The Discourse about Clinging (UD7.3)

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 almost all the people in Sāvatthī clung exceedingly to sense pleasures, delighted, greedy, tied, infatuated, and indulgent, they dwelt having become completely intoxicated with sense pleasures.

Then many monks, having dressed in the morning time, after picking up their bowl and robe, entered Sāvatthī for alms, and after walking for alms in Sāvatthī, 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, almost all the people in Sāvatthī cling exceedingly to sense pleasures, delighted, greedy, tied, infatuated, and indulgent, they dwell having become completely intoxicated with sense pleasures.”

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

“Clinging to sense pleasures, clinging to the shackle of sense pleasures,
Not seeing the fault in the fetters,
For sure those clinging to the shackle of the fetters
Cannot cross over the wide and great flood.”

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.