The Second Discourse about Clinging (UD7.4)

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 to sense pleasures, delighted, greedy, tied, infatuated, indulgent and blinded, they dwelt having become completely intoxicated with sense pleasures.

Then the Gracious One, having dressed in the morning time, after picking up his bowl and robe, entered Sāvatthī for alms. The Gracious One saw that almost all the people in Sāvatthī clung to sense pleasures, delighted, greedy, tied, infatuated, indulgent and blinded, and dwelt having become completely intoxicated with sense pleasures. Then the Gracious One, having understood the significance of it, on that occasion uttered this exalted utterance:

“Blinded by sense pleasure, covered with a net,
covered over with the covering of craving,
Bound by Māra the heedless one’s kin, like fish in the mouth of a trap,
They go to old age and death, like a suckling calf to its mother.”

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.