SN 2:25 · Jantu the Deva’s Son (Jantu Sutta)
I have heard that on one occasion many monks were staying among the Kosalans in wilderness huts: high-strung, rowdy, unruly, talkative, of loose words & muddled mindfulness, unalert, unconcentrated, their minds scattered, their faculties left wide open.
Then Jantu the deva’s son, on the uposatha of the fifteenth, went to those monks and, on arrival, addressed them in verses.
They lived happily in the past, the monks who were Gotama’s disciples. Without wishes, they sought their alms. Without wishes, their dwellings. Knowing inconstancy with regard to the world, they made an end of suffering.
[But these,] making themselves hard to maintain, like headmen in a village, eating, eating, lie down infatuated in others’ homes.
Placing my hands over my heart to the Saṅgha, I speak of some, hurled down, without protection, like hungry ghosts. Those who live heedlessly: My words touch on them. Those who live heedfully: I pay them homage.
See also: MN 69; AN 5:79–80; Ud 4:2
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).
