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Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 35.230

The Simile of the Angler

Bāḷisikopamasutta — Samuddavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A simile (an angler's baited hook) applied directly to the six sense objects, then run in both a positive and a negative direction
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a vivid, self-explaining image

Why this discourse

Samuddavagga's opening pair redefined “ocean” twice over; this third discourse leaves the ocean itself behind for a scene that could happen on any lake — an angler casting a baited hook into deep water, a fish swallowing the bait and meeting tragedy and disaster, wholly at the angler's mercy afterward. The Buddha turns this into a direct simile: there are six hooks in the world, baited with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas that are “likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing” — the identical sixfold formula SN 35.229 just used to describe its own ocean of sense objects. A mendicant who approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to any of the six has swallowed Māra's hook; one who doesn't has broken it, destroyed it, and stands beyond the Wicked One's power.

Reading guide

A shared formula, a new image

This discourse reuses SN 35.229's own sixfold description of pleasant sense objects — likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, arousing — word for word, but wraps it in a new simile: not an ocean to be crossed, but a baited hook to be swallowed or refused.

An angler, a fish, and total vulnerability

The frame simile is stark: a fish that swallows the bait meets tragedy and disaster, and the angler can do with it whatever he wants. The discourse transfers this total vulnerability directly onto a mendicant who clings to a pleasant sense object — they become one the Wicked One can do with as he wishes.

Six hooks, run twice: swallowed, then broken

The discourse states its case in both directions for all six sense fields: approving, welcoming, and clinging makes a mendicant “one who has swallowed Māra's hook”; not approving, not welcoming, and not clinging makes them “one who hasn't swallowed Māra's hook” — who has, in fact, broken it and destroyed it outright.

No closing verse

Unlike the two Ocean discourses just before it, this one ends directly on its own prose formula for the unclinging mendicant, with no verse restating the teaching in poetic form.

Key terms

bāḷisiko…āmisagatabaḷisaṁ — an angler…a baited hook — the frame image cast into a deep lake, source of this discourse's own title
cha…baḷisā lokasmiṁ — the six hooks in the world — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas, each baited to mean tragedy and slaughter for living creatures
iṭṭhā kantā manāpā piyarūpā kāmūpasaṁhitā rajanīyā — “likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing” — the same sixfold formula SN 35.229 used for its own ocean, reused here for the bait on each of the six hooks
gilitabaḷiso…anayaṁ āpanno byasanaṁ āpanno yathākāmakaraṇīyo pāpimato — “one who has swallowed the hook…met with tragedy and disaster, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants” — the discourse's own description of a mendicant who clings
abhedi baḷisaṁ paribhedi baḷisaṁ — “broken the hook, destroyed it” — the discourse's own description of a mendicant who does not cling, beyond the reach of the Wicked One's power

The text

The complete discourse: the angler's baited hook, the six hooks in the world, and the mendicant who either swallows or breaks Māra's hook, run for all six sense fields. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, suppose an angler was to cast a baited hook into a deep lake. Seeing the bait, a fish would swallow it. And so the fish that swallowed the hook would meet with tragedy and disaster, and the angler can do what he wants with it.

§2In the same way, there are these six hooks in the world that mean tragedy and slaughter for living creatures. What six? There are sights known by the eye, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant who has swallowed Māra’s hook. They’ve met with tragedy and disaster, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants. There are sounds … smells … tastes … touches …

§3ideas known by the mind, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant who has swallowed Māra’s hook. They’ve met with tragedy and disaster, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants.

§4There are sights known by the eye, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant doesn’t approve, welcome, and keep clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant who hasn’t swallowed Māra’s hook. They’ve broken the hook, destroyed it. They haven’t met with tragedy and disaster, and the Wicked One cannot do with them what he wants.

§5There are sounds … smells … tastes … touches … ideas known by the mind, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. If a mendicant doesn’t approve, welcome, and keep clinging to them, they’re called a mendicant who hasn’t swallowed Māra’s hook. They’ve broken the hook, destroyed it. They haven’t met with tragedy and disaster, and the Wicked One cannot do with them what he wants.”

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Self-check quiz

5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 5
What happens to the fish in this discourse's own frame simile, once it swallows the baited hook?
Correct: A. "The fish that swallowed the hook would meet with tragedy and disaster, and the angler can do what he wants with it."
Question 2 of 5
What sixfold description of the bait on each of the six hooks does this discourse reuse from SN 35.229?
Correct: A. The identical sixfold formula for pleasant sense objects, reused word for word from the discourse immediately before.
Question 3 of 5
What does this discourse call a mendicant who approves, welcomes, and keeps clinging to a pleasant sense object?
Correct: A. "They're called a mendicant who has swallowed Māra's hook. They've met with tragedy and disaster."
Question 4 of 5
What does this discourse call a mendicant who does not approve, welcome, or cling to a pleasant sense object?
Correct: A. "They're called a mendicant who hasn't swallowed Māra's hook. They've broken the hook, destroyed it."
Question 5 of 5
How does this discourse close, compared to the two Ocean discourses immediately before it?
Correct: A. Unlike SN 35.228 and SN 35.229, this discourse ends on prose alone, without a closing verse.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 35.229 · The Ocean (2nd)