With Kassapagotta (SN9.3)

Linked Discourses 9.3

1. In the Woods

With Kassapagotta

At one time Venerable Kassapagotta was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.¹

Now at that time Venerable Kassapagotta, having withdrawn for his day’s meditation, tried to advise a nimrod.²

Then the deity haunting that forest approached Kassapagotta wanting to stir him up, and recited these verses:

“A nimrod wandering the rugged hills

is unintelligent, unthinking.

It’s a waste of time to advise him, mendicant;³

he strikes me as a dullard.

He listens without understanding,

looks without seeing.

Though the teaching is spoken,

the fool doesn’t get it.

Even if you lit ten lamps

and brought them to him, Kassapa,

he wouldn’t see anything,

for he has no eyes to see.”

Impelled by that deity, Venerable Kassapagotta was struck with a sense of urgency.