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This translation is reproduced by permission of the Pali Text Society which owns the copyright.
Translated from the Pali
of the
DĻgha NikĪya
by
T.W. and C.A.F. Rhys Davids
Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Volume IV, edited by T.W. Rhys Davids
Published under the Patronage of His Majesty The King of Siam
by The Pali Text Societyi
THUS HAVE I HEARD: --
[ 207 ]ii The Exalted One was once making a tour in the country of the Mallas,1 accompanied by a great company of the brethren, numbering about five hundred. And he arrived at PĪvĪ the Malla capital. There he resided in the mango-grove of Cunda the smith.2
Now at that time a new mote-hall of the PĪvĪ Mallas named UbbhaÂaka3 had not long been built, and had not been occupied by recluse or brahmin or any human being whatever. And the PĪvĪ Mallas heard that the Exalted One on his tour had arrived with his following at PĪvĪ and was staying in Cunda's mango-grove. And they went to visit him, and saluting him sat down at one side. So seated they said to him: --
[ 208 ] 'Lord, a new mote-hall named UbbhaÂaka has lately been built by us Mallas of PĪvĪ, and no recluse or brahmin or any human being whatever has yet occupied it. Let, lord, the Exalted One be the first to make use of it. That is has first been used by the Exalted One will be for the lasting good and happiness of the PĪvĪ Mallas.'
The Exalted One by his silence assented.
When they marked his assent, they rose and saluted him, passing round by his right, and went to the mote-hall. They spread the whole hall with carpets, arranged seats, put a bowl of water ready, hung up an oil lamp, and returned to the Exalted One. Saluting him and standing at one side they said: 'The whole mote-hall, lord, is spread with carpets, seats are arranged, a bowl of water has been placed ready, a lamp is hung up. And now, lord, whenever the Exalted One deems the time is fit. . . .'
[ 209 ] Then the Exalted One dressed himself and taking bowl and robe he went with the company of brethren to the mote-hall. On arriving he bathed his feet, and entered the hall, and took his seat facing the east, leaning against the central pillar. The brethren also bathed their feetiii and entered the hall ranging themselves against the western wall and facing the east, behind the Exalted One. The PĪvĪ Mallas also bathed their feet and entered the hall, ranging themselves against the eastern wall and facing the west with the Exalted One before them. Then the Exalted One far into the night discoursed on the doctrine to the PĪvĪ Mallas, instrucing, enlightening, inciting and inspiring them.4 And then he dismissed them saying: 'Lovely, VĪseÂÂhas,5 is the night. Do ye deem it time?'
'We do, lord,' responded the PĪvĪ Mallas. And rising they saluted the Exalted One by the right and departed.iv
And presently the Exalted One, surveying the company of brethren wrapped in silence wherever they sat,6 called to the venerable SĪriputta: 'There is an absence, SĪriputta, of sloth and torpor in the coompany of brethren. Let a religious discourse occur to thee, My back is aching, I will stretch it.'
'So be it, lord,' replied SĪriputta. Then the Exalted One, letting his robe be folded in four, took up the lion-posture on his right side, placing his feet one in the curve of the other, mindful and deliberate,7 having mentally noted a time for arousing himself.
[ 210 ] Now at that time the NigažÂha, NĪtha's son, had just died at PĪva..8 After his death the NigažÂhas became divided, falling into opposite parties and into strife, disputes broke out and they went on wounding each other with wordy weapons: -- Thou dost not confess this Norm and Discipline! I do confess it! Wilt thou confess it? Thou are in the wrong! I am practising it rightly! I am speaking to the point; thou art off the point! Thou sayest last what should be said first, and first what should come last! What thou hast so long excogitated is quite upset! Thy challenge is taken up; thou'rt proved to be wrong! Begone to get rid of thy opinion, or disentabngle thyself if thou canst! Truly the NigažÂhas, followers ofNĪthaputta, were out methinks to kill. Even the lay disciples of the white robe, who followed NĪthaputta, showed themselves shocked,9 repelled and indignant at the NigažÂhas, so badly was their doctrine and discipline set forth and imparted, so ineffectual was it for guidance, so little conducive to peace, imparted as it had been by one who was not supremely enlightened, and now wrecked as it was of his support and without a protector.
Then the venerable SĪriputta addressed the brethren:
The NigažÂha, NĪthaputta, friends, has just died at PĪvĪ. Since his death the NigažÂhas have become divided and have fallen into oposite parties and into strife. Disputes have broken out and they go on wounding each other with wordy weapons . . . so badly has their doctrine and discipline been set forth . . . and now wrecked of his support and without a protector.
