Anuruddha Sutta
Anuruddha
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
I have heard that on one occasion Ven. Anuruddha was dwelling among the Kosalans in a forest thicket. Now at that time, a devata from the retinue of the heaven of the Thirty-three named Jalini, one of Ven. Anuruddha's former consorts, went to him and, on arrival, addressed him with this verse:
Direct your mind
to where you used to live,
among the devas of the Thirty-three,
empowered with all sensual pleasures.
Honored, surrounded
by deva maidens, you will shine.
[Ven. Anuruddha:]
They've gone astray,
deva maidens
established in self-identity.
And they've gone astray,
those beings with deva maidens
as their aim.
[Jalini:]
They don't know bliss
who haven't seen Nandana,
abode of the eminent devas,
glorious,
of the Thirty-three.
[Ven. Anuruddha:]
You fool, don't you know
the arahants' maxim? —
'How inconstant are compounded things!
Their nature: to arise & pass away.
They disband as they are arising.
Their total stilling is bliss.'
Jalini, there is now
in deva company
no further abode
[for me].
With the utter ending
of wandering on in birth,
there is now
no further becoming.
