{"collection":"Khuddaka Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_thig16.1/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_thig16.1","id":"suttacentral_thig16.1","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/thig16.1/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Khuddaka Nikaya"],"text":"In Mant\u0101vat\u012b city, Sumedh\u0101, the daughter of King Ko\u00f1ca\u2019s chief queen, was converted by those who practice the Buddha\u2019s teaching. She was virtuous, a brilliant speaker, learned, and trained in the Buddha\u2019s instructions. She went up to her mother and father and said: \u201cPay heed, both of you! I delight in extinguishment! No state of life is eternal, not even that of the gods; what then of sensual pleasures, so hollow, offering little gratification and much distress. Sensual pleasures are bitter as the venom of a snake, yet fools are infatuated by them. Sent to hell for a very long time, they are beaten and tortured. Those who grow in wickedness ever lament in the underworld <j>due to their own bad deeds. They\u2019re fools, unrestrained in body, mind, and speech. Those witless, senseless fools, trapped by the origin of suffering, are ignorant, not understanding the noble truths when they are being taught. Most people, mum, ignorant of the truths taught by the excellent Buddha, look forward to a state of life, longing for rebirth among the gods. Yet even rebirth among the gods in an impermanent state of life is not eternal. But fools are not scared of being reborn time and again. Four lower realms and two other realms may be gained somehow or other. But for those who end up in a lower realm, there is no way to go forth in the hells. May you both grant me permission to go forth in the dispensation of him of the ten powers. Living at ease, I shall apply myself to giving up rebirth and death. Why look forward to a new state of life in this useless, insubstantial body? Grant me permission, I shall go forth to make an end of craving for a new life. A Buddha has arisen, the time has come, the unlucky moment has passed. As long as I live I\u2019ll never betray my ethical precepts or my chaste path.\u201d Then Sumedh\u0101 said to her parents: \u201cSo long as I remain a layperson, I\u2019ll refuse to eat any food, until I\u2019ve fallen under the sway of death.\u201d Upset, her mother burst into tears, while her father, though grieved, tried his best to persuade her as she lay collapsed upstairs in the longhouse. \u201cGet up child, why do you grieve so? You\u2019re already betrothed to be married! King An\u012bkaratta the handsome is in V\u0101ra\u1e47avat\u012b: he is your betrothed. You shall be the chief queen, wife of King An\u012bkaratta. Ethical precepts, the chaste path\u2014 going forth is hard to do, my child. As a royal there is command, wealth, authority, and the happiness of possessions. Enjoy sensual pleasures while you\u2019re still young! Let your wedding take place, my child!\u201d Then Sumedh\u0101 said to him: \u201cLet this not come to pass! Existence is hollow! I shall either go forth or die, but I shall never marry. Why cling to this rotting body so foul, stinking of fluids, a horrifying water-bag carcass, always oozing, full of filth? Knowing it like I do, what\u2019s the point? A carcass is vile, smeared with flesh and blood, food for birds and swarms of worms\u2014 why have we been given it? Before long the body, bereft of consciousness, is carried out to the charnel ground, to be discarded like an old log by relatives in disgust. When they\u2019ve discarded it in the charnel ground, to be eaten by others, your own parents bathe themselves, disgusted; what then of people at large? They\u2019re attached to this hollow carcass, this mass of sinews and bone; this rotting body full of saliva, tears, feces, and pus. If anyone were to dissect it, turning it inside out, the unbearable stench would disgust even their own mother. Rationally examining the aggregates, elements, and sense fields as conditioned, rooted in birth, suffering\u2014 why would I wish for marriage? Let three hundred sharp swords fall on my body everyday! Even if the slaughter lasted a hundred years it\u2019d be worth it if it led to the end of suffering. One who understands the Teacher\u2019s words would put up with this slaughter: \u2018Long for you is transmigration being killed time and time again.\u2019 Among gods and humans, in the realm of animals or that of titans, among the ghosts or in the hells, endless killings are seen. The hells are full of killing, for the corrupt who have fallen to the underworld. Even among the gods there is no shelter, for no happiness excels extinguishment. Those who are committed to the dispensation of him of the ten powers attain extinguishment. Living at ease, they apply themselves to giving up rebirth and death. On this very day, dad, I shall renounce: what\u2019s to enjoy in hollow riches? I\u2019m disillusioned with sensual pleasures, they\u2019re like vomit, made like a palm stump.\u201d As she spoke thus to her father, An\u012bkaratta, to whom she was betrothed, approached from V\u0101ra\u1e47avat\u012b at the time appointed for the marriage. Then Sumedh\u0101 took up a knife, and cut off her hair, so black, thick, and soft. Shutting herself in the longhouse, she entered the first absorption. And as she entered it there, An\u012bkaratta arrived at the city. Then in the longhouse, Sumedh\u0101 well developed the perception of impermanence. As she investigated in meditation, An\u012bkaratta quickly climbed the stairs. His limbs adorned with gems <j>and honey-yellow gold, he begged Sumedh\u0101 with cupped palms: \u201cAs a royal there is command, wealth, authority, and the happiness of possessions. Enjoy sensual pleasures while you\u2019re still young! Sensual pleasures are hard to find in the world! I\u2019ve handed royalty to you\u2014 enjoy riches, give gifts! Don\u2019t be sad; your parents are upset.