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Aṅguttara Nikāya - The Numerical Discourses

6: The Book of the Sixes

III. Unsurpassable — AN 6.23: Dangers

1“‘Danger’, mendicants, is a term for sensual pleasures. ‘Suffering’, ‘disease’, ‘boil’, ‘tie’, and ‘bog’ are terms for sensual pleasures.


2And why is ‘danger’ a term for sensual pleasures? Someone who is caught up in sensual greed and shackled by lustful desire is not freed from dangers in the present life or in lives to come. That is why ‘danger’ is a term for sensual pleasures.

And why are ‘suffering’, ‘disease’, ‘boil’, ‘tie’, and ‘bog’ terms for sensual pleasures? Someone who is caught up in sensual greed and shackled by lustful desire is not freed from suffering, disease, boils, ties, or bogs in the present life or in lives to come. That is why these are terms for sensual pleasures.


3Danger, suffering, disease, boils,
and ties and bogs both.
These describe the sensual pleasures
to which ordinary people are attached.

4Seeing the danger in grasping,
the origin of birth and death,
they’re freed by not grasping,
with the ending of birth and death.

5Happy, they’ve come to a safe place,
extinguished in this very life.
They’ve gone beyond all threats and dangers,
and risen above all suffering.”

1"‘Bhayan’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ; ‘dukkhan’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ; ‘rogo’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ; ‘gaṇḍo’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ; ‘saṅgo’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ; ‘paṅko’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ.


2Kasmā ca, bhikkhave, ‘bhayan’ti kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ? Kāmarāgarattāyaṁ, bhikkhave, chandarāgavinibaddho diṭṭhadhammikāpi bhayā na parimuccati, samparāyikāpi bhayā na parimuccati, tasmā ‘bhayan’ti kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ.

Kasmā ca, bhikkhave, dukkhanti … pe … rogoti … gaṇḍoti … saṅgoti … paṅkoti kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ? Kāmarāgarattāyaṁ, bhikkhave, chandarāgavinibaddho diṭṭhadhammikāpipaṅkā na parimuccati, samparāyikāpipaṅkā na parimuccati, tasmā ‘paṅko’ti kāmānametaṁ adhivacananti.


3Bhayaṁ dukkhaṁ rogo gaṇḍo,
saṅgo paṅko ca ubhayaṁ;
Ete kāmā pavuccanti,
yattha satto puthujjano.

4Upādāne bhayaṁ disvā,
jātimaraṇasambhave;
Anupādā vimuccanti,
jātimaraṇasaṅkhaye.

5Te khemappattā sukhino,
diṭṭhadhammābhinibbutā;
Sabbaverabhayātītā,
sabbadukkhaṁ upaccagun"ti.

Tatiyaṁ.