Ādittapariyāya Sutta
The Ādittapariyāya Sutta (
In the Pali Canon, the Adittapariyaya Sutta is found in the
English speakers might be familiar with the name of this discourse due to T. S. Eliot's titling the third section of his celebrated poem, The Waste Land, "The Fire Sermon." In a footnote, Eliot states that this Buddhist discourse "corresponds in importance to the Sermon on the Mount."[6]
Background
In the
The 5th-century CE post-canonical Pali commentary, Sāratthappakāsini (Spk.), attributed to Buddhaghosa, draws a direct connection between the ascetics' prior practices and this discourse's main rhetorical device:
Having led the thousand bhikkhus monks to Gayā's Head, the Blessed One reflected, 'What kind of Dhamma talk would be suitable for them?' He then realized, 'In the past they worshipped the fire morning and evening. I will teach them that the twelve sense bases are burning and blazing. In this way they will be able to attain arahantship.'[8]
Text
In this discourse, the Buddha describes the sense bases and resultant mental phenomena as "burning" with passion, aversion, delusion and
After a prefatory paragraph identifying this discourse's location of deliverance (
"Bhikkhus, all is burning."[10] | Sabbaṃ bhikkhave ādittaṃ[11] |
Figure 1: The Pali Canon's Six Sextets: | |||||||||||||||
sense bases
|
→ |
f e e l i n g |
→ |
c r a v i n g |
|||||||||||
"internal" sense organs |
<–> | "external" sense objects |
|||||||||||||
↓ | ↓ | ||||||||||||||
↓ | contact | ||||||||||||||
↓ | ↑ | ||||||||||||||
consciousness |
|||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Source: MN 148 (Thanissaro, 1998) diagram details |
The ensuing text reveals that "all" (sabba) refers to:
- the six internal sense bases (ayatana): eye, ear, nose, tongue, body and mind
- the six external sense bases: visible forms, sound, smells, tastes, touches and mental objects
- consciousness (viññāṇa) contingent on these sense bases
- the contact (samphassa) of a specific sense organ (such as the ear), its sense object (sound) and sense-specific consciousness.
- what is subsequently felt (vedayita): pleasure (sukha), pain (dukkha), or neither (adukkhamasukhaṃ).
By "burning" (āditta) is meant:
- the fire of passion (rāgagginā)
- the fire of aversion (dosagginā)
- the fire of delusion (mohagginā)
- the manifestations of suffering: birth, aging and death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses and despairs.[12]
According to the Buddha, a well-instructed noble disciple (sutavā ariyasāvako) sees this burning and thus becomes disenchanted (nibbindati) with the sense bases and their mental sequelae. The text then uses a formula found in dozens of discourses[13] to describe the manner in which such disenchantment leads to liberation from suffering:
"Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. |
Nibbindaṃ virajjati |
A closing paragraph reports that, during this discourse, the thousand monks in attendance became liberated.
Related canonical discourses
Part of a series on |
Theravāda Buddhism |
---|
While the central metaphor of burning combined with "the all" (sense bases, etc.) make this discourse unique in the Pali Canon, its core message can be found throughout, condensed and embellished in a number of instructive ways.
Andhabhūta/Addhabhūta Sutta (SN 35.29)
The very next discourse listed in the
Āditta Sutta (SN 22.61)
In this discourse, instead of describing the sense bases (ayatana) as being aflame, the Buddha describes the five aggregates (
- "Bhikkhus, form is burning, feeling is burning, perception is burning, volitional formations are burning, consciousness is burning. Seeing thus, bhikkhus, the instructed noble disciple experiences revulsion towards form ... feeling ... perception ... volitional formations ... consciousness .... Through dispassion [this mind] is liberated...."[18]
Kukkuḷa Sutta (SN 22.136)
Like the Fire Sermon, this discourse has a central metaphor related to fire – likening our physical and mental apparatus to hot embers (Pali: kukkuḷa) – and concludes with the well-instructed noble disciple becoming disenchanted with, dispassionate about and liberated from these burning constituents. Unlike the Fire Sermon, instead of using the sense bases and their mental sequelae as the basis for this burning and disenchantment, this discourse uses the five aggregates (khandha) for the underlying physical-mental framework.[19]
Ādittapariyāya Sutta (SN 35.235)
Also entitled "Fire Sermon," this discourse cautions that it is better for an internal sense base (eye, ear, etc.) to be lacerated by a burning implement than for one to "grasp the sign" (nimittaggāho) of an external sense base (visible form, sound, etc.); for such grasping might lead to rebirth in a lower realm. Instead of grasping, the well-instructed noble disciple discriminates (paṭisañcikkhati) the impermanence of the internal sense base, external sense base, related consciousness and contact, and the resultant feeling. Such discrimination leads to liberation.[20]
Notes
- ^ For instance, while the Sinhala SLTP edition refers to this discourse as the Ādittapariyāyasuttaṃ Archived 2007-09-12 at the Wayback Machine, the Burmese CSCD edition refers to it as Ādittasuttaṃ. Ñanamoli (1981), Thanissaro (1993) and other English translators consistently refer to this (or mention its being referred to)as "The Fire Sermon."
- ^ "SN 35.28" denotes that this discourse is the twenty-eighth discourse in the 35th group (Saḷāyatanasaṃyutta) in the Samyutta Nikaya. (Note that in the Sri Lankan edition of the Canon, the Saḷāyatanasaṃyutta is the 34th group.) As an example, Thanissaro (1993) uses this designation.
