相應部 9.5

Ānanda sutta: With Ānanda

Ānandasutta

Vanavagga

A deity warns Ānanda about getting too involved with teaching lay folk.

译本

尚无此语言的译本。

At one time Venerable Ānanda was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.

Now at that time Ānanda was spending too much time persuading lay people. Then the deity haunting that forest had sympathy for Ānanda, wanting what’s best for him. So they approached him wanting to stir him up, and recited these verses:

The word “persuasion” (saññatti) is used in the context of discussions with skeptical non-Buddhists (eg. MN 60:8.5).

The same verse is spoken by a certain Vajjiputta (“Vajjian”) at Thag 1.119. The Pali commentary says this occurred shortly after the Buddha’s passing. Ānanda, still only a stream-enterer, was striving for arahantship before the First Council, but got caught up in consoling the distraught layfolk. The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya agrees, adding that Vajjiputta was Ānanda’s attendant at the time. Following the exhortation, Ānanda meditated till late at night, then mindfully lay down to rest. When his feet were lifted off the floor, but his head not yet on his pillow, he became awakened (Rockhill, The Life of the Buddha, p. 155). The Pali Vinaya recounts the same events, but does not mention this verse (Kd 21:1.6.1).

“You’ve left for the jungle, the root of a tree,
having laid extinguishment in your heart.
Meditate, Gotama, don’t be negligent!
What use is this hullabaloo to you?”

Impelled by that deity, Venerable Ānanda was struck with a sense of urgency.

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Bhikkhu Sujato · CC0

愿一切众生安乐