The beautiful verses of the Sutta Nipata
bookworm
U.S.A. Veteran
The Sutta Nipata is divided into 5 parts thats filled with beautiful and inspiring verses, i finished reading it and there is a lot of wisdom and immense value in the sutta nipata, I felt happiness while reading, the verses are really deep and straight to the point, it helped me to understand on what it means to be heedful and its really beautiful to read as well, I feel like I have a deeper understanding of the Dhamma and, feel more closer to the Buddha and his Dhamma on a much more intimate level than before. I think for maybe 2 years now i've must have read close to the thousand suttas, and all those suttas i read hasn't given in me a better understanding of the Dhamma, and hasn't made me see the dangers of sense pleasures and craving to such a high degree as the sutta nipata has done for me.
Even reading just a few verses made me feel like i read and understood a 100 sutas, and it helped me to open my eyes about craving, i feel much more full and satisfied than ever after reading it, especially the AtthakaVagga. I feel like i should have read the Sutta Nipata first before anything else. I feel as though the Sutta nipata holds the very essence of the Dhamma within it, its Dhamma at its peak, and it has a treasure trove of wisdom, after re reading a verse i understand something new a little more each time.
and by the way i tried Vimalaramsi method and it doesn't don't work at all at least not for me I can't feel no tightness and tension on my friggin head lol, anyway, i'm discarding his method because i don't think its the type of meditation that the Buddha did, and also i'm not going to practice methods that cause teachers to be stuck on their views thinking there way is better than everyone elses, that causes them to have vanity in their hearts, a verse in the Sutta Nipata that made me seriously contemplate about views, is called Dutthatthaka Sutta.
this is the Dutthatthaka Sutta
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.03.than.html
I'm going with gut and practicing Anapanasati Sutta for now on and for the rest of my life and taking the beautiful verses of the Sutta Nipata with me. There is literally an entire universe of the Dhamma within it, I love it so much that i would consider learning Pali just so i can read the Sutta Nipata in its purest untranslated form. My favorite verse is the Attadanda Sutta.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/snp/snp.4.15.than.html
Comments
If there where a Hugs button you'd get ten!
The Sutta nipata is my bible.
I never tire of reading it.
Its the first thing I recommend people read.
Lately I have grown fond of the Dhammapada too. Might recommend!
Let me tell you a story. I have a brother in martial arts and life philosophy. Just recently and suddenly he started teaching me stuff about Buddhism even though he never shown any interest in buddhism before. He gives me new angles to old problems that actually changes my cultivation profoundly. I was beginning to wonder how he came by this buddhist wisdom so suddenly...
Turns out I have lent him a copy of sutta-ni-pata some time ago (and forgot about it) and he has been reading it from cover to cover repeatedly ever since!
/Victor
Thanks, I've never read the Sutta Nipata but have just downloaded a copy.
A couple of questions:
1. What is the Vimalaramsi method?
2. How are you approaching the 4 tetrads of the Anapanasati Sutta?
hey thanks Victorious the teachings in there are really powerful and even one verse has so much wisdom in it thats its unbelievable, it has become my bible too.
I really don't want to talk about Vimalaramsi's method, but if you're curious about it, than go to his website called DhammaSukha.
And i'm approaching the 4 tetrads by firstly establishing mindfulness in front of me before i start being mindful of the breath.
Which one? I think there are translations on the net that miss suttas. If you found a complete version please pass it my way. Thanks.
The Buddhanet version only has only one division of it called the AtthakaVagga, the complete Sutta Nipata is translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu on Access to Insight.
No I think the Access to Insight version also misses some suttas?
Unless it has been mended recently. I will double check when I get my hardcover version back.
The Buddhanet one - haven't looked closely at it yet though.. I've got AN, DN, MN and SN in book form and have read every one of them, honest.
Oh right. I've been exploring the 4 tetrads for several years and there are quite a number of commentaries on this practice with different interpretations. There seems to be a close relationship with the 4 frames of satipatthana.
Yeah it has a very close relationship with the 4 foundations, you couldn't have anapanasati without it also having the 4 foundations, I have have been bogged by the commentaries for a while, i've ignored the commentaries completely, and i'm just trying to see for myself through practise. I rely on Bhikkhu Ñáóamoli's translation of the anapanasati sutta.
