Recitation (SN9.10)

Linked Discourses 9.10

1. In the Woods

Recitation

At one time one of the mendicants was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.

Now at that time that mendicant had previously been spending too much time rehearsing. But some time later they adhered to passivity and silence.¹

Not hearing the teaching, the deity haunting that forest approached that mendicant, and addressed them in verse:

“Mendicant, why don’t you recite passages of the teaching,²

living together with other mendicants?

Hearing the teaching, one garners confidence;

and in this very life, one garners praise.”

“I used to be zealous for passages of the teaching,³

until I encountered dispassion.

When I encountered dispassion,

whatever was seen, heard, and thought,

this, good people say, is the laying down by complete understanding.”