[ 211 ] But to us, friends, the Norm has been well set forth and imparted by the Exalted One. It is effectual for guidance, conducive to self-mastery, and is imparted by one perfectly enlightened.10 Herein there should be a chanting by all in concord, not a wrangling, that thus this holy life may persist and be long maintained. That may be for the welfare and happiness of many folk, for compassion on the world, for the good, the welfare, the happiness of devas and of men.
What is the single doctrine?
[ 1.1 ]All beings persist through causes. All beings persist through conditions.1.1
[ 212 ] This 'single doctrine,' friends, has been perfectly set forth by the Exalted One who knows, who sees. Hereon there should be a chanting in concord, not a wrangling, that thus this holy life may persist and be long maintained. That may be for the welfare and happiness of many folk, for compassion on the world, for the good, the welfare, the happiness of devas and of men.
There are double doctrines, friends, which are perfectly set forth by the Exalted One who knows, who sees. Hereon there should be a chanting in concord...for the good...of devas and of men: -- Which are the doubles?
[ 2.2 ]Ignorance and craving for rebirth.
[ 2.3 ]False opinion as to (a) rebirth, (b) no rebirth.
[ 2.4 ]Unconscientiousness and indiscretion.
[ 2.5 ]Conscientiousness and discretion.2.5
[ 2.6 ]Contumacy and friendship with evil.2.6
[ 2.7 ]Suavity andfriendship with good.
[ 2.8 ]Proficiency as to offences and restoration from them.
[ 2.9 ]Proficiency as to attainments and recovery from them (viz.: as to jhĪna).
[ 2.10 ]Proficiency in elements2.10 and in understanding them.
[ 2.11 ]Proficiency in the (twelve) spheres of sense and in the (twelve factors2.11 of the) causal formula.
[ 2.12 ]Proficiency in assigning specific causes, and in eliminating elements that are not causal [in a specific effect].2.12
[ 213 ] [ 2.13 ]Recitude and shamefacedness.2.13
[ 2.14 ]Patience and gentleness.
[ 2.15 ]Mildness of speech and courtesy.2.15
[ 2.16 ]Kindness2.16 and love.2.16.1
[ 2.17 ]Absence of mind2.17 and want of intelligence.
[ 2.18 ]Mindfulness and intelligence.
[ 2.19 ]Unguardedness of faculties2.19 and intemperance in diet.
[ 2.20 ]Guardedness of faculties and temperance in diet.
[ 2.21 ]The powers of judging and of cultivation.
[ 2.22 ]The powers of mindfulness and concentration.
[ 2.24 ]The causes [or signs]2.24 of calm and of mental grasp.2.24.1
[ 2.25 ]Mental grasp and balance.
[ 2.26 ]Attainment in conduct and in [sound] belief.
[ 2.27 ]Failure in conduct and in [sound] belief.2.27
[ 214 ] [ 2.28 ]Purity in conduct and in belief.2.28
[ 2.29 ]Purity in belief and the struggle according to the belief one holds.2.29
[ 2.30 ]Agitation over agitating conditions and the systematic exertion of one [thus] agitated.
[ 2.31 ]Discontent in meritorious acts and perseverance in exertion.
[ 2.32 ]The higher wisdom2.32 and emancipation.2.32.1
[ 2.33 ]Knowledge how to extirpate and knowledge how to prevent recrudescence.2.33
These, friends, are the Double Doctrines perfectly set forth by the Exalted One who knows, who sees. Hereon there should be a chanting byall in concord, not a wrangling, that thus this holy life may persist and be long maintained. That may be for the welfare and happiness of many folk, for compassion on the world, for the good, the welfare, the happiness of devas and of men.
iEditorial Notes: Occasional footnotes by me have been inserted using lower case roman numerals, at other times, in both text and footnotes, there may be a parenthetical note inserted by me in the form "(mo:)"; Some "internal" references to other suttas within the Rhys Davids' translation of the Digha have been left as is, I have given others an occasional notation; elipsis, where they occur in the translation have been left as is. Footnote numbering follows the sutta number (i.e., the first footnote for sutta 1.4 is numbered 1.4, the second footnote for sutta 1.4 is numbered 1.4.1, etc.)
iiSquare-bracketed boldface numbers link to the Pali and refer to page numbers in the PTS edition of the Pali (+/-; I have mostly placed these numbers at the beginnings of paragraphs); similar numbers in the Pali link back to this translation.
