SN 20:3 · Families (Kula Sutta)
Dwelling near Sāvatthi. “Just as families with many women and few men are easy for thieves & burglars to overpower, in the same way, when a monk’s awareness-release through goodwill is undeveloped & uncultivated, he is easy for non-human beings to overpower.
“Just as families with few women and many men are hard for thieves & burglars to overpower, in the same way, when a monk’s awareness-release through goodwill is developed, cultivated, handed the reins, taken as a basis, steadied, consolidated, & well-undertaken, he is hard for non-human beings to overpower.1
“Therefore, monks, you should train yourselves: ‘Our awareness-release through goodwill will be developed, cultivated, handed the reins, taken as a basis, steadied, consolidated, & well-undertaken.’ That’s how you should train yourselves.”
Note
1. Following the Thai edition of the Canon. The Sri Lankan and Burmese editions have: “when a monk’s awareness-release through goodwill is developed and cultivated, he is hard for non-human beings to overpower.”
See also: MN 21; AN 11:16; Sn 1:8
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).
