Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

The Medium Discourses

Chapter 11: The Greats

（一四〇） 中阿含 大品 至邊經 第二十四 (第三念誦) 140. The Extreme
我聞如是： 一時，佛遊舍衛國，在勝林、給孤獨園。 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha traveled to the country of Śrāvastī and stayed at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove.
爾時，世尊告諸比丘： 「於生活中，下極至邊，謂行乞食。 世間大諱，謂為禿頭手擎鉢行。 彼族姓子為義故受。 所以者何？ 『以厭患生、老、病、死、愁慼、啼哭、憂苦、懊惱，或得此淳具足大苦陰邊。』 汝等非如是心出家學道耶？」 2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “Among the ways of living, the practice of soliciting alms is the extreme of lowliness.2 The world shuns it so much, calling it the practice of shaving one’s head and holding out a bowl. There’s a reason that those clansmen have taken it up. Why is that? ‘Because I’m tired of birth, old age, illness, death, grief, lamentation, sorrow, pain, and trouble, or simply being subject to the extreme of this whole mass of suffering.’ Didn’t all of you leave home to train on the path with such a thought?”
時，諸比丘白曰： 「如是。」 The monks said, “Yes.”
世尊復告諸比丘曰： 「彼愚癡人以如是心出家學道，而行伺欲染著至重。 濁纏心中，憎嫉、無信、懈怠、失正念、無正定。 惡慧、心狂、調亂諸根。 持戒極寬，不修沙門，不增廣行。 3. The Bhagavān also told the monks, “Foolish are the people who leave home to train on the path with this thought but whose practice then is seriously affected by attachments and longing. Their minds are wrapped in filth, being spiteful, unfaithful, slothful, forgetful, and lacking right samādhi. They have poor wisdom, deranged thoughts, and disturbed faculties. They observe the precepts and are quite calm, but they don’t train as an ascetic and don’t develop that practice.
「猶人以墨浣墨所污，以血除血，以垢除垢，以濁除濁，以廁除廁。 但增其穢。 從冥入冥，從闇入闇。 我說彼愚癡人持沙門戒亦復如是。 謂彼人伺欲染著至重。 濁纏心中，憎嫉、無信、懈怠、失正念、無正定。 惡慧、心狂、調亂諸根。 持戒極寬，不修沙門，不增廣行。 4. “They are like someone who washes off ink stains with ink, removes blood with blood, removes dirt with dirt, or removes feces with feces.3 They only increase their defilement. They enter gloom from gloom or darkness from darkness. I say those foolish people who observe the ascetic precepts are likewise. That is, their practice is seriously affected by attachments and longing. Their minds are wrapped in filth, being spiteful, unfaithful, slothful, forgetful, and lacking right samādhi. They have poor wisdom, deranged thoughts, and disturbed faculties. They observe the precepts and are quite calm, but they don’t train as an ascetic and don’t develop that practice.
「猶無事處燒人殘木。 彼火燼者，非無事所用，亦非村邑所用。 我說彼愚癡人持沙門戒亦復如是。 謂彼人行伺欲染著至重。 濁纏心中，憎嫉、無信、懈怠、失正念、無正定。 惡慧、心狂、調亂諸根。 持戒極寬，不修沙門，不增廣行。」 5. “They are like the leftover wood from a cremation in a remote place.4 The ashes from that fire are not any use in a remote place or in a village. I say those foolish people who observe the ascetic precepts are likewise. That is, their practice is seriously affected by attachments and longing. Their minds are wrapped in filth, being spiteful, unfaithful, slothful, forgetful, and lacking right samādhi. They have poor wisdom, deranged thoughts, and disturbed faculties. They observe the precepts and are quite calm, but they don’t train as an ascetic and don’t develop that practice.”
於是，世尊說此頌曰： 6. Thereupon, the Bhagavān spoke these verses:
  • 「愚癡失欲樂
    復失沙門義。
    俱忘失二邊，
    猶燒殘火燼。
  • “A fool loses the delights of desire
    And they lose the goal of the ascetics.
    Forgetting both of these two extremes,
    They’re like the leftovers of a fire.
  • 「猶如無事處，
    燒人殘火燼，
    無事村不用。
    人著欲亦然：
    猶燒殘火燼，
    俱忘失二邊。」
  • “Like those leftovers of a cremation
    In some remote place,
    They are no use there or in a village.
    Someone attached to desire is likewise
    Like leftover ashes from a fire
    That’s forgotten by both extremes.”
佛說如是。 彼諸比丘聞佛所說歡喜，奉行。 7. This is what the Buddha said. Those monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.