1The Mallas were an oligarchy of rĪjas. They are called rĪjas in the Comy.
2Cf.above, Vol. II, 137 (mo: which references the last meal of the Buddha, served to him by this same Cunda in this same location. . . . around this same time. If so, how would it have been possible for this sutta to have been delivered by Sariputta? (See also, below, note 8). We learn of Sariputta's death in SN V: The Great Book: 13(3) Cunda: (a different Cunda) when "...the Blessed One was dwelling at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Park, where at that time Sariputta was living among the Magadhans at Nalakagama where he died. This has apparently caused another chronological error, which Bhikkhu Bodhi notes: "The event related in this sutta poses a problem for the traditional chronology of the Buddha's life. In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, Sariputta's lion's roar (just above) takes place during what appears to be the Buddha's final journey along the route from Rajagaha to Vesali. From Vesali the Buddha heads towards Kusinara without ever returning to Savatthi, some 200 km to the west. Yet the present sutta shows the Buddha residing at Savatthi when he receives the news of Sariputta's death. To preserve the traditional chronology, the commentaries (spk here, and Sv II 550) have the Buddha make an additional side trip to Savatthi following his rains retreat at Beluvagamaka (see DN II 98-99), an excursion not mentioned in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta. Sariputta accompanies him on this trip to Savatthi, later takes his leave, and returns to his native village Nalakagama, where he falls ill and dies. (mo: and apparently does not accompany him on an additional side trip to Pava, yet it is not until the Buddha reaches the territory of the Mallas that we hear about the death of Nathaputta.) For the commentarial story of Sariputta's death, see Nyanaponika, "Sariputta: The Marshal of the Dhamma," in Nyanaponika and Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha, pp. 47-59.
On the one hand I don't think we are going too far in guessing what happened here: Some, if not all of the suttas of the Digha were put together some time after the Buddha's death, probably many of them were pieced together from multiple other suttas. Then the editors tried to stitch together a story to give the collection authenticity. I have little doubt that their motives were good: it's no difficult thing to figure that a work reported to have great authenticity is more readily adopted uncritically than one that is not. On the other hand our lesson concerning this little detail is the danger in deliberately saying things we know to be not true. Here we are, 2000 years plus later uncovering a fraud. Imagine if the kamma connected to this fraud were to have had to be consciously aware of the deceit all these many long days? Perhaps to have been reborn in each of the succeeding generations of commentators and students, forced to come up with more and more complex coverups, perhaps right down to this very generation and me, sitting here, discovering this, and wondering what to make of it. And in the end it would have been just as well to have told the truth. There is nothing I have ever found in the Digha that comparing it with the other suttas would cause me to think it was not made up from elements that were "True Dhamma." Just stating outright: "This is an anthology of The Pali Line, our attempt to put together what the Buddha Taught in as comprehensive a manner as possible. We say it consists of authentic materials, but it has been put together by us, much of this was not uttered in the precise sequence and manner as is presented here." That would have done it. But, of course, that would likely have condemned the work to obscurity and rapid extinction. But would that have been worse than what we have now? Here there is a work that has a taint on it: something we cannot put out of our minds when examining the suttas in this collection in our dhamma study. And most of what is found in the Digha is found in the other Nikayas, and those may have benefited from the higher profile that would have existed had there been only three.
3'Thrown-aloft-er,' 'So-called because of its height.' Comy.
iiiThat must have been some bowl of water to have sufficed to wash the feet of the Exalted one, his 500 disciples, and the Mallas of Pava.
4B.'s comments on these four verbs is in the Sožadanda Suttanta (I, 159) should be compared with those onthe same passage in S.I, 114, given in Kindred Sayings I, 140, n.4.
5Apparently a leading family name among the Mallas both of PĪvĪ and the neighbouring village, KusinĪrĪ. See II, 181.
ivActually this is done by departing, while continuously saluting with the raised-joined hands, keeping the right side to the Buddha. In other words circling around in back of him and exiting walking backwards ("...the longer to keep our eyes on our Bhagava..."). I am not sure if those already on the right hand side could just depart walking backwards straight out. But in this situation would this sort of departure have been possible in this room which was filled with Bhikkhus at the back?
6Literally, wrapped in silence, wrapped in silence.' 'Wherever he looked, there that part was silent.' Comy.
