The Discourse about the Courtesan (UD6.8)

Thus I heard: At one time the Gracious One was dwelling near Rājagaha, in Bamboo Wood, at the Squirrels’ Feeding Place. Then at that time in Rājagaha there were two gangs, who were impassioned with a certain courtesan, whose minds were bound. Contending, quarelling, and disputing, they attacked each other with their hands, attacked with clods of earth, attacked with sticks, attacked with swords, and there and then they underwent death, and pain like unto death.

Then many monks, having dressed in the morning time, after picking up their bowls and robes, entered Rājagaha for alms, and after walking for alms in Rājagaha, while returning from the alms-round after the meal, went to the Gracious One, and after going and worshipping the Gracious One, they sat down on one side.

While sat on one side those monks said this to the Gracious One: “Here, reverend Sir, in Rājagaha there are two gangs, who are impassioned with a certain courtesan, whose minds are bound. Contending, quarelling, and disputing, they attack each other with their hands, attack with clods of earth, attack with sticks, attack with swords, and there and then they undergo death, and pain like unto death.”

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

“What has been attained, and what can be attained—
these two are strewn with dust, for that miserable one in wrong training.

Those who hold the training rules as the essence, or virtue and practices, right livelihood, celibacy, and attendance as the essence—
this is one end.

Those who say this: ‘There is no fault in sense pleasures”—
this is the second end.

Thus these two ends promote the cemetery grounds, and the cemetery grounds promote wrong view.
Not having understood these two ends, some get stuck, some go too far.

But for those who have understood these, who were not in that, and because of that do not conceive a conceit—
there is no Cycle of Saṁsāra to be assigned for them.”

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.