SN 48.64

Āsavakkhaya sutta: Ending of Defilements

Āsavakkhayasutta

Bodhipakkhiyavagga

Traducciones

“Mendicants, when these five faculties are developed and cultivated they lead to the ending of defilements. What five? The faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. When these five faculties are developed and cultivated they lead to the ending of defilements.”

The discourses SN 48.61–64 follow the same template as SN 54.19–20. In both series, we have the fetters, underlying tendencies, course of time, and end of defilements as individual items, then a final passage that combines all four items. We find the same basic series also at SN 45.42–45, but without the combined list. The editing in different editions exhibits considerable uncertainty. In the MS edition, for example, the current Sutta lists the final four in one sentence, whereas at SN 54.20:1.8 they are separated by ellipsis, showing that the editors thought some passages had been elided. BJT, on the other hand, spells out the main four passages in full, but omits the combined series entirely. At SN 54.20 it says, “these three discourses should also be expanded just as the discourse on the fetters”. However it has, in fact, just spelled all of the discourses in full, rendering the instructions moot, so they must be a holdover from one of the sources from which the BJT was edited. I won’t discuss all the editorial problems, but in the next note I propose my solution.

The close -ti here in the MS edition indicates that, following the pattern of the previous three discourses, the Sutta ends here. The PTS, followed by Bodhi, omits this closing statement and continues as if it were the same Sutta (BJT, as noted above, omits the following combined section entirely). I believe the next passage, with the combined list, should be counted as a separate Sutta, although it is not reckoned so in any Pali edition. However, the fact that the combined passage is not found in BJT, nor in the template parallel at SN 45.42–45, suggests that it may be entirely spurious, having arisen by confusion created by the extreme abbreviations in the texts here.

“Mendicants, when these five faculties are developed and cultivated they lead to giving up the fetters, uprooting the underlying tendencies, completely understanding the course of time, and ending the defilements. What five? The faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. When these five faculties are developed and cultivated they lead to giving up the fetters, uprooting the underlying tendencies, completely understanding the course of time, and ending the defilements.”

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Bhikkhu Sujato · CC0

Que todos los seres sean felices