Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The Buddha refuses the noisy devotion of a crowd bringing food, declaring he never wants fame, and explains through six contrasted scenarios of mendicants living in villages versus the wilderness why solitude protects meditative progress that popularity and comfort would put at risk.
A scene with real, physical noise
The discourse opens on something unusually sensory for this collection: a crowd “standing outside the gates making a colossal racket,” compared directly by the Buddha to fishermen hauling in a catch. The comparison is not flattering — it likens eager devotional enthusiasm to the noise of a commercial catch being landed, not to reverent quiet.
A refrain repeated exactly, twice
Nāgita's plea that “now is the time for the Buddha to relent” is met both times with the identical response, word for word: “Nāgita, may I never become famous. May fame not come to me… Let them enjoy the filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity.” The repetition itself makes the point — this is not a momentary reaction but a settled, restated position.
Six scenarios, weighing samādhi against comfort
The Buddha's explanation takes the form of six paired observations: a village-dwelling mendicant already immersed in samādhi risks being disturbed by “a monastery worker, a novice, or a fellow practitioner” and so displeases him; a wilderness-dwelling mendicant nodding off in meditation will likely refocus and so pleases him; one not yet immersed will likely become immersed; one already immersed will likely preserve it; a village-dwelling mendicant absorbed in receiving requisites neglects retreat and displeases him; a wilderness-dwelling mendicant who fends off the same requisites does not neglect retreat and pleases him. In every pairing, the wilderness side is favored, and the reasoning concerns risk to meditative continuity, not location for its own sake.
A closing image of plain relief
The discourse's final line drops the formal argument entirely for something almost domestic: “when I'm walking along a road and I don't see anyone ahead or behind I feel relaxed, even if I need to urinate or defecate.” Closing on this plain, physical detail rather than a doctrinal summary is unusual in this collection, and it grounds the whole discourse's argument about fame and solitude in something almost anticlimactically ordinary.
Key terms
The text
A crowd arrives 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: “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 explains a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. It’s good to see such perfected ones.” Then, 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. Now, 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!” “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.”
The Buddha's first refusal
§2“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.” “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.”
The second refusal, and six scenarios
§3“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. Take a mendicant living within a village who I see sitting immersed in samādhi. I think to myself: ‘Now a monastery worker, a novice, or a fellow practitioner will make this venerable fall from immersion.’ So I’m not pleased that that mendicant is living within a village. Take a mendicant in the wilderness who I see sitting nodding in meditation. I think to myself: ‘Now this venerable, having dispelled that sleepiness and weariness, will focus just on the unified perception of wilderness.’ So I’m pleased that that mendicant is living in the wilderness. Take a mendicant in the wilderness who I see sitting without being immersed in samādhi. I think to myself: ‘Now if this venerable’s mind is not immersed in samādhi they will immerse it, or if it is immersed in samādhi, they will preserve it.’ So I’m pleased that that mendicant is living in the wilderness. Take a mendicant in the wilderness who I see sitting immersed in samādhi. I think to myself: ‘Now this venerable will free the unfreed mind or preserve the freed mind.’ So I’m pleased that that mendicant is living in the wilderness. Take a mendicant who I see living within a village receiving robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. Enjoying possessions, honor, and popularity they neglect retreat, and they neglect remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. They come down to villages, towns, and capital cities and make their home there. So I’m not pleased that that mendicant is living within a village. Take a mendicant who I see in the wilderness receiving robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. Fending off possessions, honor, and popularity they don’t neglect retreat, and they don’t neglect remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. So I’m pleased that that mendicant is living in the wilderness.
The closing image
§4Nāgita, when I’m walking along a road and I don’t see anyone ahead or behind I feel relaxed, even if I need to urinate or defecate.”
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