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Tissa-metteyya-manava-puccha: Tissa-metteyya's Questions

Tissa-metteyya-manava-puccha

Summary: url=index.html#snp.5.02.than Who in the world is truly contented, truly free, truly a great person.

Sn 5.2 PTS: Sn 1040-1042

translated from the Pali by

Thanissaro Bhikkhu

1994-2018

- Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa -

[Tissa-metteyya:]

Who here in the world is contented?

Who

has no agitations?

What thinker

knowing both sides, doesn't adhere in between?

Whom

do you call a great person?

Who here

has gone past the seamstress:

		craving.

[The Buddha:]

He who in the midst of sensualities, follows the holy life, always mindful, craving-free;

the monk who is

— through fathoming things —

	Unbound:

he has no agitations. He, the thinker knowing both sides, doesn't adhere in between. He I call a great person. He here has gone past the seamstress:

		craving.

Note

AN 6.61 reports a discussion among several elder monks as to what is meant in this poem by “both sides” and “in between.” Six of the elders express the following separate opinions:

Contact is the first side, the origination of contact the second side, and the cessation of contact is in between.
The past is the first side, the future the second, and the present is in between.
Pleasant feeling is the first side, painful feeling the second, and neither-pleasant-nor-painful feeling is in between.
Name (mental phenomena) is the first side, form (physical phenomena) the second, and consciousness is in between.
The six external sense media (sights, sounds, aromas, flavors, tactile sensations, ideas) are the first side, the six internal sense media (eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, intellect) the second side, and consciousness is in between.
Self-identity is the first side, the origination of self-identity the second, and the cessation of self-identity is in between.

The issue is then taken to the Buddha, who states that all six interpretations are well-spoken, but the interpretation he had in mind when speaking the poem was the first.

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Provenance:

The source of this work is the gift within Access to Insight “Offline Edition 2012.09.10.14”, last replication 12. March 2013, generously given by John Bullitt and mentioned as: ©1994 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Transcribed from a file provided by the translator.

This Zugang zur Einsicht edition is 2013 (ATI 1994-2012).

Translations, rebublishing, editing and additions are in the sphere of responsibility of Zugang zur Einsicht.

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How to cite this document (one suggested style): “Tissa-metteyya-manava-puccha: Tissa-metteyya's Questions” (Sn 5.2), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight, 29 August 2012, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.5.02.than.html . Retrieved on 10 September 2012 (Offline Edition 2012.09.10.14), republished by Zugang zur Einsicht on http://www.zugangzureinsicht.org/html/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.5.02.than_en.html retreived on: “date”

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