The Related Discourses
3. Dependent Origination
| （二九四）愚癡、黠慧者 | 3.12 (294). The Foolish and the Wise |
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| 如是我聞： 一時，佛住王舍城、迦蘭陀竹園。 | 1. Thus I have heard:1 One time, the Buddha was staying at the Squirrels’ Bamboo Grove of Rājagṛha. |
| 爾時，世尊告諸比丘： 「愚癡、無聞凡夫無明覆、愛緣繫，得此識身。 內有此識身，外有名色。 此二因緣生觸。 此六觸入所觸，愚癡、無聞凡夫苦樂受覺，因起種種。 云何為六？ 眼觸入處，耳⋯鼻⋯舌⋯身⋯意觸入處。 | 2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “Foolish and unlearned ordinary men, being shrouded by ignorance and bound by the conditioning of craving, obtain this body of awareness. Internally, there is this body of awareness, and there is name and form externally. These two causes and conditions give rise to contact. Those things contacted by the six sense fields of contact cause painful and pleasant feelings experienced by foolish and unlearned ordinary men, which arise in various kinds.2 What are the six? The visual sense field of contact, auditory … olfactory … gustatory … somatic … mental sense field of contact. |
| 「若黠慧者無明覆、愛緣繫，得此識身。 如是，內有識身，外有名色。 此二緣生六觸入處。 六觸所觸故，智者生苦樂受覺，因起種種。 何等為六？ 眼觸入處，耳⋯鼻⋯舌⋯身⋯意觸入處。 愚夫、黠慧，彼於我所修諸梵行者，有何差別？」 | 3. “If a wise person is shrouded by ignorance and bound by the conditioning of craving, they will obtain this body of awareness. Thus, there’s a body of awareness internally, and there’s name and form externally. These two conditions give rise to the six sense fields of contact. A wise person’s experience of painful and pleasant feelings arises because of what is contacted by the six sense fields of contact, which causes them to arise in various kinds. What are the six? The visual sense field of contact, auditory … olfactory … gustatory … somatic … mental sense field of contact. What difference is there between a fool and a wise person who cultivates this religious practice of mine?” |
| 比丘白佛言： 「世尊是法根、法眼、法依。 善哉，世尊！唯願演說。 諸比丘聞已，當受奉行。」 | The monks said to the Buddha, “The Bhagavān is the Dharma root, Dharma eye, and Dharma basis. Excellent, Bhagavān! Please explains this. Once they hear it, the monks will accept and approve of it!” |
| 爾時，世尊告諸比丘： 「諦聽，善思！當為汝說。 諸比丘，彼愚癡、無聞凡夫無明所覆，愛緣所繫，得此識身。 彼無明不斷，愛緣不盡。 身壞命終，還復受身。 還受身故，不得解脫生、老、病、死、憂、悲、惱、苦。 所以者何？ 此愚癡凡夫本不修梵行，向正盡苦，究竟苦邊故。 是故身壞命終，還復受身。 還受身故，不得解脫生、老、病、死、憂、悲、惱、苦。 | 4. The Bhagavān then said to the monks, “Listen closely, and consider it well! I’ll explain this for you. Monks, those foolish and unlearned ordinary men, being shrouded by ignorance and bound by the conditioning of craving, obtain this body of awareness. Their ignorance doesn’t stop and their conditioning of craving doesn’t end. When their bodies break up and their lives ends, they return again and receive a body. Because they return and receive a body, they aren’t liberated from birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and trouble. Why is that? Because these foolish ordinary men haven’t cultivated the religious practice in the past, nor were they correctly headed for the end of suffering and the final limit of suffering. Therefore, when their bodies broke up and their lives ended, they returned again and received a body. Because they returned and received a body, they haven’t been liberated from birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and trouble. |
| 「若黠慧者無明所覆，愛緣所繫，得此識身。 彼無明斷，愛緣盡。 無明斷，愛緣盡故，身壞命終，更不復受。 不更受故，得解脫生、老、病、死、憂、悲、惱、苦。 所以者何？ 彼先修梵行，正向盡苦，究竟苦邊故。 是故彼身壞命終，更不復受。 更不受故，得解脫生、老、病、死、憂、悲、惱、苦。 是名凡夫及黠慧者，彼於我所修諸梵行，種種差別。」 | 5. “If a wise person is shrouded by ignorance and bound by the conditioning of craving, they will obtain this body of awareness. Their ignorance is stopped and their conditioning of craving is ended. Because their ignorance stops and their conditioning of craving ends, they won’t receive another [body] when their body breaks up and their life ends. Because they won’t receive another [body], they are liberated from birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and trouble. Why is that? Because they were already cultivating the religious practice and were correctly headed to the end of suffering and the final limit of suffering. Therefore, when their body broke up and their life ended, they didn’t receive another [body]. Because they didn’t receive another [body], they were liberated from birth, old age, illness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, and trouble. These are called the various differences between an ordinary man and a wise person who cultivates this religious practice of mine. |
| 佛說此經已，諸比丘聞佛所說歡喜，奉行。 | 6. After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved. |
Notes
This is sūtra no. 294 in the Taisho edition and no. 475 in Yinshun (T99.2.83c23-4a22, Y30.31a5-2a4). This sūtra is parallel with SN 12.19 and SF161. The content of these three texts is not significantly different, but the Sarvāstivāda version represented here and in SF161 is more verbose than SN 12.19. [back]
Those things contacted by the six sense fields … arise in various kinds. C. 此六觸入所觸，愚癡、無聞凡夫苦樂受覺，因起種種, P. yehi phuṭṭho bālo sukhadukkhaṁ paṭisaṁvedayati etesaṁ vā aññatarena, S. ṣaḍ imāni sparśāyatanāni yaiḥ spṛṣṭaḥ spṛṣṭo bālo ’śrutavān pṛthagjanaḥ sukhaduḥkhaṁ pratisaṁvedayati | ato vā punar upādāyaiteṣāṁ vānyatamena.
This sentence in C. translation is difficult to parse, mainly because the order of clauses is unnatural and causes confusion as to what is the subject, verb, and direct object. Lit., it reads: “What is contacted by these six sense fields of contact, the foolish and unlearned ordinary man experiences painful and pleasant feelings, which cause the arising of various kinds.” I can only assume that the last clause is the main verb, the first is the subject, and the middle is the object of the verb, i.e. things contacted cause the diversity of feelings that are experienced by ordinary people.
To make matters even less certain, the grammar of the same sentence in the next paragraph is different. I have translated both sentences to reflect the C. rather than amend one of them.
The P. parallel of this sentence is much simpler and shows how much extra information have been added by the Sarvāstivādins when it’s compared to the C. and S. versions. The meaning is not changed by this, but the verbiage is much increased. [back]
Translator: Dōgen Sīṁsāpa (draft) and Charles Patton (editor)
Last Revised: 5 October 2025
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