The Discourse about Mocking (UD5.9)

Thus I heard: At one time the Gracious One was walking on walking tour amongst the Kosalans, together with a great Community of monks. Then at that time a great many young brāhmaṇas were passing by not far from the Gracious One in a mocking manner. The Gracious One saw those many young brāhmaṇas passing by not far away in a mocking manner.

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

“The forgetful, speaking unsuitable words, though appearing to be wise,
Stretching their mouths as much as they want, are led on by what they don’t understand.”

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.