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Samyutta Nikaya
SN 21

SN 21.8

CDB i 719

Nando Sutta: Nanda

translated from the Pali by

Maurice O'Connell Walshe

The Pali title of this sutta is based on the PTS (Feer) edition.

[At Saavatthii] Now the Venerable Nanda, the Blessed One's first cousin, put on well-pressed[1] robes, painted his eyes,[2] took a bright shiny bowl and went before the Blessed One. Having saluted the Blessed One he sat down to one side. As he sat there the Blessed One said: "It is not suitable for you, Nanda, who as a young man of good family have left the household life, in faith, for homelessness, to appear in well-pressed robes, with painted eyes and a bright shiny bowl. The proper thing for you, Nanda,... is to be a forest-dweller, to go for alms in ragged robes, dwelling aloof from sense-desires." [He added the verse:]

Maybe I'll see Nanda once In the forest, dressed in rags, Living just from cast-off scraps,[3] Quite detached from sense-desires.

After that the Venerable Nanda became a forest-dweller, going for alms in ragged robes, dwelling aloof from sense-desires.

Notes

1.: Lit. "flattened and pressed all round" (PED ["Pali-English Dictionary," T.W. Rhys Davids & William Stede, 1921-25, PTS]): explained at some length in KS ["Book of the Kindred Sayings," trans. of the Sa.myutta Nikaaya] Vol. II [trans. by C.A.F. Rhys Davids, 1922, PTS], p. 191.
2.: With collyrium. This was against the (later) rules, we might have expected this little story to have been used, like other such, in the Vinaya Pi.taka as an explanation for the introduction of such a rule.
3.: Food rejected by others.

You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever, provided that: (1) you only make such copies, etc. available free of charge and, in the case of reprinting, only in quantities of no more than 50 copies; (2) you clearly indicate that any derivatives of this work (including translations) are derived from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this license in any copies or derivatives of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. Documents linked from this page may be subject to other restrictions. From Samyutta Nikaya: An Anthology (WH 318-321), by M. O'C. Walshe (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1985). Transcribed from the print edition in 2007 by a volunteer, under the auspices of the Access to Insight Dhamma Transcription Project and by arrangement with the Buddhist Publication Society. Minor revisions were made in accordance with the ATI style sheet. Pali diacritics are represented using the Velthuis convention. Last revised for Access to Insight on 30 November 2013.

How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Nando Sutta: Nanda" (SN 21.8), translated from the Pali by Maurice O'Connell Walshe. Access to Insight (Legacy Edition), 30 November 2013, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn21/sn21.008.wlsh.html .

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