Light/Dark

Aṅguttara Nikāya - The Numerical Discourses

8: The Book of the Eights

VI. Gotamī — AN 8.56: Danger

1“Mendicants, ‘danger’ is a term for sensual pleasures. ‘Suffering’, ‘disease’, ‘boil’, ‘dart’, ‘tie’, ‘bog’, and ‘womb’ are terms for sensual pleasures.


And 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’, ‘dart’, ‘tie’, ‘bog’, and ‘womb’ terms for sensual pleasures? Someone who is caught up in sensual greed and shackled by lustful desire is not freed from wombs in the present life or in lives to come. That is why ‘womb’ is a term for sensual pleasures.


2Danger, suffering, and disease,
boil, dart, and tie,
and bogs and wombs both.
These describe the sensual pleasures
to which ordinary people are attached.

3Swamped by things that seem pleasant,
you go to another womb.
But when a mendicant is keen,
and doesn’t forget awareness,

4in this way they transcend
this grueling swamp.
They watch this population as it trembles,
fallen into rebirth and old age.”

1"‘Bhayan’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Dukkhan’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Rogo’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Gaṇḍo’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Sallan’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Saṅgo’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Paṅko’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ. ‘Gabbho’ti, bhikkhave, kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ.


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

Kasmā ca, bhikkhave, ‘dukkhan’ti … pe … ‘rogo’ti … ‘gaṇḍo’ti … ‘sallan’ti … ‘saṅgo’ti … ‘paṅko’ti … ‘gabbho’ti kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ? Yasmā ca kāmarāgarattāyaṁ, bhikkhave, chandarāgavinibaddho diṭṭhadhammikāpi gabbhā na parimuccati, samparāyikāpi gabbhā na parimuccati, tasmā ‘gabbho’ti kāmānametaṁ adhivacanaṁ.


2Bhayaṁ dukkhañca rogo ca,
gaṇḍo sallañca saṅgo ca;
Paṅko gabbho ca ubhayaṁ,
ete kāmā pavuccanti;
Yattha satto puthujjano.

3Otiṇṇo sātarūpena,
puna gabbhāya gacchati;
Yato ca bhikkhu ātāpī,
sampajaññaṁ na riccati.

4So imaṁ palipathaṁ duggaṁ,
atikkamma tathāvidho;
Pajaṁ jātijarūpetaṁ,
phandamānaṁ avekkhatī"ti.

Chaṭṭhaṁ.