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Buddhism

AN 4:263 · A Wilderness Dweller (Araññaka Sutta)

Thai temple painting: Prince Vessantara gives away the white elephant
Vessantara Jātaka, Chapter 2 (Himavanta Forest) · Thai, Rattanakosin, c. 1850–1870 · Walters Art Museum

“Endowed with (any of) four qualities, a monk isn’t fit to stay in isolated forest & wilderness lodgings. Which four? (He is endowed) with thoughts of sensuality, with thoughts of ill will, with thoughts of harmfulness, and he is a person of weak discernment, dull, a drooling idiot. Endowed with (any of) these four qualities, a monk isn’t fit to stay in isolated forest & wilderness dwellings.

“Endowed with four qualities, a monk is fit to stay in isolated forest & wilderness lodgings. Which four? (He is endowed) with thoughts of renunciation, with thoughts of non-ill will, with thoughts of harmlessness, and he is a discerning person, not dull, not a drooling idiot. Endowed with these four qualities, a monk is fit to stay in isolated forest & wilderness dwellings.”

See also: MN 4; MN 19; SN 4:1; SN 9:6; SN 9:11; SN 9:14; AN 5:30; AN 5:77—78; AN 10:99; Ud 2:10; Thag 18


Translated by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. © 2014 / rev. 2017 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu — released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 licence, for free distribution only. Source: dhammatalks.org (Metta Forest Monastery).

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