{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn42.2/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn42.2","id":"suttacentral_sn42.2","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn42.2/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"At one time the Buddha was staying near R\u0101jagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels\u2019 feeding ground. Then T\u0101lapu\u1e6da the dancing chief came up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: \u201cSir, I have heard that the dancers of the past who were tutors of tutors said: \u2018Suppose a dancer entertains and amuses people on a stage or at a festival with mixed truth and lies. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in the company of laughing gods.\u2019 What does the Buddha say about this?\u201d \u201cEnough, chief, let it be. Don\u2019t ask me that.\u201d For a second time \u2026 And for a third time T\u0101lapu\u1e6da said to the Buddha: \u201cSir, I have heard that the dancers of the past who were tutors of tutors said: \u2018Suppose a dancer entertains and amuses people on a stage or at a festival with mixed truth and lies. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in the company of laughing gods.\u2019 What does the Buddha say about this?\u201d \u201cClearly, chief, I\u2019m not getting through to you when I say: \u2018Enough, chief, let it be. Don\u2019t ask me that.\u2019 Nevertheless, I will answer you. When sentient beings are still not free of greed, and are still bound by greed, a dancer in a stage or festival presents them with even more arousing things. When sentient beings are still not free of hate, and are still bound by hate, a dancer in a stage or festival presents them with even more hateful things. When sentient beings are still not free of delusion, and are still bound by delusion, a dancer in a stage or festival presents them with even more delusory things. And so, being heedless and negligent themselves, they\u2019ve encouraged others to be heedless and negligent. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in the hell called \u2018Laughter\u2019. But if you have such a view: \u2018Suppose a dancer entertains and amuses people on a stage or at a festival with mixed truth and lies. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in the company of laughing gods.\u2019 This is your wrong view. An individual with wrong view is reborn in one of two places, I say: hell or the animal realm.\u201d When he said this, T\u0101lapu\u1e6da cried and burst out in tears. \u201cThis is what I didn\u2019t get through to you when I said: \u2018Enough, chief, let it be. Don\u2019t ask me that.\u2019\u201d \u201cSir, I\u2019m not crying because of what the Buddha said. But sir, for a long time I\u2019ve been cheated, tricked, and deceived by the dancers of the past who were tutors of tutors, who said: \u2018Suppose a dancer entertains and amuses people on a stage or at a festival with mixed truth and lies. When their body breaks up, after death, they\u2019re reborn in the company of laughing gods.\u2019 Excellent, sir! Excellent! As if he were righting the overturned, or revealing the hidden, or pointing out the path to the lost, or lighting a lamp in the dark so people with clear eyes can see what\u2019s there, the Buddha has made the teaching clear in many ways. I go for refuge to the Buddha, to the teaching, and to the mendicant Sa\u1e45gha. Sir, may I receive the going forth, the ordination in the Buddha\u2019s presence?\u201d And T\u0101lapu\u1e6da the dancing chief received the going forth, the ordination in the Buddha\u2019s presence. Not long after his ordination, Venerable T\u0101lapu\u1e6da became one of the perfected.","title":"With T\u0101lapu\u1e6da","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":585}