[Home] [Sutta Indexes] [Glossology] [Site Sub-Sections]
[Pāḷi English Dictionary] [Sutta Search]

#### Saṁyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
15. Anamat'agga-Saṁyuttaṁ
I. Paṭhama Vagga

#### Sutta 1

#### Tiṇa-Kaṭṭha Suttaṁ

# Thatch'n-twigs

Translated from the Pāḷi
by
Michael M. Olds

[1][pts][bodh] I Hear Tell:

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

[2][pts][bodh] There to the Beggars gathered round he said:

"Beggars!"

And "Broke Tooth", the Beggars responded.

[3][pts][bodh] Then Bhagava said:

"Out of reach of the mind, beggars,
is the start of one's run-around,
not known is the beginning point
of beings reigned in by blindness,
bridled by thirst,
rolled-up in this our run'n-round.

[4][pts][bodh] If it happened, beggars,
that some man here
crafted together all the thatch and twigs
and branches and leaves
in this RoseAppleLand,
placing them together by hand
quadrangle by quadrangle
saying for each:

"This is my mother;
this is my mother's mother."[1]

Not completely used up, beggars,
would be that man's mother's mothers
but the thatch and twigs
and branches and leaves
in this RoseAppleLand
would be thoroughly spent,
thoroughly used up.

[5][pts][bodh] How come?

Out of reach of the mind, beggars,
is the start of one's run-around,
not known is the beginning point of
beings reigned in by blindness,
bridled by thirst,
rolled-up in this our run'n-round.

[6][pts][bodh] Many a long day, beggars,
have you lived tortured by pain,
tortured by terror,
tortured by bad luck,
filling the cemeteries.

[7][pts][bodh] Enough is enough, beggars!

Enough to have had enough
of every confounded thing,
enough for disinterest in it,
enough for freedom from it.

[1] This makes sense as an illustration of the personal journey through samsara if one remembers that where a being is considered its mother, there it has been born. There is also here the possibility of word-play: mata/mātā thought/mother. This is the mother of my thinking, this is the mother of the mother of that thought. Or: death/mother. This is my death. This is the death that preceded that death (the mother of that death).

Contact:
Copyright Statement