SN 4.24 Sattavassa Sutta: Seven Years of Pursuit

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mikenz66
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SN 4.24 Sattavassa Sutta: Seven Years of Pursuit

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SN 4.24 [SN i 122] <SN i 269> Sattavassa Sutta: Seven Years of Pursuit
Translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi


http://suttacentral.net/en/sn4.24

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One was dwelling at Uruvela on the bank of the river Nerañjara at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan Tree. Now on that occasion Mara the Evil One had been following the Blessed One for seven years, seeking to gain access to him but without success. [316] Then Mara the Evil One approached the Blessed One and addressed him in verse:
  • “Is it because you are sunk in sorrow
    That you meditate in the woods?
    Because you’ve lost wealth or pine for it,
    Or committed some crime in the village?
    Why don’t you make friends with people?
    Why don’t you form any intimate ties?”
The Blessed One:
  • “Having dug up entirely the root of sorrow,
    Guiltless, I meditate free from sorrow.
    Having cut off all greedy urge for existence, [317]
    I meditate taintless, O kinsman of the negligent!”
Mara:
  • “That of which they say ‘It’s mine,’
    And those who speak in terms of ‘mine’—
    If your mind exists among these,
    You won’t escape me, ascetic.”
The Blessed One:
  • “That which they speak of is not mine,
    I’m not one of those who speak of mine.
    You should know thus, O Evil One:
    Even my path you will not see.”
Mara:
  • “If you have discovered the path,
    The secure way leading to the Deathless,
    Be off and walk that path alone;
    What’s the point of instructing others?”
The Blessed One:
  • “Those people going to the far shore
    Ask what lies beyond Death’s realm.
    When asked, I explain to them
    The truth without acquisitions.” [318]
Mara: “Suppose, venerable sir, not far from a village or a town there was a lotus pond in which a crab was living. [319] Then a group of boys and girls would leave the village or town and go to the pond. They would pull the crab out from the water and set it down on high ground. Then, whenever that crab would extend one of its claws, those boys and girls would cut it off, break it, and smash it to bits with sticks and stones. Thus, when all its claws have been cut off, broken, and smashed to bits, that crab would be unable to return to that pond. So too, venerable sir, all those distortions, manoeuvres, and contortions of mine have been cut off, broken, and smashed to bits by the Blessed One. Now, venerable sir, I am unable to approach the Blessed One again seeking to gain access to him.”

Then Mara the Evil One, in the presence of the Blessed One, recited these verses of disappointment: [320]
  • “There was a crow that walked around
    A stone that looked like a lump of fat.
    ‘Let’s find something tender here,’ he thought,
    ‘Perhaps there’s something nice and tasty.’

    But because he found nothing tasty there,
    The crow departed from that spot.
    Just like the crow that attacked the stone,
    We leave Gotama disappointed.”

Notes

[316] Spk explains the seven years of pursuit as the Buddha’s six years (of striving) before the enlightenment and the first year after. However, the next sutta, which apparently follows in immediate temporal sequence, is the temptation by Māra’s
daughters, which other sources clearly place right after the enlightenment. The present sutta seems to confirm this by locating the dialogue with Māra at the foot of the Goatherd’s Banyan Tree, in the vicinity of the Bodhi Tree. The commentaries generally assign the Buddha’s stay under this tree to the fifth week after the enlightenment (see Ja I 78,9-11).

[317] Spk: Bhavalobhajappan ti bhavalobhasaṅkhātam taṇham; “The greedy urge for existence is craving consisting in greed for existence.”

[318] I read pāda d with Be, Se, and Ee2: yam saccam tam nirūpadhim (Ee1: yam sabbantam nirūpadhim). Nibbāna, the supreme truth (paramasacca), is often described as sabbupadhipaṭinissagga , “the relinquishing of all acquisitions,” and
here as nirūpadhi. See note 21 to SN 1.12:
  • [21] Upadhi, “acquisitions” (from upa + dhā, “to rest upon”) means literally “that
    upon which something rests,” i.e., the “foundations” or “paraphernalia” of existence. The word has both objective and subjective extensions. Objectively, it refers to the things acquired, i.e., one’s assets and possessions; subjectively, to the act of appropriation rooted in craving. In many instances the two senses merge, and often both are intended. The word functions as a close counterpart of upādāna, “clinging,” to which, however, it is not etymologically related. See in this connection SN 12.66 and II, n. 187, and Snp p. 141.

    Spk (along with other commentaries) offers a fourfold classification of upadhi: (i) kāmūpadhi, acquisitions as sensual pleasures and material possessions; (ii) khandhūpadhi, the five aggregates; (iii) kilesūpadhi, defilements, which are the foundation for suffering in the realm of misery; and (iv) abhisaṅkhārūpadhi, volitional formations, accumulations of kamma, which are the foundation for all suffering in saṃsāra. In the deva’s verse upadhi is used in the first sense.

    In his reply the Buddha turns the devatā’s expression “one without acquisitions” (nirupadhi) on its head by using the term as a designation for the arahant, who is free from all four kinds of upadhi and thus completely free from suffering. The pair of verses recurs below at SN 4.8, with Māra as the interlocutor.
[319] The same simile occurs in a very different context at MN I 234,7-18. [MN 35].

[320] Nibbejanīyā gāthā. Spk glosses nibbejanīyā as ukkaṇṭhanīyā (dissatisfaction) but does not explain the derivation. It is likely the word is related to nibbidā, though employed in a different sense; see MW, s.v. nirvid.
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