Aṇguttara-Nikāya
III. Tika Nipāta
XIII. Kusināra Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
or
More-Numbered Suttas
III. The Book of the Threes
XIII. At Kusināra
Sutta 128
Dutiya Anuruddha Suttaṃ
Anuruddha (b)
Translated from the Pali by
F.L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
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[1][olds][than] THUS HAVE I HEARD
On a certain occasion the Exalted One was staying near Benares at Isipatana,
in Antelope Park.
Now the venerable Anuruddha went to see the venerable Sāriputta.
On coming to him he greeted him courteously, and,
after the exchange of greetings and courtesies,
sat down at one side.
So seated the venerable Anuruddha said this:
"Here in this world, friend Sāriputta,
with the deva-sight,
purified and surpassing that of men,
I can see the thousandfold world-system.
Strenuous and unshaken is my energy.
Mindfulness is set up in me untroubled.[1]
My body is calmed, not perturbed.
My mind is collected, one-pointed.
Yet for all that
my heart is not released from the āsavas
without grasping."
■
2. "Well, Anuruddha,
as to your statement about seeing the thousandfold world-system,
that is just your conceit.[2]
As to your statement about being strenuous and unshaken [261] and so forth,
- that is just arrogance.
As to jour statement about your heart not being released from the āsavas,
that is just worrying.[3]
It would indeed be well for the venerable Anuruddha
if he were to abandon these three conditions,
if he were not to think about them,
but were to focus his mind on the deathless element."[4]
■
3. So later on the venerable Anuruddha abandoned these three conditions,
paid no attention to them,
but focussed his mind on the deathless element.
And it came to pass that the venerable Anuruddha,
living alone, secluded, earnest, ardent and aspiring,
in no long time attained the goal supreme of the holy life,
for which clansmen rightly go forth from home to the homeless:
even in this very life he himself by his own intuitional powers realized it,
and having attained it dwelt therein,
for he knew:
"Birth is destroyed:
lived is the holy life:
done is my task:
for me there is no more of being thus."[5]
And the venerable Anuruddha was yet another of the arahants.
[1] Cf. M. i, 21; S. iv, 125; K.S. iv, 80; Brethren, cclvi.
[3] Kukuccasmiṃ.
[4] Amata-dhātu; A. iii, 356, etc. ... dullabhā lokasmim ye amataṃ dhātuṃ kāyena phusitvā viharanti. Cf. Vin. Texts, i, 144.