- ^ "S iv 1.3.6" denotes that this is the sixth discourse in third group of ten discourses (Sabbavaggo) in the fourth book (Catutthobhāgo) in the Samyutta Nikaya. As an example, Bodhgaya News (n.d.) Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine uses this designation.
- ^ "S iv 19" denotes that, in the Pali Text Society edition of the Canon, this discourse starts on page 19 of the fourth volume of the Samyutta Nikaya.
- Vinaya Pitaka, Mahavagga, BJT p. 72 Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine; Rhys Davids & Oldenberg (1881), the Mahavagga, First Khandhaka, ch. 21; Bodhi (2005), p. 449, n. 38; and, Gombrich (1990), p. 16.
- ^ Allison et al.. (1975), p. 1042 n. 9. Eliot concludes "The Fire Sermon" section with: "Burning burning burning burning / O Lord Thou pluckest me out / O Lord Thou pluckest // burning" and associates the identified footnote with the first line represented here ("Burning burning....").
- ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 1401, n. 13.
- Samyutta Nikaya, book 4, BJT pp. 38 Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine - 42 Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Ñanamoli (1981).
- ^ Bodhgaya News (n.d.), Samyutta Nikaya, Book iv, BJT p. 38 Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved 28 Sep 2007).
- ^ While this discourse does not explicitly use the word dukkha to designate what is here called "suffering" (and, in fact, the word dukkha is used in the specific physical notion of "pain"), nonetheless the frequently repeated formula for the Buddhist technical notion of dukkha is repeatedly stated, translated here as "birth, aging and death, sorrows, lamentations, pains, distresses and despairs" (Pali: jātiyā jarāmaraṇena, sokehi paridevehi dukkhehi domanassehi upāyāsehi).
- SN12.61, SN 22.79, SN 22.95, SN 22.136, SN 35.28, SN 35.29, SN 35.60, SN 35.73, SN 35.74, etc.
- ^ Thanissaro (1993).
- ^ Bodhgaya News (n.d.), Samyutta Nikaya, Book iv, BJT p. 42 Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine (retrieved 28 Sep 2007).
- ^ For instance, see Bodhi (2000), p. 1144; Bodhgaya News (n.d.), BJT p. 42; Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine and, Vipassana Research Institute (n.d.), Saḷāyatanasaṃyuttaṃ.
Beside the central metaphor, the Fire Sermon and the Andhabhuta/Addhabuta Sutta differ in terms of locale and in regards to whom is being addressed; additionally, the last paragraph in the Fire Sermon (regarding the congregation's gratification, delight and release) is not present in the subsequent discourse. - ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 1401, n. 14. Bodhi himself uses the Burmese edition as the basis for his own translation. The translation of andhabhūta here is based on Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 49, entry for "Andha". The translation of addhabhūta is from Bodhi (2000), p. 1144. To compare the different editions, see the Sinhala SLTP Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine and Burmese CSCD.
- ^ Bodhi (2000), pp. 904-5. Square brackets are included in the original. In an associated end note to this discourse (p. 1067, n. 94), Bodhi writes: "This [SN 22.61] is a compressed version of the fuller Āditta Sutta at [SN] 35:28 ...."
- ^ English based on Bodhi (2000), p. 976. Pali based on Bodhgaya News (n.d.), SN iii, BJT p. 314. Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Quoted English text from Bodhi (2000), pp. 1233-36. Bodhi translates this discourse's title as "The Exposition on Burning." Pali from Vipassana Research Institute (n.d.) at http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/s0304m.mul0.xml.
Sources
- Allison, Alexander W., Herbert Barrows, Caesar R. Blake, Arthur J. Carr, Arthur M. Eastman and Hubert M. English, Jr. (1975, rev.). The Norton Anthology of Poetry. NY: W.W. Norton Co. ISBN 0-393-09245-3.
- Bodhgaya News (n.d.), "Pali Canon Online Database," online search engine of Sri Lanka Tripitaka Project's (SLTP) Pali Canon, maintained by Dr. Peter Friedlander, formerly of La Trobe University (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001234/http://www.chaf.lib.latrobe.edu.au/dcd/pali.htm). Retrieved 15 Sep 2011 at http://bodhgayanews.net/pali.htm.
- ISBN 0-86171-331-1.
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-491-1.
- ISBN 90-04-09246-3. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 from "Google Book Search" at https://books.google.com/books?id=-mjH2kRdYQoC&dq=agnihotra+pali&pg=PA16
- Ñanamoli Thera (1981). Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha (The Wheel No. 17). Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 from "Access to Insight" (1995) at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/wheel017.html.
- Rhys Davids, T.W. & Hermann Oldenberg (tr.) (1881). Vinaya Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved 26 Sep 2007 from "Internet Sacred Texts Archive" at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/sbe13/index.htm.
- Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
- SN 35.28). Retrieved 25 Sep 2007 from "Access to Insight" at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.028.than.html.
- Vipassana Research Institute (n.d.), "The Pāḷi Tipiṭaka - Roman," online hierarchical organization of the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana Tipitaka. Retrieved 28 Sept 2007 from ""The Pāḷi Tipiṭaka" at http://www.tipitaka.org/romn/.