Aṅguttara Nikāya
VIII. Aṭṭhaka Nipāta
VI. Gotamī Vagga

VIII. The Book of the Eights

VI: The Gotamid

Sutta 53

Sankhitta Gotami-y-Ovāda Suttaṃ

Dhamma in Brief¹

 

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[186]

THUS have I heard:

Once the Exalted One was staying at the Gabled Hall in Mahāvana near Vesālī,
Mahā-Pajāpati, the Gotamid, came to him and saluted and stood to one side.

So standing, she spoke thus to the Exalted One:

"Well were it for me, lord,
if the Exalted One would teach me Dhamma briefly,
so that after hearing the Exalted One's word
I might dwell alone,
secluded,
earnest,
zealous
and resolute."

 

§

 

"Those things of which you know thus:

These things lead to passion,
not to release therefrom;

■

these to bondage,
not to release therefrom;

■

these to the piling up² (of rebirth),
not to [187] the dispersion thereof;

■

these to wanting much,
not to wanting little;

■

these to discontent,
not to contentment;

■

these to sociability,
not to solitude;

■

these to indolence,
not to exertion;

■

these to luxury,³ not to frugality

■

- of these things hold definitely:

'This is not Dhamma;
this is not the discipline;
this not the word of the Teacher.'

 

§

 

But as to those things, O Gotamid, which you know
lead to dispassion,
not to passion;

■

to release from bondage,
not to bondage;

■

to the dispersion of rebirth,
not to the piling up (of rebirth);

■

to wanting little,
not to wanting much;

■

to contentment,
not to discontent;

■

to solitude,
not to sociability;

■

to exertion
not to indolence;

■

and to frugality,
not to luxury;

■

be assured that they are Dhamma,
the discipline
and the word of the Teacher."

 

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¹ Cf. the whole of this sutta with VII, § 79 (p. 96 f.) above.

² Ācayāya. Comy. vaṭṭassa vaḍḍhanatthāya. Bu. adds that Mahāpajapati attained arahantship by this exhortation. The sutta recurs at Vin. ii, 258.

³ Dubbharatāya; so Vin., but Comy. and S.e. dubh-; Comy. glosses, dupposanatthāya. Rhys Davids translates: hard to satisfy, difficult to support.