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Snp 4.3PTS Snp 1531 min read

Eight on Malice

Duṭṭhaṭṭhakasutta

Freedom isn’t to be found by boasting of your precepts and practices or by debating your views.

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

  • 0.1Sutta Nipāta 4.3Anthology of Discourses 4.3

0.2DuṭṭhaṭṭhakasuttaEight on Malice

1.1Vadanti ve duṭṭhamanāpi eke,Some speak with malicious intent,11.2Athopi ve saccamanā vadanti;while others speak set on truth.1.3Vādañca jātaṁ muni no upeti,When disputes come up <j>a sage does not get involved,21.4Tasmā munī natthi khilo kuhiñci.which is why they’ve no barrenness at all.

2.1Sakañhi diṭṭhiṁ kathamaccayeyya,How can you transcend your own view2.2Chandānunīto ruciyā niviṭṭho;when you’re led by preference, dogmatic in belief?32.3Sayaṁ samattāni pakubbamāno,Inventing your own undertakings,42.4Yathā hi jāneyya tathā vadeyya.you’d speak according to your notion.5

3.1Yo attano sīlavatāni jantu,Some personages, unasked, tell others3.2Anānupuṭṭhova paresa pāva;of their own precepts and vows.3.3Anariyadhammaṁ kusalā tamāhu,They have an ignoble nature, <j>say those who are skilled,3.4Yo ātumānaṁ sayameva pāva.since they speak on themselves of their own accord.

4.1Santo ca bhikkhu abhinibbutatto,A mendicant, peaceful, quenched,4.2Itihanti sīlesu akatthamāno;never boasts “thus am I” of their precepts.4.3Tamariyadhammaṁ kusalā vadanti,They have a noble nature, say those who are skilled,4.4Yassussadā natthi kuhiñci loke.who have no pretensions <j>about anything in the world.6

5.1Pakappitā saṅkhatā yassa dhammā,For one who formulates and creates teachings,5.2Purakkhatā santi avīvadātā;and promotes them despite their defects,5.3Yadattani passati ānisaṁsaṁ,if they see an advantage for themselves,5.4Taṁ nissito kuppapaṭiccasantiṁ.they become dependent on that, <j>relying on unstable peace.

6.1Diṭṭhīnivesā na hi svātivattā,It’s not easy to get over dogmatic views6.2Dhammesu niccheyya samuggahītaṁ;adopted after judging among the teachings.6.3Tasmā naro tesu nivesanesu,That’s why, among all these dogmas, a person6.4Nirassatī ādiyatī ca dhammaṁ.ditches one teaching and takes up another.

7.1Dhonassa hi natthi kuhiñci loke,The cleansed one has no formulated view7.2Pakappitā diṭṭhi bhavābhavesu;at all in the world about the different realms.7.3Māyañca mānañca pahāya dhono,Having given up illusion and conceit,7.4Sa kena gaccheyya anūpayo so.by what path would they go? They are not involved.

8.1Upayo hi dhammesu upeti vādaṁ,For one who gets involved <j>is embroiled in disputes about teachings—8.2Anūpayaṁ kena kathaṁ vadeyya;but how to dispute with the uninvolved? <j>About what?8.3Attā nirattā na hi tassa atthi,For picking up and putting down <j>is not what they do;78.4Adhosi so diṭṭhimidheva sabbanti.they have shaken off all views in this very life.

8.5Duṭṭhaṭṭhakasuttaṁ tatiyaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. Duṭṭhamana, or more commonly paduṭṭhamana, means “malice” not “corruption”, as is found through the suttas and confirmed by the Niddesa.

    ↩ snp4.3:1.1

  2. This idea is expressed throughout the Suttas, for example DN 1:1.18.1, SN 22.3, SN 56.9, AN 7.61:11.2.

    ↩ snp4.3:1.3

  3. Bodhi, Norman, and Ñāṇadīpa all render chanda as “desire”, and that is certainly the sense of chandānunīto at SN 35.94:6.4. Here, however, Niddesa glosses with synonyms for “view” and this seems like a more plausible sense. Note too the sense of niviṭṭha as “dogmatic”, which recurs through the Aṭṭhakavagga (cp. abhinivesa).

    ↩ snp4.3:2.2

  4. Samattāni is regularly used of vows “undertaken”, and given the following verse this is surely the meaning here, contra Niddesa and commentary. See Snp 4.4:5.1, where samādāya is used in the same sense.

    ↩ snp4.3:2.3

  5. Here we find a sense of jānāti that doesn’t fit the English idea of “knowledge” as “true belief”. The idea is that they speak from their own (limited and opinionated) ideas. It’s not as pejorative as “opinion” nor as solid as “knowledge”, so I render as “notion”. We find this usage commonly in the final two chapters of Snp.

    ↩ snp4.3:2.4

  6. Ussada, here rendered “pretension”, is a poetic term with the literal sense of “swelling”. In this chapter it has a close connection with “pride” (Snp 4.10:8.4, Snp 4.14:6.4; cf. the English sense of pride as “protuberance”), although this connection is less obvious elsewhere (Snp 3.6:14.4, Iti 97:8.4, and Ud 1.4:2.1 = Kd 1:2.3.6). Its absence is a sign of a true brahmin (MN 98:11.19, Dhp 400:2, Snp 3.9:36.1). The Niddesa does not link it with pride especially, rather explaining it as sevenfold: greed, hate, delusion, conceit, views, corruptions, and deeds (Mnd 10:105.4).

    ↩ snp4.3:4.4

  7. The problem addressed is one who is picking up one thing after another. It’s therefore best to translate atta in an active sense, per Niddesa: gahaṇaṁ muñcanā samatikkanto. We find similar phrases describing the living arahant in such prose passages as SN 22.79:14.1.

    ↩ snp4.3:8.3