{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn20.7/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn20.7","id":"suttacentral_sn20.7","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn20.7/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At S\u0101vatth\u012b. \u201cOnce upon a time, mendicants, the Das\u0101rahas had a <em>mridangam</em> drum called the Plugger. When the Plugger cracked, the Das\u0101rahas patched it with another plug. Eventually, there came a time when the old wooden shell for the drumskin disappeared and all that was left of the <em>mridangam</em> Plugger was a mass of plugs. In the same way, in a future time there will be mendicants who won\u2019t want to listen when discourses spoken by the Realized One\u2014deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness\u2014are being recited. They won\u2019t actively listen or try to understand, nor will they think those teachings are worth learning and memorizing. But when discourses composed by poets\u2014poetry, with fancy words and phrases, composed by outsiders or spoken by disciples\u2014are being recited they will want to listen. They\u2019ll actively listen and try to understand, and they\u2019ll think those teachings are worth learning and memorizing. And that is how the discourses spoken by the Realized One\u2014deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness\u2014will disappear. So you should train like this: \u2018When discourses spoken by the Realized One\u2014deep, profound, transcendent, dealing with emptiness\u2014are being recited we will want to listen. We will actively listen and try to understand, and we will think those teachings are worth learning and memorizing.\u2019 That\u2019s how you should train.\u201d","title":"The Drum Called Plugger","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":213}