Notes

  1. For the source text, cf. T26.1.647a15-b17. It’s directly parallel with Iti 91 and T765.II.32 (a Itivṛttaka parallel trans. by Xuanzang). It also shares some parallel material with SN 22.80 and SĀ 1.55 as well.
    The partial parallels in SN and SĀ include background stories about what led the Buddha to give the sermon about the goal of the ascetic life. The Itivuttaka version found its way into the Madhyama Āgama. Such brief sūtras as this one do not ostensibly belong among the middle length discourses, and their inclusion is largely the reason MĀ contains 70 more individual sūtras than MN does today (222 vs. 152). About 60 sūtras in MĀ are less than a page of Taisho in length, and 35 are not more than half a page. [back]
  2. Among the ways of living, the practice of soliciting alms is the extreme of lowliness. C. 於生活中，下極至邊，謂行乞食, P. antamidaṁ, bhikkhave, jīvikānaṁ yadidaṁ piṇḍolyaṁ. The C. expression 至邊 (“reach the extreme”) appears to trans. an equiv. of P. antamida, which can mean “an extreme, end, limit, lowest.” I’ve translated the C. accordingly since 邊 has a similar range of meanings as anta. [back]
  3. someone who washes off ink stains with ink, removes blood with blood, removes dirt with dirt, or removes a feces with feces. C. 猶人以墨浣墨所污，以血除血，以垢除垢，以濁除濁，以廁除廁. This analogy doesn’t occur in SN 22.80 or Iti 91. However, we can find similar expressions in Pali sources, such as SN 3.21: “This person is like someone who goes from darkness to darkness, from blackness to blackness, from bloodstain to bloodstain.” (“Seyyathāpi, mahārāja, puriso andhakārā vā andhakāraṁ gaccheyya, tamā vā tamaṁ gaccheyya, lohitamalā vā lohitamalaṁ gaccheyya.”)
    It would seem that, as is often the case, the Sarvāstivādins have expanded this analogy and changed it in some ways. The parallel passage in SĀ 1.55 reads more like SN 3.21: “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” (譬如士夫從闇而入闇，從冥入冥，從糞廁出復墮糞廁，以血洗血，捨離諸惡還復取惡).
    As a side note, the phrase 以廁除廁 lit. means “removes a latrine with a latrine.” I’ve translated 廁 as “feces” here assuming the intent is still to list types of stains. In SĀ 1.55, the latrine reading makes better sense because it was translated as a person falling into it. I’ve also translated 墨 as “ink” but it could simply mean “black.” [back]
  4. leftover wood from a cremation in a remote place. C. 無事處燒人殘木. The proper reading of this expression isn’t entirely clear, but apparently it is a noun 殘木 (“leftover wood”) with two modifiers: 無事處 (“remote place”) and 燒人 (“cremated person”). I’ve translated the last as “a cremation.” 無事處 lit. means “place without business.” It was a way of trans. P. ārañña, which was sometimes interpreted as “without conflict” or “secluded” as well as “forest.” It refers to living in an uninhabited wilderness as a recluse to focus on contemplative practice. In the context of this sūtra, which juxtaposes it with a village, I’ve translated 無事 as “remote.” The basic meaning was a peaceful place away from other people.
    The parallels confirm that this analogy was confusing in its original language because they disagree in their individual wordings. SN 22.80 and Iti 91 both read: “Suppose there was a firebrand for lighting a funeral pyre, burning at both ends, and smeared with dung in the middle. It couldn’t be used as timber either in the village or the wilderness” (seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, chavālātaṁ ubhatopadittaṁ majjhe gūthagataṁ, neva gāme kaṭṭhatthaṁ pharati, nāraññe kaṭṭhatthaṁ pharati). This includes a funeral pyre in the imagery, but here in MĀ 140 the useless wood is leftovers from the fire rather than a stick used to light it.
    SĀ 1.55 uses a similar image of leftover wood from a cremation, but the whole passage is another variation on the theme: “He is also like a burned stick from a cremation that’s discarded on a charnel ground and can’t be included in kindling wood” (又復譬如焚尸火𣕊捐棄塜間，不為樵伐之所採拾). [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 31 August 2024

Previous

Next