Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
When brahmins and householders bring food and make a great commotion outside his forest dwelling, the Buddha tells his attendant Nāgita that he wants no part of fame or popularity, calling the pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity ‘filthy’ and ‘lazy’, and closes with five stark meditations on what ordinary pleasures actually lead to.
A crowd, mistaken for fishermen
The discourse opens with an image worth sitting with before its argument begins: the Buddha, hearing a colossal racket outside, assumes it is fishermen hauling in a catch. The comparison is not flattering to the crowd that has actually come — devoted brahmins and householders bringing food specifically for him — and the discourse does not walk it back once Nāgita corrects the mistake.
‘May I never become famous’, said twice
The Buddha's refusal of fame is stated twice in this discourse, word for word identical both times: he does not want fame, because he already has, without trouble or difficulty, the pleasure of renunciation, seclusion, peace, and awakening — and those who lack that pleasure are welcome to the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity instead. The language is unusually blunt for this series; the discourse does not round the phrase ‘filthy, lazy pleasure’ into something gentler.
Nāgita's argument for relenting, and its quiet irony
Between the two identical refusals, Nāgita urges the Buddha to relent, arguing that wherever the Buddha now goes, brahmins and householders will follow — like rain flowing downhill — because of his ethics and wisdom. Nāgita's argument is itself an instance of exactly the kind of appeal to reputation the Buddha has just rejected, and the discourse lets that tension stand without resolving it explicitly before the Buddha simply repeats his refusal and moves on to explain, more fully, why.
Five outcomes, stated without comfort
The discourse's final teaching is five plain observations, each closed by the refrain eso tassa nissando, this is its outcome: food eaten ends as excrement and urine; the loss of loved ones brings grief; meditating on ugliness stabilizes revulsion at beauty; observing impermanence in the six sense fields stabilizes revulsion at contact; observing rise and fall in the five grasping aggregates stabilizes revulsion at grasping. None of these is offered as a comforting thought. They are named as facts about what ordinary attachments and their opposite meditations actually produce, in the plainest terms the discourse can manage.
Key terms
The text
At Icchānaṅgala
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was wandering in the land of the Kosalans together with a large Saṅgha of mendicants when he arrived at a village of the Kosalan brahmins named Icchānaṅgala. He stayed in a forest near Icchānaṅgala. The brahmins and householders of Icchānaṅgala heard:
§2“It seems the ascetic Gotama—a Sakyan, gone forth from a Sakyan family—has arrived at Icchānaṅgala. He is staying in a forest near Icchānaṅgala. He has this good reputation: ‘That Blessed One is perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, supreme guide for those fit for training, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.’ He has realized with his own insight this world—with its gods, Māras, and divinities, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, gods and humans—and he makes it known to others. He proclaims a teaching that is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased. And he reveals a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. It’s good to see such perfected ones.”
§3Then, when the night had passed, they took many fresh and cooked foods and went to the forest near Icchānaṅgala, where they stood outside the gates making a colossal racket.
A colossal racket
§4Now, at that time Venerable Nāgita was the Buddha’s attendant. Then the Buddha said to Nāgita, “Nāgita, who’s making that colossal racket? You’d think it was fishermen hauling in a catch!”
§5“Sir, it’s these brahmins and householders of Icchānaṅgala. They’ve brought many fresh and cooked foods, and they’re standing outside the gates wanting to offer it specially to the Buddha and the mendicant Saṅgha.”
“May I never become famous”
§6“Nāgita, may I never become famous. May fame not come to me. There are those who can’t get the pleasure of renunciation, the pleasure of seclusion, the pleasure of peace, the pleasure of awakening when they want, without trouble or difficulty like I can. Let them enjoy the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity.”
Nāgita's argument
§7“Sir, may the Blessed One please relent now! May the Holy One relent! Now is the time for the Buddha to relent. Wherever the Buddha now goes, the brahmins and householders, and people of town and country will incline the same way. It’s like when the heavens rain heavily and the water flows downhill. In the same way, wherever the Buddha now goes, the brahmins and householders, and people of town and country will incline the same way. Why is that? Because of the Buddha’s ethics and wisdom.”
Refused again, and explained
§8“Nāgita, may I never become famous. May fame not come to me. There are those who can’t get the pleasure of renunciation, the pleasure of seclusion, the pleasure of peace, the pleasure of awakening when they want, without trouble or difficulty like I can. Let them enjoy the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity.
Five outcomes
§9What you eat, drink, chew, and taste ends up as excrement and urine. This is its outcome.
§10When loved ones decay and perish, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress arise. This is its outcome.
§11When you pursue meditation on the feature of ugliness, revulsion at the feature of beauty becomes stabilized. This is its outcome.
§12When you meditate observing impermanence in the six fields of contact, revulsion at contact becomes stabilized. This is its outcome.
§13When you meditate observing rise and fall in the five grasping aggregates, revulsion at grasping becomes stabilized. This is its outcome.”
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