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  2 I use “Vagga” to refer to the major parts, and “vagga” to refer to the subchapters. Since the Oriental scripts in which the texts are preserved do not have distinct capital and lower case letters, they use the same word for both without orthographic differentiation.

  3 Buddhaghosa’s figure is given at Sp I 18,9–10, Sv I 23,16–17, and Spk I 2,25–26.

  4 Norman makes this point in Pāli Literature, p. 31.

  5 For the arrangement of the Chinese Saṃyuktāgama I rely on Anesaki, “The Four Buddhist Āgamas in Chinese.”

  6 “Categories of Sutta in the Pāli Nikāyas.” See especially pp. 71–84.

  7 The twelve chapters of the Vibhaṅga with counterparts in SN are as follows: (1) Khandhavibhaṅga (= SN 22); (2) Āyatana- (= 35); (3) Dhātu- (= 14); (4) Sacca- (= 56); (5) Indriya- (= 48); (6) Paṭicca-samuppāda- (= 12); (7) Satipaṭṭhāna- (= 47); (8) Sammappadhāna- (= 49); (9) Iddhipāda- (= 51); (10) Bojjhaṅga- (= 46); (11) Magga- (= 45); (12) Jhāna- (= 53).

  8 My references here are all to SN (by saṃyutta and sutta). To find the parallels, use Concordance 2 (B), pp. 1984–85.

  9 What follows partly overlaps with MLDB, pp. 52–58, but as my handling of certain terms differs from that of the earlier work, a full discussion is justified.

  10 Norman takes a similar approach to his translation of dhamma in EV I. See his discussion of the word at EV I, n. to 2 (p. 118).

  11 History of Buddhist Thought, p. 121, n. 4.

  12 This is clearly maintained in the debate on Nibbāna recorded at Vism 507–9 (Ppn 16:67–74). See too the long extract from the Paramatthamañjūsā, Dhammapāla’s commentary on Vism, translated by Ñāṇamoli at Ppn pp. 825–26, n. 18.

  13 For a play on the two senses of nibbuta, see the Bodhisatta’s reflections before his great renunciation at Ja I 60–61.

  Part I

  The Book with Verses (Sagāthāvagga)

  Introduction

  The Sagāthāvagga is so called because all the suttas in this book contain verses, at least one, usually more. The Vagga is divided into eleven saṃyuttas containing a total of 271 suttas. Most of these saṃyuttas are subdivided into several vaggas, usually of ten suttas each. In four saṃyuttas (3, 4, 6, 11), the last vagga contains only five suttas, half the standard number, and these are therefore called “pentads” (pañcaka). Four saṃyuttas are not divided into separate vaggas (5, 8, 9, 10), and thus may be considered as made up of a single vagga. I have numbered the suttas consecutively within each saṃyutta starting from 1, with the number within the vagga given in parenthesis. The recent PTS edition of the Sagāthāvagga (Ee2) numbers the suttas consecutively through the entire collection, from 1 to 271.

  The number of verses varies from edition to edition, depending on differences in readings and on alternative ways of grouping pādas or lines into stanzas; for a sequence of twelve pādas might be divided into either two stanzas of six lines each or three stanzas of four lines each. Ee2 is the only one that numbers the verses, and this edition has 945; of these I have not included three (vv. 70, 138, 815), for reasons explained in the notes (nn. 53, 96, 573). Many of the verses occur several times within the Saṃyutta Nikāya, usually within the Sagāthāvagga, occasionally elsewhere, as can be seen from Concordance 1 (A). The verses also have extensive parallels elsewhere in the Pāli Canon. A large number are shared by such texts as the Thera- and Therīgāthās, the Suttanipāta, the Dhammapada, and the Jātakas, as well as by the other Nikāyas. They are also quoted in para-canonical texts such as the Milindapañha, the Peṭakopadesa, and the Nettippakaraṇa. A significant number have parallels in the vast corpus of non-Pāli Indian Buddhist literature, such as the Patna and Gāndhārī Dharmapadas, the Udānavarga, the Mahāvastu , and even the much later Yogācārabhūmi. All these “external” parallels are shown in Concordance 1 (B). Doubtlessly some of the verses were not original to the suttas in our collection but belonged to the vast, free floating mass of Buddhist didactic verse which the compilers of the texts pinned down to specific contexts by providing them with narrative settings such as those found in the Sagāthāvagga.

