Translating Classical Buddhism to Modern English

The Related Discourses

1. The Aggregates

（六四） 陀那偈 61 (64). Udāna
如是我聞： 一時，佛住舍衛國、東園、鹿子母講堂。 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha was staying at the Mṛgāra’s Mother Meeting Hall in the Eastern Park of Śrāvastī.2
爾時，世尊晡時從禪起，出講堂。 於堂陰中大眾前，敷座而坐。 爾時，世尊歎優陀那偈： 2. It was then that the Bhagavān rose from meditation in the afternoon and exited the meeting hall. He prepared a seat for himself in the shadow of the hall in front of a large assembly. He then praised this udāna verse:
  • 「『法無有吾我，
    亦復無我所。
    我既非當有，
    我所何由生？』
    比丘解脫此
    則斷下分結。」
  • “‘Things have no self,
    Nor are they possessed by a self, either.
    Given that a self will not exist,
    From what would something possessed by a self arise?’
    A monk freed by this
    Cuts off the lower bonds.”3
時，有一比丘從座起，偏袒右肩，右膝著地，合掌白佛言： 「世尊，云何『無吾我，亦無有我所。 我既非當有，我所何由生？ 比丘解脫此，則斷下分結。』？」 3. A monk then rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, and spoke to the Buddha with his palms together, “Bhagavān, how is it that ‘there is no self nor anything possessed by a self’? Or, ‘given that a self will not exist, from what would something possessed by a self arise’? How is it that ‘a monk who is freed by this cuts off the lower bonds’?”4
佛告比丘： 「愚癡、無聞凡夫計色是我、異我、相在。 受⋯想⋯行⋯識是我、異我、相在。 多聞聖弟子不見色是我、異我、相在。 不見受⋯想⋯行⋯識是我、異我、相在。 4. The Buddha told the monk, “A foolish, unlearned man imagines form to be self, different than self, or either being present in the other. [He imagines] feeling … conception … volition … awareness to be self, different than self, or either being present in the other. A well-versed, noble disciple doesn’t see form as self, different than self, or either being present in the other. He doesn’t see feeling … conception … volition … awareness to be self, different than self, or either being present in the other.
「亦非知者，亦非見者： 「此色是無常。 受⋯想⋯行⋯識是無常。 色是苦。 受⋯想⋯行⋯識是苦。 色是無我。 受⋯想⋯行⋯識是無我。 此色非當有。 受⋯想⋯行⋯識非當有。 此色壞有。 受⋯想⋯行⋯識壞有。 故非我、非我所。 我、我所非當有。」 如是解脫者則斷五下分結。」 5. “[The ordinary man] also doesn’t know and doesn’t see: ‘This form is impermanent. Feeling … conception … volition … awareness is impermanent. Form is painful. Feeling … conception … volition … awareness is painful. Form is selfless. Feeling … conception … volition … awareness is selfless. This form will not exist. Feeling … conception … volition … awareness will not exist. This form will be destroyed. Feeling … conception … volition … awareness will be destroyed.5 Therefore, they are not self and not possessed by a self. A self and what’s possessed by a self will not exist.’ Someone who is freed in this way cuts off the lower bonds.”
時，彼比丘白佛言： 「世尊，斷五下分結已，云何漏盡？ 無漏、心解脫、慧解脫？ 現法自知作證具足住： 『我生已盡，梵行已立，所作已作。』 自知不受後有？」 6. That monk then asked the Buddha, “Bhagavān, how does a monk end the contaminants once he has cut the five lower bonds? How does he become uncontaminated, liberated in mind, and liberated in wisdom? How does he fully dwell in his own knowledge and direct experience here in the present: ‘My births have been ended, the religious life has been established, and the task has been accomplished’? How does he himself know he won’t be subject to a later existence?”6
佛告比丘： 「愚癡凡夫、無聞眾生於無畏處而生恐畏。 愚癡凡夫、無聞眾生怖畏： 『無我、無我所，二俱非當生。』 7. The Buddha told the monk, “A foolish ordinary man is an unlearned sentient being who becomes fearful where there’s nothing to fear. A foolish ordinary man is an unlearned sentient being who becomes fearful of this: ‘There is no self and nothing possessed by a self, and neither of these two things will arise.’
「攀緣四識住。 何等為四？ 謂色識住，色攀緣。 色愛樂，增進、廣大、生長。 於受⋯想⋯行識住，攀緣。 愛樂，增進、廣大、生長。 8. “The four abodes of awareness are its substrates.7 What are the four? Form is an abode of awareness, and form is its substrate. When it craves and delights in form, [awareness] increases, enlarges, and grows. Feeling … conception … volition is an abode of awareness and its substrate. When it craves and delights [in volition], [awareness] increases, enlarges, and grows.
「比丘，識於此處，若來、若去、若住、若起、若滅，增進、廣大、生長。 若作是說： 『更有異法，識若來、若去、若住、若起、若滅、若增進、廣大、生長。』者。 但有言說。 問已不知，增益生癡，以非境界故。 所以者何？ 9. “Monk, whether when coming, going, abiding, arising, or ceasing, awareness increases, enlarges, and grows in these places. Suppose someone were to say, ‘Whether when coming, going, abiding, arising, or ceasing, awareness increases, enlarges, and grows in something else.’ This would only be a claim. When questioned, they wouldn’t know [the answer], and their uncertainty would increase because it’s not their area.8 And why is that?
「比丘，離色界貪已，於色意生縛亦斷。 於色意生縛斷已，識攀緣亦斷。 識不復住，無復增進、廣大、生長。 受⋯想⋯行界離貪已，於受⋯想⋯行意生縛亦斷。 受⋯想⋯行意生縛斷已，攀緣亦斷。 識無所住，無復增進、廣大、生長。 10. “Monk, once one is free from greed for the element of form, the fetters produced by the mind regarding form are cut as well. Once the fetters produced by the mind regarding form are cut, that substrate of awareness is cut, too. Awareness no longer abides, and it doesn’t increase, enlarge, and grow anymore. Once one is free from greed for the element of feeling … conception … volition, the fetters produced by the mind regarding feeling … conception … volition are cut as well. Once the fetters produced by the mind regarding feeling … conception … volition are cut, that substrate [of awareness] is cut, too. Awareness has nowhere to abide, and it doesn’t increase, enlarge, or grow anymore.
「識無所住故不增長。 不增長故無所為作。 無所為作故則住。 住故知足。 知足故解脫。 解脫故於諸世間都無所取。 無所取故無所著。 無所著故自覺涅槃： 『我生已盡，梵行已立，所作已作。』 自知不受後有。 11. “Awareness doesn’t grow because it has nowhere to abide. It creates nothing because it doesn’t grow. It abides then because it creates nothing. One is satisfied because it abides. One is liberated because they’re satisfied. One doesn’t grasp anything at all from any world because they are liberated. They have no attachments because they grasp nothing. They realize their own nirvāṇa because they have no attachments: ‘My births have been ended, the religious life has been established, and the task has been accomplished.’ They themselves know they won’t be subject to a later existence.9
「比丘，我說識不住東方、南、西、北方、四維、上、下。 除欲見法，涅槃、滅盡、寂靜、清涼。」 12. “Monk, I teach that awareness doesn’t abide to the east, south, west, north, the four intercardinals, up, or down. Being rid of desire, one sees the Dharma, nirvāṇa, complete cessation, tranquility, and cooling.”10
佛說此經已，諸比丘聞佛所說歡喜，奉行。 13. After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.
Summary Verse
  • 生滅、以不樂、
    及三種分別、
    貪著等觀察
    是名優陀那。
  • [56] Arising and ceasing, [57] not by delight,
    [58-60] Three kinds of discernment,
    And [61] the examination of greed, attachment, etc.
    Is called Udāna.11

