This week we will be reading Chapter Two of the Book of Twos of the Itivuttaka. A somewhat less favored text of the KN, the discourses of the Iti are pure, cut-and-dry doctrine, where setting and context are in short supply. Each sutta is summarized in verse, however, providing balance to the lack of narrative depth in the prose.
Additional context (and perhaps a dash of wonderment) for these 112 short discourses can be found in the backstory of this collection. Typically we have a discourse begin with Evaṁ me sutaṁ (Thus have I heard) believed to have been the words of Ānanda, the Buddha's personal attendant, but here in the Iti they begin with Vuttañhetaṁ bhagavatā vuttamarahatāti me sutaṁ (This was said by the Lord, by the Arahant, so I have heard), which are believed to be the words of the lay woman, Khujjuttarā. According to the commentaries, she was a servant to the consort of King Udena, and would regularly listen to the Buddha speak during time spent in Kosambī. She would then share what she heard with the other women of the palace, converting many of them to the Buddha's path. (We find Khujjuttarā mentioned in five suttas, most notably AN 2.133, SN 17.24, and AN 4.176 where she, along with Veḷukaṇṭakī, Nanda’s mother, are described as a standard and a measure for female disciples, and to whom lay women should rightly aspire to be like; and in AN 1.260 where she is described as the foremost of lay women who are very learned.)
As for the translator, I think he deserves a special mention as well. I've seen this biography in several places and was able to trace it back to the website Dharma Audiobooks:
- John D. Ireland (1932-1998) was born in North London, England. He became a Buddhist at age eighteen and soon began studying Pali. From the 1960’s onward he was a frequent contributor to the Buddhist Publication Society’s Wheel and Bodhi Leaves series of booklets. But he is perhaps best known for his combined translation, The Udana & the Itivuttaka (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1997), in reference to which he wrote to a friend shortly before his death: “I feel I could die contented in the knowledge that I have done something to repay the great happiness the Buddha-Dhamma has brought me in this life.”
Enjoy.