Sutta Nipata

There are so many different renditions.

Ambedkar tells a story that is inspired by a text in the Sutta Nipata, four fifteen, in its commentary, where the Buddha says he had a sense of urgency because of social conflict, and that's why he left home.

And the commentary talks about the social conflict being between the Sakyas, his father's family, and the Koliyas, his mother's family, who have a conflict over access to the River Rohini to irrigate their crops.

So based on that, and also based on a play by a playwright and Pali scholar, Kosambi, he tells a story of the Buddha's departure from home as one which arises in the context of a conflict between the Sakyas and the Koliyas.

And somehow, you know, I, I got my first copy of that in like nineteen ninety-two or something, and somehow I still have copies of that and, and I just keep making photocopies [chuckles] of it year after year.

So, uh, it's, the sutta itself is in the Suttanipata, which is a somewhat obscure collection of suttas.

Um, and so I'm really not being helpful at all, I'm sorry.

Um, but, uh, I'll, I'll see what I, if I can come up with anything in the meantime.

But ultimately you have to look, and there's not been that much work done in actually looking.

Like Lauren studied the Sutta Nipata in some detail, um, but she didn't look more broadly at the four Nikāyas and so on.

So there are countless examples where we find references and things that, uh, I think really fascinating.

I'll just give you one example.

Can that be enough? Is that possible that that's enough? Maybe not in all moments, but once in a while at least.

This is from the Sutta Nipata.

"Let go of the drive for pleasures.

See how it's peaceful to put aside worldliness.

These are the discourses with Sutta in their title or teachings that have prose passages.

So they include the Sutta Nipata prose passages, analytical descriptions in the Maha and Chulani Desas.

It's also the Vinaya and also the Vibhanga classifications and things like that.

Gaya, they're the mixed prose that contain also verses.

So examples can be found in Chapter 1 of Sanyuta Nikaya, where there's about five sections of the 11 that are mixed prose and verse.

There's also some of the teachings in Sutta Nipata, which are mixed prose and verse as well.

And then we have Veya Karana.

And these are what we would say are the detailed expositions or explanations.

The teaching of the Buddha concerning views is very clear.

And this is dated, uh, from the, from the Sutta Nipata.

We should not, uh, venerate, we should not, uh, be attached to any view.

We have to transcend all views.

So firstly, just the experience of seeing the Buddha for the first time from a distance.

This is the Sutta Nipata, the way to the beyond.

Sixteen experienced Brahmin students, including Ajita and Pingya the wise, travel a long way to see the Buddha.

Finally they arrive and they have their first sight of the Buddha, the Blessed One.