Notes

  1. This is sūtra no. 64 in the Taisho edition and no. 61 in Yinshun (T99.2.16c4-7a22, Y30.101a13-3a7). It’s a direct parallel of SN 22.55. [back]

  2. Hall of Mṛgāra’s Mother. C. 鹿子母講堂, G. *mugaramaduprasada, P. migāramātupāsāda, S. mṛgāramātuḥ prāsāda. This was a meeting hall donated to the saṅgha by the laywoman Viśākhā (P. Visākhā). She was given the epithet “Mṛgāra’s Mother” because her husband Mṛgāra took to calling her “mother” after she introduced him to the Buddha’s teaching. Her husband’s name is derived from the root mṛga, which means “animal” or “deer.” This is the reason his name was translated to C. as “young deer” or “fawn” (鹿子). [back]

  3. Things … lower bonds.. C. 『法無有吾我，亦復無我所。我既非當有，我所何由生？』比丘解脫此，則斷下分結。, P. ‘no cassaṁ, no ca me siyā, nābhavissa, na me bhavissatī’ti—evaṁ adhimuccamāno bhikkhu chindeyya orambhāgiyāni saṁyojanānī. The Chinese translation, while closely resembling the Pali parallel, has a couple significant differences. One is that the word dharma is the subject of the first line, which is left understood in SN 22.55. As we shall see below, it stands for the five aggregates that are treated as the things that could be considered a person’s self.

