Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
18. Rāhula Saṃyuttam
2. Dutiya Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
II. The Book Called the Nidāna-Vagga
Containing Kindred sayings on Cause
and Other Subjects
18. Kindred Sayings about Rāhula
2. [Untitled]
Sutta 21
Anusaya Suttaṃ
Insidious Tendency
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by F. L. Woodward
Originally Published by
The Pali Text Society
Public Domain
[1] Thus have I heard:
The Exalted One was once staying near Sāvatthī
at the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
Now the venerable Rāhula came into the presence of the Exalted One,
saluted him and eat down beside him.
Now the venerable Rāhula, so seated,
said to the Exalted One:
"How, lord, should one know,
how should one see,
so that in the matter both of this body
with its mind,[1]
and also of all external objects[2]
he has no notions of an 'I,'
nor of 'mine,'
nor an insidious tendency
to vain conceits [concerning either]?"[3]
"Whatever visible shape there be, Rāhula,
whether it be past,
future,
or present,
whether it be your own
or external [168] to you,
whether it be gross or subtle,
mean or noble,
remote or near,
which you see by right insight
as it really is,
namely that:
'It is not mine!
I am not it!
It is not my spirit!'
Whatever feeling there be, Rāhula,
whether it be past,
future,
or present,
whether it be your own
or external to you,
whether it be gross or subtle,
mean or noble,
remote or near,
which you see by right insight
as it really is,
namely that:
'It is not mine!
I am not it!
It is not my spirit!'
Whatever perception there be, Rāhula,
whether it be past,
future,
or present,
whether it be your own
or external to you,
whether it be gross or subtle,
mean or noble,
remote or near,
which you see by right insight
as it really is,
namely that:
'It is not mine!
I am not it!
It is not my spirit!'
Whatever mental property[ed1] there be, Rāhula,
whether it be past,
future,
or present,
whether it be your own
or external to you,
whether it be gross or subtle,
mean or noble,
remote or near,
which you see by right insight
as it really is,
namely that:
'It is not mine!
I am not it!
It is not my spirit!'
Whatever consciousness there be, Rāhula,
whether it be past,
future,
or present,
whether it be your own
or external to you,
whether it be gross or subtle,
mean or noble,
remote or near,
which you see by right insight
as it really is,
namely that:
'It is not mine!
I am not it!
It is not my spirit!'
To you thus knowing,
thus seeing
in the matter
both of this body
with its mind
and also of all external objects,
there will be no notions
of an "I,"
nor of "mine,"
nor any insidious tendency
to vain conceits [concerning either]."[4]
[1] Cf. above vol. i, p. 86; A. i, 132.
[2] Another body with or without mind. Comy.
[3] For this triad of terms cf. M. iii, 18, 32; S. iii, 80, 136 etc.; A. iii, 444. Lit. translated: - I-making, mine-making, etc. 'Insidious tendency' I have elsewhere rendered 'latent bias' -anusaya. 'Bias' was suggested by a well-known work of Herbert Spencer, and a misconception of the Pali root. 'Latency' is more accurate, if scarcely practicable. Cf. Compendium, 172. There was a category of seven of them, māna, 'vain conceit' being the fourth. On the meaning of māna, see Bud, Pay. Eth, 298, n. 3; Vibhanga, pp. 353f., 383.
[4] Cf. above i, 17, 21 f., 141.
[ed1] Sankhara. Own-making or confounding or constructing. Elsewhere translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids as: volitional complexes, dispositions, synergies.
