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A Sword

Translator: Bhikkhu Sujato

sn / sn1

Linked Discourses 1.21 · 3. A Sword

At Sāvatthī.

Standing to one side, that deity spoke this verse in the Buddha’s presence:

“Like they’re struck by a sword,

like their head was on fire,

a mendicant, mindful, should go forth,

to give up sensual desire.” ^[1]

“Like they’re struck by a sword,

like their head was on fire,

a mendicant, mindful, should go forth,

to give up substantialist view.” ^[2]

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[1] Here, as often (eg. AN 6.54:22.3), giving up kāmarāga implies attaining the absorptions. It cannot mean relinquishing the “underlying tendency” or the “fetter” to sensual desire, for this occurs only at the third stage of awakening (non-return), whereas the Buddha’s rejoinder urges rather to give up substantialist view, the first stage of awakening, the stream-enterer.

[2] In some parallels for this verse, the mendicant is urged, rather, to give up desire for rebirth (Thag 1.40:1.2, Thag 20.1:24.1). But SN 2.16:3.2 is the same as here.