    The second difference is less clear given how frequent textual errors and literalisms are in SĀ. The verb 解脫 means “liberated, freed,” but words like S. adhimukta (P. adhimucca) were also translated as 信解 (lit. “release of faith”) or 勝解 (lit. “greater release”). The Pali parallel has the term adhimuccamāna, which means “settling the mind on” or “inclining the mind toward.” This is often translated more idiomatically as “being confident in,” “resolved on,” or “inclined to.” However, we should not overlook the fact that P. adhimuccati does lit. mean “released toward,” being a figurative expression for freedom from doubt or indecision.

    As a result, it’s difficult to tell which meaning I should settle my own mind on. In this case, 解脫 might well be an overly literal translation of S. adhimukta or adhimokṣa, but I’ve decided to preserve the literal reading here. [back]

  4. This is actually a single question about the entire set of verses in the original text. I’ve broken it into three questions for the sake of conforming to the English expectation that a question be a single sentence. The same awkwardly long question is asked in SN 22.55 as well, which translators like Sujato truncate to make it fit the confines of English grammar. [back]

  5. impermanent … painful … selfless … will not exist … destroyed. C. 無常⋯苦⋯無我⋯非當有⋯壞有, P. aniccaṁ … dukkhaṁ … anattaṁ … saṅkhataṁ … vibhavissati. There is a slight difference in this series of attributes compared to the Pali. In SN 22.55, “will not be” (nābhavissa) is replaced with “conditioned” (saṅkhataṁ) when compared to the C. here. [back]

  6. Again, this is one long question about the entire description of an arhat’s liberation, which I have broken into smaller questions that consist of individual sentences. In SN 22.55, this question is simpler, asking only about how such a monk can end the contaminants in the present life. Equivalent descriptions of liberation have been added here, which make the question cumbersome. [back]

  7. substrates. C. 攀緣, G. ?, P. upaya, S. upayat. In SĀ 1.151 (SN 22.54), the P. term parallel to 攀緣 is ārammaṇa rather than upaya. P. ārammaṇa (“basis, footing, foundation”) is much closer in meaning to 攀緣 (“climbing support”) than upaya (“approaching, involvement, attachment”). It seems the C. translates a word like P. ārammaṇa or S. upayamana (“support”), but it doesn’t fully agree with upaya. My own translation of the term as “substrate” is to capture the intended meaning of “support for growth” that we find in both texts. [back]

  8. uncertainty. C. 癡. Yinshun suggests that 癡 (“delusion”), which typically translates moha, should be amended to 疑 (“doubt, uncertainty”). This seems justified given the equivalent term is 疑惑 (“uncertain, perplexed”) in the same stock passage found in SĀ 2.97 (213), SĀ 2.218 (273), SĀ 2.246 (319), and SĀ 4.69 (418).

    Two P. parallels (SN 35.23 and 92) also include a version of this stock passage that reads: “They’d have no grounds for that, they’d be stumped by questions, and, in addition, they’d get frustrated. Why is that? Because they’re out of their element” (tassa vācāvatthukamevassa; puṭṭho ca na sampāyeyya, uttariñca vighātaṁ āpajjeyya. Taṁ kissa hetu? Yathā taṁ, bhikkhave, avisayasmin). There, the parallel word is P. vighāta (“vexation, annoyance, distress”).

    I have translated it as Yinshun suggested. [back]

  9. SN 22.55 follows the same line of thought as we find here, but this passage is much more verbose by comparison. The conclusion that follows is also different than the one in SN 22.55, which simply states: “The ending of the defilements is for one who knows and sees this” (Evaṁ kho, bhikkhu, jānato evaṁ passato anantarā āsavānaṁ khayo hotī). [back]

  10. This is the only passage in SĀ that uses the ten directions to express the idea of “anywhere in the world.” The passage appears to reference the metaphor of an extinguished fire. When it goes out, it doesn’t go to another location. It disappears. Here, the disappearance of awareness is described by a series of expressions that’s also unique to this sūtra: 涅槃、滅盡、寂靜、清涼. These words could be read as verbal adjectives. I’ve chosen to read them as nouns. As adjectives, they would mean: “nirvāṇa-ed, completely ceased, stilled, and cooled.” [back]

  11. In a note to this uddāna verse, Yinshun took 貪著 to refer to SĀ 1.59 and 等觀察 to SĀ 1.60, whereas I’m reading 貪著等觀察 as a description of the contents of the present sūtra, SĀ 1.61. Yinshun was uncertain what the three kinds of discernment would be if 三種分別 referred only to SĀ 1.58. My reading is an attempt to resolve that problem by reading it as referring to SĀ 1.58-60. All three of those sūtras address the topic of the five acquired aggregates and could be read as three different analyses of that subject. I have to admit, though, that it’s not entirely clear what was intended. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 16 June 2025

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