Reading guide
A verse quoted, and a question about its detail
Hāliddikāni recites four lines the Buddha spoke in “The Questions of Māgandiya”: a sage leaves their bastion to migrate without abode, does not get close to anyone in town, is rid of sensual pleasures, does not expect, and does not argue. He asks Mahākaccāna how to understand this brief statement's detailed meaning — the same kind of request Sāriputta fielded in SN 22.2, now put to a different senior disciple over different material.
Bastion and abode: the aggregates and the six fields
Mahākaccāna glosses “bastion” (nivesana) as each of the five aggregates functioning as a shelter for consciousness: one whose consciousness is shackled by greed for an aggregate is a migrant going from bastion to bastion, while the Realized One — who has cut off desire for each aggregate at the root, like a palm stump, unable to arise again — is a migrant with no bastion. He then glosses “abode” (āyatana) separately, this time over the six sense fields (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, thoughts) rather than the five aggregates — the same shackled/cut-off-at-the-root structure applied to a different classification of experience.
Four more images, four more short glosses
The remaining phrases each get a brief, self-contained answer: getting close to people in town means mixing closely with laypeople, sharing their joys and sorrows and getting involved in their business; not getting close means the opposite. Being rid of sensual pleasures means being free of greed, desire, fondness, thirst, passion, and craving for them. Expecting means wishing for a particular form, feeling, perception, choices, or consciousness in the future; not expecting is the absence of that wish. Arguing is spelled out as a specific, almost theatrical script of debate one-upmanship.
A verbatim script of how monastics used to argue
The discourse's most vivid moment is its description of “arguing with people”: a taunting back-and-forth — you don't understand this teaching, I do; you're practicing wrong, I'm practicing right; you said last what should have come first; your doctrine is refuted, go save it if you can. It reads as a specific, recognizable social type rather than an abstraction, and its very concreteness is what makes “not arguing” legible as an actual, describable restraint rather than a vague ideal.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time Venerable Mahākaccāna was staying in the land of the Avantis near Kuraraghara on Steep Mountain. Then the householder Hāliddikāni went up to Venerable Mahākaccāna, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him, “Sir, this was said by the Buddha in the Chapter of the Eights, in ‘The Questions of Māgandiya’: ‘After leaving their bastion to migrate without abode, a sage doesn’t get close to anyone in town. Rid of sensual pleasures, not expecting, they wouldn’t get in arguments with people.’ How should we see the detailed meaning of the Buddha’s brief statement?”
§2“Householder, the form element is a shelter for consciousness. One whose consciousness is shackled by greed for the form element is called a migrant going from bastion to bastion. The feeling element is a shelter for consciousness. One whose consciousness is shackled to greed for the feeling element is called a migrant going from bastion to bastion. The perception element is a shelter for consciousness. One whose consciousness is shackled to greed for the perception element is called a migrant going from bastion to bastion. The choices element is a shelter for consciousness. One whose consciousness is shackled to greed for the choices element is called a migrant going from bastion to bastion. That’s how one is a migrant going from bastion to bastion.
§3And how is one a migrant with no bastion? The Realized One has given up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for the form element; any attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendencies. He has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s why the Realized One is called a migrant with no bastion. The Realized One has given up any desire, greed, relishing, and craving for the feeling element … the perception element … the choices element … the consciousness element; any attraction, grasping, mental fixation, insistence, and underlying tendencies. He has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s why the Realized One is called a migrant with no bastion. That’s how one is a migrant with no shelter.
§4And how is one a migrant going from abode to abode? Shackled to chasing the abodes that are the features of sights, one is called a migrant going from abode to abode. Shackled to chasing the abodes that are the features of sounds … smells … tastes … touches … thoughts, one is called a migrant going from abode to abode. That’s how one is a migrant going from abode to abode.
§5And how is one a migrant without abode? The Realized One has given up chasing the abodes that are the features of sights. He has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s why the Realized One is called a migrant without abode. The Realized One has given up chasing the abodes that are the features of sounds … smells … tastes … touches … ideas. He has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s why the Realized One is called a migrant without abode. That’s how one is a migrant without abode.
§6And how does one get close to people in town? It’s when someone mixes closely with laypeople, sharing their joys and sorrows—happy when they’re happy and sad when they’re sad—and getting themselves involved in their business. That’s how one gets close to people in town. And how does one not get close to people in town? It’s when a mendicant doesn’t mix closely with laypeople, not sharing their joys and sorrows—not happy when they’re happy or sad when they’re sad—and not getting themselves involved in their business. That’s how one doesn’t get close to people in town.
§7And how is one not rid of sensual pleasures? It’s when someone isn’t rid of greed, desire, fondness, thirst, passion, and craving for sensual pleasures. That’s how one is not rid of sensual pleasures. And how is one rid of sensual pleasures? It’s when someone is rid of greed, desire, fondness, thirst, passion, and craving for sensual pleasures. That’s how one is rid of sensual pleasures.
§8And how is one expecting? It’s when someone thinks: ‘In the future, may I be of such form, such feeling, such perception, such choices, and such consciousness!’ That’s how one is expecting. And how is one not expecting? It’s when someone doesn’t think: ‘In the future, may I be of such form, such feeling, such perception, such choices, and such consciousness!’ That’s how one is not expecting.
§9And how does one argue with people? It’s when someone takes part in this sort of discussion: ‘You don’t understand this teaching and training. I understand this teaching and training. What, you understand this teaching and training? You’re practicing wrong. I’m practicing right. You said last what you should have said first. You said first what you should have said last. I stay on topic, you don’t. What you’ve thought so much about has been disproved. Your doctrine is refuted. Go on, save your doctrine! You’re trapped; get yourself out of this—if you can!’ That’s how one argues with people. And how does one not argue with people? It’s when a mendicant doesn’t take part in this sort of discussion: ‘You don’t understand this teaching and training … get yourself out of this—if you can!’ That’s how one doesn’t argue with people.
§10So, householder, that’s how to understand the detailed meaning of what the Buddha said in brief in the Chapter of the Eights, in ‘The Questions of Māgandiya’: ‘After leaving their bastion to migrate without abode, a sage doesn’t get close to anyone in town. Rid of sensual pleasures, not expecting, they wouldn’t get in arguments with people.’”
Self-check quiz
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