Reading guide
A fable told in full, then explained
Confirmed by direct reading, the Buddha tells the complete story of the quail and hawk — including the quail's own taunt (“come get me, hawk!”) and the hawk's own fatal overconfidence — before drawing out its lesson explicitly, rather than leaving the application to the listener's own inference.
"The domain of others" -- the five kinds of sensual stimulation
The discourse names, in full, the five kinds of sensual stimulation (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches that are “likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing”) as “not a mendicant's own territory but the domain of others” — the space where, like the quail beyond her own ground, “Māra will find a vulnerability and get an opportunity.”
"A mendicant's own territory" -- the four kinds of mindfulness meditation
By contrast, the four kinds of mindfulness meditation are named “a mendicant's own territory, the domain of the fathers” — ground on which, like the quail's own ploughed field, Māra “won't find a vulnerability or get an opportunity,” confirming this discourse's own central image: safety lies not in avoiding contact with the world but in staying on one's own proper ground.
Key terms
The text
§1 — the quail is seized“Once upon a time, mendicants, a hawk suddenly swooped down and grabbed a quail. And as the quail was being carried off he wailed, ‘I’m so unlucky, of so little merit, to have roamed out of my territory into the domain of others. If today I’d roamed within my own territory, the domain of my fathers, this hawk wouldn’t have stood a chance against me in a fight.’ ‘So, quail, what is your own territory, the domain of your fathers?’ ‘It’s a ploughed field covered with clods of earth.’ Confident in her own strength, the hawk was not daunted or intimidated. She released the quail, saying, ‘Go now, quail. But even there you won’t escape me!’
§2 — the quail's own escapeThen the quail went to a ploughed field covered with clods of earth. He climbed up a big clod, and standing there, he said to the hawk: ‘Come get me, hawk! Come get me, hawk!’ Confident in her own strength, the hawk was not daunted or intimidated. She folded her wings and suddenly swooped down on the quail. When the quail knew that the hawk was nearly there, he slipped under that clod. But the hawk crashed chest-first right there. That’s what happens when you roam out of your territory into the domain of others.
§3 — "the domain of others": the five kinds of sensual stimulationSo, mendicants, don’t roam out of your own territory into the domain of others. If you roam out of your own territory into the domain of others, Māra will find a vulnerability and get an opportunity. And what is not a mendicant’s own territory but the domain of others? It’s the five kinds of sensual stimulation. What five? Sights known by the eye, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. Sounds known by the ear … Smells known by the nose … Tastes known by the tongue … Touches known by the body, which are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. This is not a mendicant’s own territory but the domain of others.
§4 — "a mendicant's own territory": the four kinds of mindfulness meditationYou should roam inside your own territory, the domain of your fathers. If you roam inside your own territory, the domain of your fathers, Māra won’t find a vulnerability or get an opportunity. And what is a mendicant’s own territory, the domain of the fathers? It’s the four kinds of mindfulness meditation. What four? It’s when a mendicant meditates by observing an aspect of the body—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. They meditate observing an aspect of feelings … mind … principles—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. This is a mendicant’s own territory, the domain of the fathers.”
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