  Of the eleven saṃyuttas in this Vagga, eight revolve around encounters between the Buddha (or his disciples) and beings from other planes of existence. Since we will repeatedly run across beings from nonhuman planes in the other Vaggas too, a short summary of the Buddhist picture of the sentient universe will help us to identify them and to understand their place in early Buddhist cosmology. (See Table 3, which gives a visual representation of this cosmology.)

  TABLE 3

  The Thirty-One Planes of Existence according to Traditional Theravāda Cosmology (see CMA 5:3–7)

  The Formless Realm (4 planes)

  (31) Base of neither-perception-nor-nonperception

  (30) Base of nothingness

  (29) Base of infinity of consciousness

  (28) Base of infinity of space

  Fourth jhāna plane: Five Pure Abodes

  (27) Akaniṭṭha realm

  (26) Clear-sighted realm

  (25) Beautiful realm

  (24) Serene realm

  (23) Durable realm

  Ordinary fourth jhāna plane

  (22) Nonpercipient beings

  (21) Devas of great fruit

  Third jhāna plane

  (20) Devas of steady aura

  (19) Devas of measureless aura

  (18) Devas of minor aura

  Second jhāna plane

  (17) Devas of streaming radiance

  (16) Devas of measureless radiance

  (15) Devas of minor radiance

  First jhāna plane

  (14) Mahābrahmā realm

  (13) Brahmā’s ministers

  (12) Brahmā’s assembly

  The Sense-Sphere Realm (11 planes)

  Seven good destinations

  Six sense-sphere heavenly realms

  (11) Paranimmitavasavattī devas

  (10) Nimmānaratī devas

  (9) Tusita devas

  (8) Yāma devas

  (7) Tāvatiṃsa devas

  (6) Four Great Kings

  Human realm

  (5) Human realm

  Four bad destinations

  (4) Host of asuras

  (3) Domain of ghosts

  (2) Animal realm

  (1) Hell realms

  The early Buddhist texts envisage a universe with three principal tiers subdivided into numerous planes. The lowest tier is the sense-sphere realm (kāmadhātu), so called because the driving force within this realm is sensual desire. The sense-sphere realm (in the oldest cosmology) contains ten planes: the hells (niraya), planes of extreme torment; the animal realm (tiracchānayoni); the domain of petas or ghosts (pettivisaya), shade-like spirits subject to various kinds of misery; the human realm (manussaloka); and six sense-sphere heavens (sagga) inhabited by the devas, celestial beings who enjoy far greater happiness, beauty, power, and glory than we know in the human realm. Later tradition adds the asuravisaya, the domain of titans or antigods, to the bad destinations, though in the Nikāyas they are depicted as occupying a region adjacent to the Tāvatiṃsa heaven, from which they often launch invasions against the devas.

  Above the sense-sphere realm is the form realm (rūpadhātu), where gross material form has vanished and only the subtler kinds of form remain. The realm is divided into four main tiers with several planes in each. The inhabitants of these planes are also devas, though to distinguish them from the gods of the sensuous heavens they are usually called brahmās. The life spans in the various brahmā planes increase exponentially, being far longer than those in the sensuous heavens, and sensual desire has largely abated. The prevalent mode of experience here is meditative rather than sensory, as these planes are the ontological counterparts of the four jhānas or meditative absorptions. They include the five “Pure Abodes” (suddhāvāsa), spheres of rebirth accessible only to nonreturners.

  Beyond the form
realm lies an even more exalted sphere of existence called the formless realm (arūpadhātu). The beings in this realm consist solely of mind, without a material basis, as physical form is here entirely absent. The four planes that make up this realm, successively more subtle, are the ontological counterparts of the four āruppas or formless meditative attainments, after which they are named: the base of the infinity of space, the base of the infinity of consciousness, the base of nothingness, and the base of neither-perception-nor-nonperception.

