The Discourse about the Only Son (UD2.7)

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’s only son, who was beloved and dear, had died. Then many lay followers, with wet clothes and hair, in the middle of the day went to the Gracious One, and after going and worshipping the Gracious One, they sat down on one side. While sat on one side the Gracious One said this to those lay followers:

“Now why are you lay followers, with wet clothes and hair, coming here in the middle of the day?”

When that was said, that lay follower said this to the Gracious One: “My only son, who was beloved and dear, reverend Sir, has died. That is why we, with wet clothes and hair, are coming here in the middle of the day.”

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

“Hosts of devas and many men are tied by the satisfaction in forms that are loved,
Miserable and worn out, they come under the power of the King of Death.

“For sure those who are heedful day and night, give up forms that are loved—
They surely dig up the root of misery which is Death’s bait,
so difficult to transcend.”

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.