Thus I have heard: One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.
It was then that there was a minor dispute in the assembly, and the Bhagavān had scolded the monks because of it. Early in the morning, he put on his robe and took his bowl into the city to solicit alms. After eating, he left [the city,] and he put away his robe and bowl and washed his feet [upon returning]. He went into Andha Forest and sat under a tree. While quietly contemplating alone there, he thought, “There was a minor dispute in the assembly, and I scolded the monks. Still, there’s a group of junior monks in that assembly who left home not long ago, and they haven’t seen their great teacher. Perhaps they’ll be regretful and feel sad and unhappy. I’ve felt sympathy for these monks for a long night. I’ll go back now and bring that assembly together out of sympathy for them.”
At the time, King Mahābrahmā knew what the Buddha was thinking. In the time it takes a strong man to flex his arm, he disappeared from the Brahma Heaven and stood before the Buddha. He said to the Buddha, “Yes, Bhagavān! Yes, Sugata! You scolded the monks because of that minor dispute. There’s a group of junior monks in that assembly who left home not long ago and haven’t seen their great teacher. They might be regretful and feel sad and unhappy. The Bhagavān has had sympathy for them for a long night. Bring that assembly together! It would be good, Bhagavān, if you would please return and gather the monks!”
The Bhagavān then silently agreed out of sympathy for Brahmā. When he knew that the Buddha had silently agreed to this, Mahābrahmā bowed to the Buddha, circled him clockwise three times, and instantly disappeared.
Soon after Mahābrahmā had departed, the Bhagavān returned to Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove. He spread out his sitting mat, sat up straight in his seat, and gave a subtle sign to the monks that they could come and respectfully see him. The monks then came to visit the Buddha. Blushing in shame, they bowed at the Buddha’s feet and withdrew to sit at one side.
The Bhagavān then told the monks, “Those people who leave home live a lowly life. They cut off their hair, carry a bowl, and go from home to home soliciting alms like someone with a silence spell put on them. The reason they do this is to seek the supreme goal and go beyond birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, and trouble to the final end to suffering. Good sons, you didn’t leave home because you were sent by the king or a criminal, not because of creditors, not because of fear, and not because you lost your livelihood. Didn’t you leave home precisely to be freed from birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, trouble, and pain and not for these other reasons?”
The monks said to the Buddha, “That’s true, Bhagavān!”
The Buddha told the monks, “You monks have left home for such a supreme goal. How is there still a single foolish, ordinary person among you who becomes greedy, extremely affected by attachments, angry and violent, slothful and mean, who loses their mindfulness and aren’t settled, and whose faculties are confused?
“Such a man is like someone who goes into gloom from gloom or into darkness from darkness, who gets out of a latrine and falls back into a latrine, who washes blood off with blood, or who abandons doing evils only to take up those evils again. I say this ordinary, foolish monk is like these examples.
“He is also like a burned stick from a funeral pyre discarded on a charnel ground that can’t be included in kindling wood. I say this ordinary, foolish monk is like this example who becomes greedy, extremely affected by attachments, angry and violent, slothful and mean, who loses their mindfulness and aren’t settled, and whose faculties are confused.
“Monks, there are three unskillful ways of perception. What are the three? Greedy perception, hateful perception, and harmful perception. These three perceptions arise from concepts. What are those concepts? Those concepts are measureless and diverse greedy concepts, hateful concepts, and harmful concepts. Unskillful perceptions arise from these concepts.
“Monks, greedy concepts, hateful concepts, harmful concepts, greedy perceptions, hateful perceptions, and harmful perceptions are measureless, diverse, and unskillful. What will finally destroy them? Cultivate fixing the mind on four abodes of mindfulness and abiding in the signless samādhi, and cultivate this often. This will destroy the bad and unskillful things that come from these [perceptions]. When they are ended forever without remainder, one can put this Dharma to proper use.
“Good sons and good daughters who confidently leave home to cultivate the signless samādhi will abide in the entry to ambrosia after cultivating it often until the final ambrosia nirvāṇa. I don’t teach this ambrosia nirvāṇa to those who rely on three views. What are the three? There is one type of view that so-and-so says ‘Life is the same as one’s body.’ Again, another says ‘Life is one thing, and a body is another.’ Another says ‘Form is self. Being neither two things nor different things, they endure a long time and don’t change.’
“A well-versed noble disciple would contemplate this: ‘Is there a single thing in the world that someone would be faultless to take?’ Having contemplated that, they would not see one thing that someone would be faultless to take. ‘If I take form, then I would have a fault. If I take feeling … conception … volition … awareness, then I would have a fault.’ Once they know that, they take nothing from any world. Taking nothing, they realize nirvāṇa themselves: ‘My births have been ended, the religious life has been established, and the task has been accomplished. I myself know that I won’t be subject to a later existence.’”
After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.
Summary Verse
[46] Should be taught, [47] a clod of dirt,
[48] Bubbles and foam, [49-50] two on the lack of knowledge,
[51] The river torrent, [52] the trees of Jeta’s Grove,
[54] Scolding Tiśya, and [55] concepts.