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Edited: Saturday, March 25, 2023 8:38 AM

Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
20. Opamma-Saṃuttaṃ

Sutta 1

Kūṭa Suttaṃ

The Pinnacle[1]

Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds

 


 

[1][rhyc] I Hear Tell:

Once upon a time Bhagava,
Sāvatthi-town revisiting,
Jeta-woods,
Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.

[2][rhyc] There then, The Lucky Man addressed the beggars:

"Beggars!"

Then those beggars responding "Bhagava!"
the Lucky Man said this:

[3][rhyc] "In the same way, beggars,
as in a pinnacled house,
whatsoever rafters there are
all angle towards [2] the pinnacle,
fit together at the pinnacle
culminate at the pinnacle
all interdepend for support[3] on the pinnacle.

[4][rhyc] In the same way, beggars,
whatsoever unskillful things there are
all are angles of blindness,
fit together with blindness,
are grouped under blindness,
all interdepend for support on blindness.

[5][rhyc] Wherefore, beggars, train yourselves this way:

'Let us not live carelessly!'

This is the way to train yourselves."

 


[1] Kūṭa -agāra PED: a building with a peaked roof or pinnacles, possibly gabled; or with an upper storey. In such a building the rafters are held in place by the pinnacle. Each rafter exerts a force on the pinnacle which acts as a counter force against an opposing rafter. Round and round.

[2] Kūṭaṅgamā = Kūṭa aṅgamā.

[3] Samugghātaṃ gacchanti. resort to rubbing together. Which is illuminating but doesn't translate well into the image of structural integrity held in the West.


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