IF HE SHOULD DESIRE– ÂKANKHEYYA-SUTTA
1. Thus have I heard. The Blessed One was once staying at Sâvatthi in Anâtha Pindika’s park.
There the Blessed One addressed the Brethren, and said, ‘Bhikkhus.’ ‘Yea, Lord!’ said the Brethren, in assent, to the Blessed One.
Then spake the Blessed One:
2. ‘Continue, Brethren, in the practice of Right Conduct[1], adhering to the Rules of the Order[2]; continue enclosed by the restraint of the Rules of the Order, devoted to uprightness in life[3]; train yourselves according to the Precepts[4], taking them upon you in the sense of the danger in the least offence.
3. ‘If a Bhikkhu should desire, Brethren, to become beloved, popular, respected among his fellow-disciples, let him then fulfil all righteousness, let him be devoted to that quietude of heart which springs from within[5], let him not drive back the ecstasy of contemplation[6], let him look through things[7], let him be much alone!’
[1. Sîla. 2. Pâtimokkhâ. 3. Âkâragokarâ. Comp. Tevigga Sutta I, 49. 4. Sikkhâpadesu. The Buddhist Decalogue (given in ‘Buddhism,’ p. 160). 5. Agghattam keto samatham. 6. Ghâna. 7. Vipassanâ: it is always used, in contrast to samatha {footnote p. 211} (note 5), of insight into objective phenomena. These three qualities are constantly referred to as parts of Arahatship. The Rev. David da Silva makes vipassanâ identical with the sevenfold perception (saññâ, mentioned as conditions of the welfare of a community in the Book of the Great Decease, Chap. I, § 10).]
Buddhist Suttas – Âkankheyya Sutta: If He Should Desire
Translated from Pâli by T. W. Rhys Davids [1881]
Âkankheyya Sutta: If He Should Desire