The Discourse about the Lay Follower (UD2.5)

Thus I heard: At one time the Gracious One was dwelling near Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Wood, at Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then at that time a certain lay follower from Icchānaṅgala had arrived at Sāvatthī with some business or other. Then that lay follower, having concluded that business in Sāvatthī, went to the Gracious One, and after going and worshipping the Gracious One, he sat down on one side. While sat on one side the Gracious One said this to that lay follower:

“At long last, lay follower, you have made arrangements, so to say, for coming here.”

“For a long time, reverend Sir, I have desired to come to see the Gracious One, but I have been engaged with some sort of duty and business or another, and I have thus been unable to come to see the Gracious One.”

Then the Gracious One, having understood the significance of it, on that occasion uttered this exalted utterance:

“For he who has nothing there is happiness indeed,
For the one who has discerned the Dhamma, for the learned,
See how one who has something is troubled,
He is a person who is in a state of bondage in regard to other people.”

Translated by Bhikkhu Ānandajoti from the Buddha Jayanthi Tripitaka text. Version 2.2, revised February 2008.

The text and translation, together with detailed notes and discussions, may be found in multiple formats on the translator’s website, Ancient Buddhist Texts.

Used by kind permission of Bhikkhu Ānandajoti.

The original translation was released under the following licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.