Reading guide
A wound made worse by the wrong path
The reed-thicket image at the opening (kusa thorns piercing the feet, reed leaves scratching the limbs) sets up a mendicant already vulnerable — “wounded and festering” — being criticized and made to suffer further, before the discourse turns to its own main simile.
Six domains, six different pulls
Each animal thinks only of its own territory the instant it's released: the snake toward a termite mound, the dolphin toward water, the bird toward the sky, the dog toward the village, the jackal toward the charnel ground, and the monkey toward the jungle — a direct parallel, the discourse states plainly, to the eye pulling toward pleasant sights and each of the other five senses pulling the same way toward its own pleasant objects.
Without a post, the strongest one wins
When the six animals are simply tied together and released, exhaustion doesn't produce peace: it produces submission to whichever animal happens to be strongest, matched directly to a mendicant whose eye and other senses, when mindfulness of the body is undeveloped, simply pull toward whatever is most pleasant and shy from whatever is not.
The same six animals, now settled by one post
The second telling changes only one detail — the rope is tethered to “a strong post or pillar” — and the outcome inverts completely: all six animals eventually stand, sit, or lie down right beside it, exactly as a mendicant's six senses, once mindfulness of the body is developed and cultivated, stop pulling toward the pleasant and shying from the unpleasant. The discourse's own closing line names the post directly: “a strong post or pillar is a term for mindfulness of the body.”
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, suppose a person with wounded and festering limbs was to enter a thicket of reeds. The kusa thorns would pierce their feet, and the reed leaves would scratch their limbs. And that would cause that person to experience even more pain and distress. In the same way, some mendicant goes to a village or a wilderness and gets scolded, ‘This venerable, acting like this, behaving like this, is a filthy village thorn.’ Understanding that they’re a thorn, they should understand restraint and lack of restraint.
§2And how is someone unrestrained? Take a mendicant who sees a sight with their eyes. If it’s pleasant they hold on to it, but if it’s unpleasant they dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body unestablished and their heart stunted. And they don’t truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder. When they hear a sound with their ears … When they smell an odor with their nose … When they taste a flavor with their tongue … When they feel a touch with their body … When they know an idea with their mind, if it’s pleasant they hold on to it, but if it’s unpleasant they dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body unestablished and a limited heart. And they don’t truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder.
§3Suppose a person was to catch six animals, with diverse territories and feeding grounds, and tie them up with a strong rope. They’d catch a snake, a dolphin, a bird, a dog, a jackal, and a monkey, tie each up with a strong rope, then tie a knot in the middle and let them loose. Then those six animals with different domains and ranges would each pull towards their own domain and range. The snake would pull one way, thinking ‘I’m going into a termite mound!’ The dolphin would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the water!’ The bird would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m flying into the atmosphere!’ The dog would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the village!’ The jackal would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the charnel ground!’ The monkey would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the jungle!’ When those six animals became exhausted and worn out, the strongest of them would get their way, and they’d all have to submit to their control. In the same way, when a mendicant has not developed or cultivated mindfulness of the body, their eye pulls towards pleasant sights, but is put off by unpleasant sights. Their ear … nose … tongue … body … mind pulls towards pleasant ideas, but is put off by unpleasant ideas. This is how someone is unrestrained.
§4And how is someone restrained? Take a mendicant who sees a sight with their eyes. If it’s pleasant they don’t hold on to it, and if it’s unpleasant they don’t dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body established and a limitless heart. And they truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder. They hear a sound … smell an odor … taste a flavor … feel a touch … know an idea with their mind. If it’s pleasant they don’t hold on to it, and if it’s unpleasant they don’t dislike it. They live with mindfulness of the body established and a limitless heart. And they truly understand the freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom where those arisen bad, unskillful qualities cease without remainder.
§5Suppose a person was to catch six animals, with diverse territories and feeding grounds, and tie them up with a strong rope. They’d catch a snake, a dolphin, a bird, a dog, a jackal, and a monkey, tie each up with a strong rope, then tether them to a strong post or pillar. Then those six animals with different domains and ranges would each pull towards their own domain and range. The snake would pull one way, thinking ‘I’m going into a termite mound!’ The dolphin would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the water!’ The bird would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m flying into the atmosphere!’ The dog would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the village!’ The jackal would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the charnel ground!’ The monkey would pull another way, thinking ‘I’m going into the jungle!’ When those six animals became exhausted and worn out, they’d stand or sit or lie down right by that post or pillar. In the same way, when a mendicant has developed and cultivated mindfulness of the body, their eye doesn’t pull towards pleasant sights, and isn’t put off by unpleasant sights. Their ear … nose … tongue … body … mind doesn’t pull towards pleasant ideas, and isn’t put off by unpleasant ideas. This is how someone is restrained. ‘A strong post or pillar’ is a term for mindfulness of the body. So you should train like this: ‘We will develop mindfulness of the body. We’ll cultivate it, make it our vehicle and our basis, keep it up, consolidate it, and properly implement it.’ That’s how you should train.”
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