\u201d Sumedh\u0101, having no use for sensual pleasures, and having done away with delusion, <j>spoke right back: \u201cDo not take pleasure in sensuality! See the danger in sensual pleasures! Mandh\u0101t\u0101, king of four continents, foremost in enjoying sensual pleasures, died unsated, his desires unfulfilled. Were the seven jewels to rain from the sky all over the ten directions, there would be no sating of sensual pleasures: people die insatiable. Like a butcher\u2019s knife and chopping board, sensual pleasures are like a cobra\u2019s head. They burn like a fire-brand, they resemble a skeleton. Sensual pleasures are impermanent and unstable, they\u2019re full of suffering, a terrible poison; like a hot iron ball, the root of gloom, their fruit is pain. Sensual pleasures are like fruits of a tree, like scraps of meat, painful, they trick you like a dream; sensual pleasures are like borrowed goods. Sensual pleasures are like swords and spears; a disease, a boil, gloom and trouble. Like a pit of glowing coals, the root of gloom, fear and slaughter. Thus sensual pleasures have been explained to be obstructions, so full of suffering. Please leave! As for me, I have no trust in any state of life. What can someone else do for me when their own head is burning? When stalked by old age and death, you should strive to destroy them.\u201d She opened the door and saw her parents with An\u012bkaratta, sitting crying on the floor. And so she said this: \u201cTransmigration is long for fools, crying again and again <j>at that with no known beginning\u2014 the death of a father, the killing of a brother or of themselves. Remember the ocean of tears, of milk, of blood\u2014 transmigration with no known beginning. Remember the bones piled up by beings transmigrating. Remember the four oceans compared with tears, milk, and blood. Remember bones piled up high as Mount Vepulla in the course of a single eon. Transmigration with no known beginning is compared to this broad Black Plum Tree Land; if divided into lumps the size of jujube seeds, they\u2019d still be fewer than his mother\u2019s mothers. Remember the grass, sticks, and leaves, compare that with no known beginning: if split into chips four inches in size, they\u2019d still be fewer than his father\u2019s fathers. Remember the one-eyed turtle <j>and the yoke with a hole blown in the ocean from east to west\u2014 sticking the head in the hole is a metaphor for gaining a human birth. Remember the form of this unlucky body, insubstantial as a lump of foam. See the aggregates as impermanent, remember the hells so full of distress. Remember those swelling the charnel grounds again and again in life after life. Remember the danger of gharials! Remember the four truths! When freedom from death is there to be found, why would you drink the five bitter poisons? For all erotic delights are so much more bitter than them. When freedom from death is there to be found, why would you burn for sensual pleasures? For all erotic delights are burning, boiling, bubbling, seething. When there is freedom from enmity, why would you want your enemy, sensual pleasures? Many enemies take a share of your sensual pleasures: kings, fire, robbers, flood, and unloved heirs. When liberation is there to be found, what good are sensual pleasures that kill and bind? For though unwilling, <j>when sensual pleasures are there, they are subject to the pain of killing and binding. As a blazing grass torch burns one who grasps it without letting go, sensual pleasures are like a grass torch, burning those who do not let go. Don\u2019t give up abundant happiness for the trivial joys of sensual pleasure. Don\u2019t fret later, like a catfish on a hook. Deliberately control yourself <j>among sensual pleasures! You\u2019re like a hound fixed to a chain: sensual pleasures will surely devour you as hungry corpse-workers would a hound. Harnessed to sensual pleasure, you undergo endless pain, along with much mental anguish: relinquish sensual pleasures, they don\u2019t last! When the unaging is there to be found, what good are sensual pleasures in which is old age? All rebirths everywhere are bonded to death and sickness. This is freedom from old age, freedom from death! This is freedom from old age and death, the sorrowless state! Free of enmity, unconstricted, faultless, fearless, without tribulations. This freedom from death has been realized by many; even today it can be obtained by those who rationally apply themselves; but it\u2019s impossible if you don\u2019t try.\u201d So said Sumedh\u0101, lacking delight in conditioned things. Soothing An\u012bkaratta, Sumedh\u0101 cast her hair on the ground. Standing up, An\u012bkaratta raised his cupped palms to her father and begged: \u201cLet go of Sumedh\u0101, so that she may go forth! She will see the truth of liberation.\u201d Released by her mother and father, she went forth, afraid of grief and fear. While still a trainee nun <j>she realized the six direct knowledges, along with the highest fruit. The extinguishment of the princess was incredible and amazing; on her deathbed, she declared her several past lives. \u201cIn the time of the Buddha Ko\u1e47\u0101gamana, we three friends gave the gift of a newly-built dwelling in the Sa\u1e45gha\u2019s monastery. Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, we were reborn among the gods, let alone among humans. We were mighty among the gods, let alone among humans! I was queen to a king with the seven treasures\u2014 I was the treasure of a wife. That was the cause, that the origin, that the root, that was the acceptance of the dispensation; that first meeting culminated in extinguishment for one delighting in the teaching. So say those who have faith in the words of the one unrivaled in wisdom. They\u2019re disillusioned with any state of life, and being disillusioned they become dispassionate.\u201d That is how these verses were recited by the senior nun Sumedh\u0101. The Verses of the Senior Nuns are finished.","title":"Sumedh\u0101","tradition":"Khuddaka Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":1927}