SN35_76: Rādhaaniccasutta

Rādhaaniccasutta - translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi

Then the Venerable Radha approached the Blessed One … and said to him: “Venerable sir, it would be good if the Blessed One would teach me the Dhamma in brief, so that, having heard the Dhamma from the Blessed One, I might dwell alone, withdrawn, diligent, ardent, and resolute.”

“Radha, you should abandon desire for whatever is impermanent. And what is impermanent? The eye is impermanent; you should abandon desire for it. Forms are impermanent … Eye-consciousness is impermanent … Eye-contact is impermanent … Whatever feeling arises with eye-contact as condition—whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant—that too is impermanent; you should abandon desire for it.

“The ear … The mind is impermanent … Whatever feeling arises with mind-contact as condition … that too is impermanent; you should abandon desire for it. sn.iv.49 Radha, you should abandon desire for whatever is impermanent.”

© Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Connected Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2000)

This excerpt from The Connected Discourses of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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