  The suttas often compress this elaborate cosmology into a simpler scheme of five destinations (pañcagati): the hells, the animal realm, the domain of ghosts, the human realm, and the deva world. The last includes all the many deva planes of the three realms. The first three are called the plane of misery (apāyabhūmi ), the nether world (vinipāta), or the bad destinations (duggati ); the human realm and the deva planes are collectively called the good destinations (sugati). Rebirth into the plane of misery is the fruit of unwholesome kamma, rebirth into the good destinations the fruit of wholesome kamma. Beyond all realms and planes of existence is the unconditioned, Nibbāna, the final goal of the Buddha’s teaching.

  1. DEVATĀSAṂYUTTA

  Devatā is an abstract noun based on deva, but in the Nikāyas it is invariably used to denote particular celestial beings, just as the English word “deity,” originally an abstract noun meaning the divine nature, is normally used to denote the supreme God of theistic religions or an individual god or goddess of polytheistic faiths. Though the word is feminine, the gender comes from the abstract suffix -tā and does not necessarily mean the devatās are female. The texts rarely indicate their sex, though it seems they can be of either sex and perhaps sometimes beyond sexual differentiation.

  For Buddhism the devas are not immortal gods exercising a creative role in the cosmic process. They are simply elevated beings, blissful and luminous, who had previously dwelt in the human world but had been reborn in the celestial planes as the fruit of their meritorious deeds. With rare exceptions they are just as much in bondage to delusion and desire as human beings, and they equally stand in need of guidance from the Enlightened One. The Buddha is the “teacher of devas and humans” (satthā devamanussānaṃ), and though squarely established in the human world he towers above the most exalted deities by reason of his supreme wisdom and perfect purity.

  The devas usually come to visit the Buddha in the deep stillness of the night, while the rest of the world lies immersed in sleep. The Devatāsaṃyutta gives us a record of their conversations. Sometimes the devas come to recite verses in praise of the Master, sometimes to ask questions, sometimes to request instruction, sometimes to win approval of their views, sometimes even to challenge or taunt him. On approaching they almost always bow down to him in homage, for the Buddha is their spiritual and moral superior. Not to bow down to him, as some devas do (see 1:35), is provocative, a deliberate withholding of due respect.

  Each of the four Nikāyas opens with a sutta of deep significance. Though the first sutta of SN is very short, it is rich in implications. In this case a devatā comes to the Buddha to ask how he “crossed the flood,” that is, how he attained deliverance, and in his reply the Buddha points to the “middle way” as the key to his attainment. This answer conveys the essential spirit of the Dhamma, which avoids all extremes in views, attitudes, and conduct. The commentary draws out the ramifications of the Buddha’s statement with a list of seven extremes, philosophical and practical, transcended by the middle way.

  The following suttas in this saṃyutta cover a wide spectrum of subjects without any particular logic in their sequence. They range from the simple to the profound, from the commonplace to the sublime, from the humorous to the stern. The exchanges discuss such ethical practices as giving, service to others, and noninjury; the difficulties of renunciation and the life of meditation; the call for earnest effort; the sorrows of human existence and the need for deliverance. There are also suttas on the bliss and equanimity of the arahant, and a few which touch on his transcendental stature. In most suttas the prose portion serves no other function than to establish a framework for the conversation, which eventually falls away leaving only an exchange of verses with the speakers’ identities understood. But we occasionally find brief stories, such as that of the female devatā who tried to seduce the bhikkhu Samiddhi (1:20), or of the “faultfinding devas” who accused the Buddha of hypocrisy (1:35), or of the visit paid to the Buddha by a group of devas when his foot was injured by a stone splinter (1:38).

  Usually the personal identity of the devatā is not revealed. An exception is the pair of suttas where the two Kokanadā sisters, daughters of the weather god Pajjunna, visit the Buddha and praise him and his Dhamma (1:39–40). Sometimes verses spoken by an anonymous deity recur elsewhere with the identity specified; for example, v. 22 reappears as v. 461, ascribed to Māra the Evil One; vv. 156–59 reappear as vv. 312–15, ascribed to Anāthapiṇḍika, the celestial reincarnation of the great philanthropist. It is also rare for the suttas to assign the devas to particular realms, but there are exceptions, such as those on the “extolling of the good” host of devas (satullapakāyikā devā; 1:31–34, etc.) and the one on the devas of the Pure Abodes (suddhāvāsakāyikā devā; 1:37). The commentary, cited in the notes, often provides more background information.