7Recorded in the same terms of Gotama, e.g. II, 149, S.I, 107; but cf. Devadatta in Vinaya Texts III, 258.
8This episode forms the occasion for Suttanta XXIX, above, p.111, (mo: which took place among the Sakyans at SĪmagĪma) and for the SamĪgama Sutta, M.II, 243 f.(MN#104, same as DN#29)
9Only the Burmese Mandalay MS, and Rangoon edition and the Siamese edition here read also virattar.ŽpĪ, 'repelled,' as on p.111.
10Cf. above, p, 115 f (mo: The Delectable Discourse, where various sorts of teachers and the advantages and disadvantages of following them are described)
1.1Cf. Khp. IV; A.V., 50, 55. The Digha alone gives the second aphorism. 'Cause'; ĪhĪra, usually meaning 'food,' is literally a thing 'adduced,''brought up.' Four kinds of ĪhĪra are specified. e.g., S.II, ii f.; below, 219 -- food, contact, purpose, consciousness (in connection with rebirth), all considered as so many causes, conditions, antecedents of 'result' or fruit. Hence ĪhĪra in general can always be rendered by paccaya. So B. 'Condition'=sankhĪra: the karana or doing, action, that leads to the result. Comy.
2.0With this list compare Anguttara I, 83 f., and below, XXXIV, i, 3, etc.
2.1I.e. NĪma, by which in this connection the 'four incorpreal khandhas' (aggregates) are always meant. B. refers to the Visuddhi Magga for a detailed analysis (ch.xiv.).
2.5The former concerns one's own estimate of one's self, the latter the estimate of one's neighbours. Comy.
2.6Cf. Bud. Psy. Eth., p.344.
2.10The eighteen dhĪtus, those residual factors of our experience which cannot be expressed in more ultimate [subjective] terms (attano sabhĪvaļ dhĪreti ti dhĪtu), to wit, the three ultimates in each act of consciousness, object, or stimulus, re-acting organ [of sense or mind], resulting cognition.
2.11The only apparent reason for linking these two is the common number. (mo: See note 2.11 of my trans.
2.12The first of the 'ten powes' of a TathĪgata (M. I, 69 f.; A. V, 33 f.; Vibh. 335 f. Cf. Psalms of the Early Brethren I, p. 167, n. i; II, 7, n.i; Bud. Psy. Eth., p. 348) shared partly by disciples (Points of Controversy, 139 f.). 'Proficiency' (kusalatĪ) is, by B., defined as 'intelligence-with-understanding' (paūūĪ-pajĪna), further specialized in x.a as learning, remembering, grasping, intuition, in x.b as the last two plus reflection, in xi.a as learning by heart, plus the last group, in xi.b, understanding of procedure, in xii. as determining.
2.13In Bud. Psy. Eth., § 1340, this term is not lajjavo (defined as hiribalaļ § 30), but maddavo.
2.15Cf. Bud. Psy. Eth., § 1343 f.
2.16Literally, Not-hurting, defined as 'pity.'
2.16.1Defined as purity of fraternal love (mettĪ).
2.17I.e., of mindfulness (sati), muddleheadedness. Bud. Psy. Eth., § 1349
2.19Cf. Bud. Psy. Eth., § 1345 f.
2.23Cf. ibid. § 1355 f.
2.24Nimitta, on which see Points, 387 f. Refers to JhĪna-practice.
2.24.1Grasp=effort (viriyaļ), Comy.
2.27DiÂÂhi, associated with sampadĪ, sampanno, is always used in this sense. Cf. Points, 269, n. 3. In the Comy. the contents of xxvii precede those of xxvi.
2.28Bud. Psy. Eth., § 1365 f.
2.29Ibid., p. 357, n. 2
2.32VijjĪ. The term annexed from brahminism by the Buddha and made to refer, not to the three Vedas, but either to the whole field of 'insight,' intellectual and mystical, as in I, 124, or, as here (Comy.), to three tracts of that field, viz.--ibid., Nos. 14-16. Cf. A. I, 163-5; Psalms of the Sisters, p. 26, n. 2.
2.32.1Both intellectual riddance of the five Hindrances and NibbĪna. Comy.
2.33Cf. with Sum. V. Asl 407 on this passage. 'Bearing on rebirth' (paÂisandhivasena), it apparently refers to the doctrine in the statement of which the figure of the palm-tree stump occurs--' so that they are destroyed and cannot grow up again.' See Vin. Texts II, 113. The phrase recurs in the NikĪyas several times.
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