{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an6.45/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an6.45","id":"suttacentral_an6.45","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an6.45/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"\u201cMendicants, isn\u2019t poverty suffering in the world for a person who enjoys sensual pleasures?\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d \u201cWhen a poor, penniless person falls into debt, isn\u2019t being in debt also suffering in the world for a person who enjoys sensual pleasures?\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d \u201cWhen a poor person who has fallen into debt agrees to pay interest, isn\u2019t the interest also suffering in the world for a person who enjoys sensual pleasures?\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d \u201cWhen a poor person who has fallen into debt and agreed to pay interest fails to pay it when it falls due, they get a warning. Isn\u2019t being warned suffering in the world for a person who enjoys sensual pleasures?\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d \u201cWhen a poor person fails to pay after getting a warning, they\u2019re prosecuted. Isn\u2019t being prosecuted suffering in the world for a person who enjoys sensual pleasures?\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d \u201cWhen a poor person fails to pay after being prosecuted, they\u2019re imprisoned. Isn\u2019t being imprisoned suffering in the world for a person who enjoys sensual pleasures?\u201d \u201cYes, sir.\u201d \u201cSo mendicants, poverty, debt, interest, warnings, prosecution, and imprisonment are suffering in the world for those who enjoy sensual pleasures. In the same way, whoever has no faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities is called poor and penniless in the training of the Noble One. Since they have no faith, conscience, prudence, energy, or wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities, they do bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. This is how they\u2019re in debt, I say. In order to conceal the bad things they do by way of body, speech, and mind they harbor corrupt wishes. They wish, plan, speak, and act with the thought: \u2018May no one find me out!\u2019 This is how they pay interest, I say. Good-hearted spiritual companions say this about them: \u2018This venerable acts like this, and behaves like that.\u2019 This is how they\u2019re warned, I say. When they go to a wilderness, the root of a tree, or an empty hut, they\u2019re beset by remorseful, unskillful thoughts. This is how they\u2019re prosecuted, I say. That poor, penniless person has done bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re trapped in the prison of hell or the animal realm. I don\u2019t see a single prison that\u2019s as grim, as vicious, and such an obstacle to reaching the supreme sanctuary from the yoke as the prison of hell or the animal realm. Poverty is said to be suffering in the world, and so is being in debt. A poor person who has fallen into debt frets even when spending the loan. And then they\u2019re prosecuted, or even thrown in jail. Such imprisonment is true suffering for someone who prays for pleasure and possessions. In the same way, in the Noble One\u2019s training whoever has no faith, no conscience or prudence, contemplates bad deeds. After doing bad things by way of body, speech, and mind, they wish, \u2018May no one find me out!\u2019 Their behavior is creepy by body, speech, and mind. They pile up bad deeds on and on, life after life. That simpleton evildoer, knowing their own misdeeds, is a poor person who has fallen into debt, and frets even when spending the loan. And when in village or wilderness they\u2019re prosecuted by painful mental plans, which are born of remorse. That simpleton evildoer, knowing their own misdeeds, goes to one of the animal realms, or is trapped in hell. Such imprisonment is true suffering, from which the attentive are released. With confident heart, they give with wealth that is properly earned. That faithful householder of discernment holds a winning hand on both counts: welfare and benefit in this life, and happiness in lives to come. This is how, for a householder, merit grows by generosity. In the same way, in the Noble One\u2019s training, whoever is grounded in faith, with conscience and prudence, wise, and ethically restrained, is said to live happily in the Noble One\u2019s training. After gaining pleasure not of the flesh, they concentrate on equanimity. They give up the five hindrances, constantly energetic, and enter the absorptions, unified, alert, and mindful. Truly knowing in this way regards the ending of all fetters, by not grasping in any way, their mind is rightly freed. To that unaffected one, rightly freed with the end of the fetters of continued existence, the knowledge comes: \u2018My freedom is unshakable.\u2019 This is the ultimate knowledge. This is the supreme happiness. Sorrowless, stainless, secure: this is the highest freedom from debt.\u201d","title":"Debt","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":764}