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Snp 5.12PTS Snp 2121 min read

The Questions of the Student Jatukaṇṇī

Jatukaṇṇimāṇavapucchā

How does one abandon birth and aging?

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

  • 0.1Sutta Nipāta 5.12Anthology of Discourses 5.12

0.2JatukaṇṇimāṇavapucchāThe Questions of Jatukaṇṇī

1.1“Sutvānahaṁ vīramakāmakāmiṁ,“Hearing of the hero <j>with no desire for sensual pleasures,”1.2(iccāyasmā jatukaṇṇi)said Venerable Jatukaṇṇī,1.3Oghātigaṁ puṭṭhumakāmamāgamaṁ;“who has passed over the flood, I’ve come <j>with a question for that desireless one.1.4Santipadaṁ brūhi sahajanetta,Tell me the state of peace, O natural visionary.11.5Yathātacchaṁ bhagavā brūhi metaṁ.Tell me this, Blessed One, as it really is.

2.1Bhagavā hi kāme abhibhuyya iriyati,For, having mastered sensual desires, <j>the Blessed One proceeds,22.2Ādiccova pathaviṁ tejī tejasā;as the blazing sun shines on the earth.2.3Parittapaññassa me bhūripañña,May you of vast wisdom explain the teaching2.4Ācikkha dhammaṁ yamahaṁ vijaññaṁ;to me of little wisdom so that I may understand2.5Jātijarāya idha vippahānaṁ”.the giving up of rebirth and old age here.”

3.1“Kāmesu vinaya gedhaṁ,“With desire for sensual pleasures dispelled,”33.2(jatukaṇṇīti bhagavā)replied the Buddha,3.3Nekkhammaṁ daṭṭhu khemato;“seeing renunciation as sanctuary,3.4Uggahītaṁ nirattaṁ vā,don’t be taking up or putting down43.5Mā te vijjittha kiñcanaṁ.anything at all.

4.1Yaṁ pubbe taṁ visosehi,What came before, let wither away,4.2pacchā te māhu kiñcanaṁ;and after, let there be nothing.4.3Majjhe ce no gahessasi,If you don’t grasp at the middle,4.4upasanto carissasi.you will live at peace.

5.1Sabbaso nāmarūpasmiṁ,One rid of greed, brahmin,5.2Vītagedhassa brāhmaṇa;for the whole realm of name and form,5.3Āsavāssa na vijjanti,has no defilements by which5.4Yehi maccuvasaṁ vaje”ti.they might fall under the sway of Death.”

5.5Jatukaṇṇimāṇavapucchā ekādasamā.

Translator’s notes

  1. While the exact sense of the unique term sahajanetta is open to interpretation, surely Norman’s “omniscient one” (following Niddesa) is not right.

    ↩ snp5.12:1.4

  2. The following line lacks a verb, and Norman, Bodhi, and Ñāṇadīpa all construe it with abhibhuyya: the sun “overcomes” the earth. But that doesn’t make sense. Rather, the idiom abhibhuyya iriyati leans on irayati in the sense “to keep going, to proceed”. The Buddha “proceeds” (i.e. keeps living) after mastering desires, like the sun “proceeds” shedding light on the earth.

    ↩ snp5.12:2.1

  3. Niddesa, followed by Bodhi, Norman, and Ñāṇadīpa, takes vinaya as optative. But where the same phrase occurs at Kp 9:10.3 and Snp 1.8:10.3 it is clearly absolutive. Moreover, the next includes the absolutive daṭṭhu, which elsewhere follows a similar line with an absolutive verb: kāmesvādīnavaṁ disvā.

    ↩ snp5.12:3.1

  4. As in the Aṭṭhakavagga, it is essential that this phrase be rendered in an active present tense. It is not that nothing has ever been taken up or put down, but that they are no longer actively engaging in taking up and putting down.

    ↩ snp5.12:3.4