I have a 1924 translation of the Sutta-Nipâta by V. Fausböll.
It is divided into five volumes. Number 1 contains twelve suttas, Number 2 contains 14, Number 3 contains twelve, Number 4 contains sixteen and Number 5 contains 17, so looks like it is a complete translation.
In the Introduction, Fausböll mentions that Coomara Swamy's translation has been of great help for his own work.
This volume comes together with Max Müller's translation of the Dhammapada. I know Müller's version is probably not the best, but having both works in one volume makes for inspiring reading to take everywhere with me.
I had began my reading of the Sutta-Nipata with what now looks like a very loose translation of the work by Lesley Fowler Lebkowicz and Tamara Ditrich, which can be found on Buddhanet. I don't copy the link because a spam warning popped when I tried to do it.
The wisdom in this translation, which to me encapsulates a summary of the Dhamma, pushed me to buy Fausböll's rare volume.
I was in for a shock when I discovered how appallingly different both versions are.
I savour it very slowly, so @bookworm, I'm not that far yet with the suttas you mention, though I'll jump a bit forward and read them tomorrow.
Thank you for bringing the beauty of this work to our attention.
Buddhanet's version is volume IV in Fausböll's work. That is, only one fifth of the volume.
@DhammaDragon excellent, thank for the information i'm going to look into V. Fausböll's work.
You'll probably find it dated, but honestly, I admire people like Fausböll, Müller or Rhys-Davids who undertook the translation of Buddhist works in a moment in history when religions other than Christianity were regarded as exotic superstition.
Oh I don't mind that its a bit dated, it's too bad though that there aren't many new translations of the Sutta Nipata, So many other suttas in the pali canon are getting so much more attention, i wish more people would see the value of it
I just check and yeah you are right, Access to Insight has missed quite a few.
Anyone know where to get it in book form?
Good information. Thanks.
I have read it in English once but my own version is a Swedish translation that I find most excellent. The translator is Rune Johansson.
I think the nordic translations of suttas are very accurate. But maybe that is just because the mentality suites me.
Yeah, you can get it here on this link, I plan on ordering a copy for myself soon, instead having to print each page out lol
http://www.amazon.com/Sutta-Nipâta-V-Fausböll/dp/1770832653/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408602485&sr=1-2&keywords=Sutta-Nipâta
Thanks. It might have to be a Christmas present.
My volume is a harcover 1924 edition, which contains Max Müller's translation of the Dhammapada, and Fausböll's "Sutta-Nipata."
I bought it through Amazon UK, probably from some rare-books seller.
Sturdy brown covers with gilded lettering and strong paper. A real beauty.
These jewels of works are really worth the solid antique binding.
Can't remember exactly, but I don't think I paid over £20.
That's pretty sweet.
Can't help it. I love books. Especially hardcover. Especially antique.
Just love that feeling of being heir to these beauties that have passed through many hands and will still be around when our skandhas are again whirling around in the wind...
Sweet and corny...
be aware spikes will sting you
Dhammapada is good, but it is nowhere near as good as the Sutta Nipata, reading the Dhammapada in a single reading without reading it slowly and without absorbing, and reflecting on it made me feel like i had an appetizer, but the Sutta Nipata on the other hand, even by reading verse after verse in the sutta nipata quickly and without absorbing and reflecting the meaning behind it, and by just reading it quickly as well in a single reading, i felt excitement, and joyful, and understood, even without having to think about what the verses are trying to say, i just knew. Like someone putting a complex puzzle together, and seeing the whole image, and remembering the image in my mind even after the puzzle has been taken apart, even though i wouldn't know how to put the complex puzzle together, but i know what the image is.
You express my thoughts too on the suttanipata.
Thanks for the info, guys.
This might be an even better translation than Fausböll' version, Its by K.R. Norman, here you go.
http://www.wisdom-books.com/ProductDetail.asp?PID=5610
One of the sutras Thich Nhat Nanh recommends for daily meditation is the one that has come to be known as the "Discourse on Happiness," which is no other than the Sutta Nipata's Mahamangala Sutta (or Mangala Sutta).
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/soni/wheel254.html
http://pvfhk.org/index.php/en/studies-practices/39-sutras-a-discourses/176-discourse-on-happiness
Thank you DhammaDragon, I appreciate it.
Thanks DhammaDragon!
Very good.