The Related Discourses

13. Factors of the Noble Path

4 (751). The Right Tasks

1. Thus I have I heard:[1] One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.

2. It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “If someone at home or who has left home undertakes the wrong tasks, that is not taught by me. Why is that? Someone living at home or has left home who undertakes the wrong tasks won’t be happy with the correct teaching. What are the wrong tasks? They refer to wrong view … wrong samādhi.

3. “If someone living at home or who has left home undertakes the right tasks, that is praised by me. Why is that? Someone who undertakes the right tasks is happy with the correct teaching and good at the correct teaching. What are the right tasks? They are right view … right samādhi.”

4. The Bhagavān then spoke in verse:

• “Whether they’re at home or have left,
  Someone who undertakes the wrong tasks
  Will not be happy in the end
  With the unsurpassed, correct teaching.

• Whether they’re at home or have left,
  Someone who undertakes the right tasks
  Will always be happy at heart
  With the unsurpassed, correct teaching.”

5. After the Buddha spoke this sūtra, the monks who heard what the Buddha taught rejoiced and approved.

Notes

1. This sūtra is parallel with SN 45.24. [back]

Translator: Charles Patton

Last Revised: 1 November 2022