  When the devatā does not ask a question but voices an opinion, a contrast is usually established between the viewpoint of the deity, generally valid from within his or her limited horizons, and the viewpoint of the Buddha, who sees things far beyond the ken of the devas (see, e.g., vv. 3–6). Sometimes a group of devas express their opinions, which the Buddha surpasses with his own more profound contribution (vv. 78–84, 95–101). In several suttas the verses are not spoken in the context of a conversation but express the personal views of the deva, which the Buddha tacitly endorses (vv. 136–40), and two verses are simple paeans of praise to the Blessed One (vv. 147, 148). Beginning with v. 183, the suttas assume a standard format, with the devas posing a series of riddles which the Buddha answers to their satisfaction. A memorable example of this is the riddle about the type of killing that the Buddha approves of, to which the answer is the killing of anger (vv. 223–24). In one sutta we find a gentle touch of humour: a devatā has asked the Buddha a series of questions, apparently mundane in intent, but before the Blessed One can reply another devatā breaks in and gives his own answers, which remain at the mundane level. Then the Buddha replies, lifting the dialogue to the transcendent plane (vv. 229–31). Because of its varied content and the piquancy of its verses, within the Theravāda tradition, at least in Sri Lanka, the Devatāsaṃyutta is extremely popular as a source of texts to be drawn upon for sermons.

  2. DEVAPUTTASAṂYUTTA

  The devaputtas, or “sons of the devas,” are young devas newly arisen in their respective heavenly planes; devaduhitās, “daughters of the devas,” are also mentioned in the commentary but none appear in this saṃyutta. The commentary says these beings are reborn spontaneously in the laps of the devas. While the devatās in the preceding saṃyutta remain mostly anonymous, the young devas are always identified by name, and it is surprising to find that several of them—or at least their verses— have already appeared in the Devatāsaṃyutta (see 2:3, 4, 16, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27). This suggests that the dividing line between the two classes of deities is not a hard and fast one, just as the dividing line between an adult and an adolescent is not hard and fast. A relatively large proportion of the verses in this chapter focus on the monastic training, substantially more than in the Devatāsaṃyutta. The texts themselves do not drop any hints as to why this should be so; at least there are none that are readily visible.

  Several suttas raise points of special interest from a doctrinal perspective. We meet, for example, the young deva Dāmali who thought that the arahant must still “strive without weariness,” until the Buddha told him that the arahant had completed his task and need not
strive further (2:5). The commentary says this sutta is almost unique in that the Buddha here does not speak in praise of effort. Again, we meet Tāyana, whose verses on exertion are applauded by the Blessed One and, the next morning, are commended by him to the monks (2:8). The two suttas on the capture of the moon god Candimā and the sun god Suriya include verses that must have functioned as charms for terminating lunar and solar eclipses (2:9, 10); in Sri Lanka they are included in the Maha Pirit Pota, “The Great Book of Protection,” made up of suttas and other chants recited for spiritual and physical protection. We also meet Subrahmā, whose single verse is one of the pithiest expressions in world literature of the anguish at the heart of the human condition (2:17). The story of Rohitassa, who tried to reach the end of the world by travelling, elicits from the Buddha a momentous reply about where the world and its end are ultimately to be found (2:26). In this saṃyutta we also meet two young devas named Veṇhu and Siva (at 2:12 and 2:21), who may be early prototypes of the Indian gods Viṣṇu and Śiva (the Sanskrit forms of their names); our text, however, apparently dates from a period before they became the chief deities of theistic devotional Hinduism. The last sutta in the chapter (2:30) introduces us to a group of young devas who were formerly disciples of the Buddha’s rivals on the Indian scene, Pūraṇa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosāla, and Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta, teachers whose views had been unequivocally rejected by the Buddha. It is thus perplexing that their disciples should have been reborn in heaven, especially when the first two teachers propagated such doctrines as moral anarchism and fatalism. But the conclusion reached in the sutta is that such teachers were as far from the stature of true holy men as the jackal is from the lion.