Samyuttanikaya 22.10.4.96-98_4

22.10.4.96-98_4

Iti imaṃ mahāsudassanakāle sampattiṃ dassetvā idāni tassā aniccataṃ dassento iti kho bhikkhūtiādimāha. Tattha vipariṇatāti pakatijahanena nibbutapadīpo viya apaṇṇattikabhāvaṃ gatā. Evaṃ aniccā kho bhikkhu saṅkhārāti evaṃ hutvāabhāvaṭṭhena aniccā. Ettāvatā bhagavā yathā nāma puriso satahatthubbedhe campakarukkhe nisseṇiṃ bandhitvā abhiruhitvā campakapupphaṃ ādāya nisseṇiṃ muñcanto otareyya, evamevaṃ nisseṇiṃ bandhanto viya anekavassakoṭisatasahassubbedhaṃ mahāsudassanasampattiṃ āruyha sampattimatthake ṭhitaṃ aniccalakkhaṇaṃ ādāya nisseṇiṃ muñcanto viya otiṇṇo. Evaṃ addhuvāti evaṃ udakapubbuḷādayo viya dhuvabhāvarahitā. Evaṃ anassāsikāti evaṃ supinake pītapānīyaṃ viya anulittacandanaṃ viya ca assāsavirahitā. Iti imasmiṃ sutte aniccalakkhaṇaṃ kathitaṃ. Pañcame sabbaṃ vuttanayameva. Chaṭṭhaṃ tathā bujjhanakassa ajjhāsayena vuttaṃ. Catutthādīni.

Having thus shown the glory at the time of Mahāsudassana, now, in showing its impermanence, he said, “So, bhikkhus,” and so on. There, “altered”: having lost their natural state, like an extinguished lamp, they reached the state of being non-designable. “So impermanent, bhikkhus, are conditioned phenomena”: impermanent in the sense of having come to be and then ceasing to exist. To this extent, just as a man, having tied a ladder to a campaka tree a hundred cubits high, having climbed up and taken a campaka flower, might descend while untying the ladder, even so the Blessed One, as if tying a ladder, ascended the glory of Mahāsudassana, which was hundreds of thousands of crores of years high, and having taken the characteristic of impermanence standing at the peak of that glory, descended as if untying the ladder. “So unstable”: thus devoid of stability, like water bubbles and the like. “So unreliable”: thus devoid of reassurance, like water drunk in a dream or like sandalwood smeared on in a dream. Thus in this discourse the characteristic of impermanence was stated. In the fifth, everything is according to the method already stated. The sixth was spoken according to the disposition of one capable of understanding in that way. The fourth and following discourses.