Enjoyment (SA13)

Thus I have heard: One time, the Buddha was staying at Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī.

It was then that the Bhagavān addressed the monks, “If sentient beings didn’t enjoy form, then they wouldn’t be affected by it. It’s because they do enjoy form that sentient beings are affected and attached to it. Thus, when sentient beings don’t enjoy feeling … conception … volition … consciousness, they aren’t affected by it. It’s because sentient beings do enjoy feeling … conception … volition … consciousness that they are affected and attached to it.

“Monks, if form weren’t trouble for sentient beings, then sentient beings wouldn’t become disillusioned with it. It’s because form is trouble for sentient beings that they do become disillusioned with it. Thus, if feeling … conception … volition … consciousness wasn’t trouble for sentient beings, they wouldn’t become disillusioned with it. It’s because feeling … perception … volition … consciousness is trouble for sentient beings that they do become disillusioned with it.

“Monks, if sentient beings had no escape from form, then sentient beings wouldn’t escape from it. It’s because sentient beings have an escape from form that they do escape from it. Thus, if sentient beings had no escape from feeling … conception … volition … consciousness, they wouldn’t escape from it. It’s because sentient beings have an escape from feeling … conception … volition … consciousness that they do escape from it.

“Monks, if I didn’t truly know the enjoyment of the five acquired aggregates to be enjoyment … trouble to be trouble … escape to be escape, I wouldn’t be freed, escaped, and parted with them. I would have forever stood in delusion among gods like Māra or Brahmā, ascetics and priests, or the assemblies of gods and humans, and I couldn’t have realized my attainment of the unsurpassed and complete awakening.

“Monks, it’s because I truly knew the enjoyment of the five acquired aggregates to be enjoyment … trouble to be trouble … escape to be escape that I was freed, escaped, parted, and liberated from bondage. I never again stood in delusion among gods like Māra or Brahmā, ascetics and priests, or the assemblies of gods and humans, and I could realize my attainment of the unsurpassed and complete awakening.”

When the monks heard what the Buddha taught, they rejoiced and approved.

This sūtra is part of the Dharma Pearls translation project.

Prepared by Charles Patton for SuttaCentral.