greedy, fixated, infatuated by sensual pleasures,3.2Avadāniyā te visame niviṭṭhā;they are incorrigible, habitually immoral.3.3Dukkhūpanītā paridevayanti,When led to suffering they lament,3.4Kiṁsū bhavissāma ito cutāse.“What will become of us <j>when we pass away from here?”

4.1Tasmā hi sikkhetha idheva jantu,That’s why a personage should train in this life:4.2Yaṁ kiñci jaññā visamanti loke;should you know that anything in the world is wrong,4.3Na tassa hetū visamaṁ careyya,don’t act wrongly on account of that;4.4Appañhidaṁ jīvitamāhu dhīrā.for the attentive say this life is short.

5.1Passāmi loke pariphandamānaṁ,I see the world’s population floundering,5.2Pajaṁ imaṁ taṇhagataṁ bhavesu;given to craving for future lives.5.3Hīnā narā maccumukhe lapanti,Base men wail in the jaws of death,35.4Avītataṇhāse bhavābhavesu.not rid of craving for life after life.

6.1Mamāyite passatha phandamāne,See them flounder over belongings,6.2Maccheva appodake khīṇasote;like fish in puddles of a dried-up stream.6.3Etampi disvā amamo careyya,Seeing this, live unselfishly,6.4Bhavesu āsattimakubbamāno.forming no attachment to future lives.

7.1Ubhosu antesu vineyya chandaṁ,Rid of desire for both ends,47.2Phassaṁ pariññāya anānugiddho;having completely understood contact, free of greed,7.3Yadattagarahī tadakubbamāno,doing nothing for which they’d blame themselves,7.4Na lippatī diṭṭhasutesu dhīro.the attentive don’t cling to the seen and the heard.

8.1Saññaṁ pariññā vitareyya oghaṁ,Having completely understood perception <j>and having crossed the flood,58.2Pariggahesu muni nopalitto;the sage, not clinging to possessions,8.3Abbūḷhasallo caramappamatto,with dart plucked out, living diligently,8.4Nāsīsatī lokamimaṁ parañcāti.does not hope for this world or the next.

8.5Guhaṭṭhakasuttaṁ dutiyaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. Te duppamuñca has been taken by most translators as referring to people, in senses either active (Bodhi’s “let go with difficulty”) or passive (Norman’s “are hard to release”). However the phrase occurs in a very similar context at SN 3.10:5.2 and Dhp 346:2, where it refers to the chains that are hard to escape.

    ↩ snp4.2:2.2

  2. Jappa means both to “incant” and to “long for”, and the English “pray’ has exactly the same connotations—for exactly the same reasons. They originated in begging favors of a god.

    ↩ snp4.2:2.4

  3. “Jaws of death” (maccumukha) is also at SN 2.22:7.3. Compare Kaṭha Upaniṣad 2.1.1, “he escapes from the jaws of death” (tanmṛtyumukhātpramucyate).

    ↩ snp4.2:5.3

  4. The reference here is to the two ends of contact (AN 6.61) rather than the two extremes of views or paths.

    ↩ snp4.2:7.1

  5. Bodhi, Norman, and Ñāṇadīpa, apparently following the commentary, take vitareyya as an optative. But the previous verse spoke of an arahant, and here the one who has fully understood perception must have already crossed over. Vitareyya oghaṁ occurs at Snp 3.5:13.2, where vitareyya is clearly an absolutive, and is rendered as such by both Bodhi and Norman.

    ↩ snp4.2:8.1