Seeing the drawbacks of the world,
knowing the state without acquisitions,
a noble one doesn’t find joy in evil,
in evil
a clean one doesn’t find joy.6
Notes
1. Originally, a quorum of at least ten monks was required to ordain a new monk. In the version of this story given in the Vinaya (Mv.V.13.1-13), Ven. Mahā Kaccāna sends a request to the Buddha via Ven. Soṇa that some of the Vinaya rules be relaxed outside of the middle Ganges valley, one of them being that the quorum required for ordination be reduced. As a result, the Buddha amended the relevant rule, stating that the quorum of ten was needed only within the middle Ganges valley, and that outside of the middle Ganges valley a quorum of five would be sufficient to ordain a new monk, provided that at least one of the five be knowledgeable in the Vinaya.
2. The remainder of this paragraph does not appear in Mv.V.13.5. However, at this point in the story, Mv.V.13.5-7 inserts Ven. Mahā Kaccāna’s request that Ven. Soṇa, in his name, ask the Buddha to rescind four of the monks’ rules in the Southern region, and that he explain a procedure dealing with gifts of cloth that Ven. Mahā Kaccāna found unclear.
3. The passage in brackets appears in the PTS and Burmese editions, but not in the Thai and Sri Lankan editions.
4. This is the only point in the sutta where Ven. Soṇa has the prefix “Great” (Mahā) added to his name.
5. This is apparently the Aṭṭhaka Vagga as we now have it in Sn 4.
6. At Mv.V.13.10, the PTS version of this last line reads, “In the teaching a clean one finds joy.” However, in the Thai, Burmese, and Sri Lankan versions of the same passage, the last line is the same as here.
Origin URL: https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Ud/ud5_6.html