The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [295]
Sandaka Sutta
To Sandaka
1. THUS HAVE I HEARD. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Kosambī in Ghosita’s Park.
2. Now on that occasion the wanderer Sandaka was staying in the Pilakkha-tree Cave with a large assembly of wanderers.
3. Then, when it was evening, the venerable Ānanda rose from meditation and addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Come, friends, let us go to the Devakaṭa Pool to see the cave.”—“Yes, friend,” those bhikkhus replied. Then the venerable Ānanda went to the Devakaṭa Pool together with a number of bhikkhus.
4. Now on that occasion the wanderer Sandaka was seated with a large assembly of wanderers who were making an uproar, loudly and noisily talking many kinds of pointless talk,748 such as talk of kings, robbers, ministers, armies, dangers, battles, food, drink, clothing, beds, garlands, perfumes, relatives, vehicles, villages, towns, cities, countries, women, heroes, streets, wells, the dead, trifles, the origin of the world, the origin of the sea, [514] whether things are so or are not so. Then the wanderer Sandaka saw the venerable Ānanda coming in the distance. Seeing him, he quieted his own assembly thus: “Sirs, be quiet; sirs, make no noise. Here comes the recluse Ānanda, a disciple of the recluse Gotama, one of the recluse Gotama’s disciples staying in Kosambī. These venerable ones like quiet; they are disciplined in quiet; they commend quiet. Perhaps if he finds our assembly a quiet one, he will think to join us.” Then the wanderers became silent.
5. The venerable Ānanda went to the wanderer Sandaka who said to him: “Let Master Ānanda come! Welcome to Master Ānanda! It is long since Master Ānanda found an opportunity to come here. Let Master Ānanda be seated; this seat is ready.”
The venerable Ānanda sat down on the seat made ready, and the wanderer Sandaka took a low seat and sat down at one side. When he had done so, the venerable Ānanda asked him: “For what discussion are you sitting together here now, Sandaka? And what was your discussion that was left unfinished?”
“Master Ānanda, let be the discussion for which we are now sitting together here. Master Ānanda can well hear about it later. It would be good if Master Ānanda would give a talk on his own teacher’s Dhamma.”
“Then, Sandaka, listen and attend closely to what I shall say.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied. The venerable Ānanda said this:
6. “Sandaka, these four ways that negate the living of the holy life have been declared by the Blessed One who knows and sees, accomplished and fully enlightened, and also these four kinds of holy life without consolation have been declared, wherein a wise man certainly would not live the holy life, or if he should live it, would not attain the true way, the Dhamma that is wholesome.”749
“But, Master Ānanda, what are those four ways that negate the living of the holy life that have been declared by the Blessed One who knows and sees, accomplished and fully enlightened, wherein [515] a wise man certainly would not live the holy life, or if he should live it, would not attain the true way, the Dhamma that is wholesome?”
7. “Here, Sandaka, some teacher holds such a doctrine and view as this: ‘There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed; no fruit or result of good and bad actions; no this world, no other world; no mother, no father; no beings who are reborn spontaneously; no good and virtuous recluses and brahmins in the world who have themselves realised by direct knowledge and declare this world and the other world. A person consists of the four great elements.750 When he dies, earth returns and goes back to the body of earth, water returns and goes back to the body of water, fire returns and goes back to the body of fire, air returns and goes back to the body of air; the faculties pass over to space. [Four] men with the bier as fifth carry away the corpse. The funeral orations last as far