Future Perils (1st) (AN5.77)

Numbered Discourses 5.77

8. Warriors

Future Perils (1st)

“Mendicants, seeing these five future perils is quite enough for a wilderness mendicant to meditate diligently, keenly, and resolutely for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.

What five?

Firstly, a wilderness mendicant reflects:

‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.

While living here alone

I might get bitten by a snake, a scorpion, or a centipede.

And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress.

I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’

This is the first future peril …

Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:

‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.

While living here alone

I might stumble off a cliff, or get food poisoning, or suffer a disturbance of bile, phlegm, or piercing winds.

And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress.

I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’

This is the second future peril …

Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:

‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.

While living here alone

I might encounter wild beasts—a lion, a tiger, a leopard, a bear, or a hyena—which might take my life.

And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress.

I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’

This is the third future peril …

Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:

‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.

While living here alone

I might encounter youths escaping a crime or on their way to commit one, and they might take my life.

And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress.

I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’

This is the fourth future peril …

Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:

‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.

But in a wilderness there are savage monsters who might take my life.

And if I died from that it would be an obstacle to my progress.

I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’

This is the fifth future peril …

These are the five future perils, seeing which is quite enough for a wilderness mendicant to meditate diligently, keenly, and resolutely for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.”