{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an3.128/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an3.128","id":"suttacentral_an3.128","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an3.128/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"At one time the Buddha was staying near Varanasi in the deer park at Isipatana. Then the Buddha robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, entered Varanasi for alms. While the Buddha was walking for alms near the cow-hitching place at the wavy leaf fig, he saw a disgruntled monk who was looking for pleasure in external things, unmindful, without situational awareness or immersion, with straying mind and undisciplined faculties. The Buddha said to him, \u201cMonk, don\u2019t be bitter. If you\u2019re bitter, festering with putrefaction, flies will, without a doubt, plague and infest you.\u201d Hearing this advice of the Buddha, that monk was struck with a sense of urgency. Then, after the meal, on his return from almsround, the Buddha told the mendicants what had happened. \u2026 When he said this, one of the mendicants said to the Buddha: \u201cSir, what is this \u2018bitterness\u2019? What is \u2018putrefaction\u2019? And what are the \u2018flies\u2019?\u201d \u201cDesire is bitterness; ill will is the putrefaction; and bad, unskillful thoughts are the flies. If you\u2019re bitter, festering with putrefaction, flies will, without a doubt, plague and infest you. When your eyes and ears are unguarded, and you\u2019re not restrained in your sense faculties, flies\u2014those lustful thoughts\u2014 will plague you. A mendicant who\u2019s bitter, festering with putrefaction, is far from being extinguished, distress is their lot. Whether in village or wilderness, if they don\u2019t find serenity in themselves, the fool, the simpleton departs, honored only by flies. But those who have ethics, lovers of wisdom and peace, they, being peaceful, sleep at ease, since they\u2019ve got rid of the flies.\u201d","title":"Bitter","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":267}