Aṇguttara-Nikāya
III. Tika Nipāta
XIV. Yodh-ā-jīva Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
or
More-Numbered Suttas
III. The Book of the Threes
XIV. The Fighting-Man
Sutta 135
Kesa-Kambalo Suttaṃ
Hair-Blanket
Translated from the Pali by
F.L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
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Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Sāvatthī.
There the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
"Yes, lord," they replied, and the Exalted One said:
"Monks, just as the hair-blanket
is reckoned the meanest[1]
of all woven garments whatsoever,
— for, monks, the hair-blanket
is cold in cold weather,
hot in hot weather,
ill-coloured,
foul-smelling
and unpleasant to touch,
— even so, of all theories
put forward by recluses,
that of Makkhali[2]
is the meanest.
■
Makkhali, monks, infatuated man,
thus proclaims, holds this view:
'There is no doing of a deed;
there is nothing done[3] thereby;
there is no energy to do.[4]
§
[2][olds] Now, monks, all those
who in time past were Arahants,
who were Fully Enlightened Ones,
all those Exalted Ones
[266] were teachers of the deed,
teachers of the efficacy of the deed,
of energy to do.
But, monks, Makkhali, infatuated man,
excludes[5] all of them
by his doctrine of:
'There is no doing of a deed:
there is nothing done thereby:
there is no energy to do.'
■
[3][olds] Now, monks, all those
who in future time shall be Arahants,
who were Fully Enlightened Ones,
all those Exalted Ones
were teachers of the deed,
teachers of the efficacy of the deed,
of energy to do.
But, monks, Makkhali, infatuated man,
excludes all of them
by his doctrine of:
'There is no doing of a deed:
there is nothing done thereby:
there is no energy to do.'
■
[4][olds] Nay, I myself who am now Arahant,
a Fully Enlightened One,
I am a teacher of the deed,
of the efficacy of the deed,
of energy to do.
Me also does Makkhali, infatuated man,
exclude by his doctrine of:
'There is no doing of a deed:
there is nothing done thereby:
there is no energy to do.'
■
[5][olds] Just as if, monks,
at the mouth of a river
a man should set[6] a fish-trap
to the loss, misery, distress
and destruction of many fish,
even so does Makkhali, that infatuated man,
set a man-trap, methinks,
for the loss, misery, distress
and destruction of many men."
[1] Paṭikiṭṭho, 'meanest and lowest.' Comy.
[2] (Go-sāla) (of the cow-pen). Cf. Dialog. i, 71. There may be a reference to Ajita 'of the hair-blanket,' another of the sophists. Comy. takes it to be of human hair. Cf. Dialog. i, 231.
[3] Kiriyaṃ.
[4] Cf. Buddhism (Mrs. Rhys Davids), 86; D. i, 53; A. ii, 232; Buddhist Philosophy (Dr. A.B. Keith), 112 ff.
[5] Paṭibāhati = paṭisedheti.
[6] Text uḍḍeyya. Comy. oḍḍeyya. Cf. supra, p30;[Ed. sic pg33] K.S. i, 101.
