Saṃyutta Nikāya
3. Khandha Vagga
22. Khandha Saṃyutta
14. Kukkuḷa Vagga
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
3. The Book Called the Khandhā-Vagga
Containing Kindred Sayings on the Elements of Sensory Existence and other Subjects
22. Kindred Sayings on Elements
14. Glowing Embers
Sutta 136
Kukkula Suttaṃ
Glowing Embers[1]
Translated by F. L. Woodward
Edited by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1] Thus have I heard:
The Exalted One was once staying near Sāvatthī
at the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
And there the Exalted One addressed the brethren, saying:
"Brethren!"
"Master!" responded those brethren.
The Exalted One said:
"Body, brethren, is (a mass of) glowing embers.
Feeling is a mass of glowing embers.
Perception is a mass of glowing embers.
The activities is a mass of glowing embers.
Consciousness is a mass of glowing embers.
So seeing, brethren, the well-taught Ariyan disciple feels aversion[ed1] from body,
from feeling,
from perception,
from the activities,
from consciousness.
Being averse
he is disgusted by them;
by that disgust he is released;
by that release he is set free;
knowledge arises:
in the freed man is the freed thing,
so that he knows:
'Destroyed is rebirth;
lived is the righteous life;
done is the task;
for life in these conditions
there is no hereafter.'"
The controversy mentioned here is a tempest in a teapot which eminates from one side ridgidly holding the position that everything is painful, not acknowledging transitory pleasures as being nevertheless pleasures; while the other side refuses to see that seen from the point of view of the ultimate result this is a legitimate position. Pleasure in this world is an observable fact, it is also observable that it always ends in pain. Mrs. Rhys Davids translation of 'sankhārā' as 'conditioned' rather than 'own-made' or, at least 'constructed' in Pts. of Contr. only serves to confuse the issue.
— p.p.
[1] Kukkuḷa. Cf. K.S. i, 268, n.: K.V. ii, 8: Pts. of Contr. 127.
[ed1] Note differences from his version of this at SN 3.22.100 and elsewhere.
