Gilaana dassanam Sutta
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Gilaana-dassana.m Sutta: Seeing the Sick (Citta)
translated from the Pali by
Maurice O'Connell Walshe
At that time Citta the householder was a sick man, suffering from a serious illness. Then a number of devas that dwell in gardens, forests and trees, the devas of healing herbs and of great trees in the forest, gathered together and said to Citta the householder:[1] "Make a resolve, householder: 'In some future time may I be a king, a world-ruler!'"[2]
To this Citta replied... "That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over."
Now Citta's friends, colleagues and blood-relations heard him say this, and they said to him: "Sir![3] Set up mindfulness, don't ramble!"
"What have I said that makes you tell me to set up mindfulness and not to ramble?"
"Why, sir, you just said: 'That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over.'"
"Yes, but I said that to the devas who dwell in gardens... who bade me make a resolve that in some future time I might be a king, a world-ruler."
"Sir, what purpose did those devas have in mind in urging you to make such a resolve?"
"This is what those devas thought: 'This householder Citta is a virtuous man, of noble disposition. If he makes a resolve that in some future time he may be a king, a world-ruler, this will be profitable to that virtuous man, having made such a resolve with a pure heart, and will bring the just man a just and great reward...' So then I said, 'That is something impermanent, something to be rejected and passed over.'"
(Citta then instructs them to have perfect faith in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, and passes away.]
Notes
1. A whole Samyutta (SN 41) is devoted to this householder (see also Vol. II, No 23), who is held up as a model layman in SN 17.23 (not translated here). His name is not the same as citta "mind," but means "bright, shining."
2. Cakkavatti lit. "a wheel-turning monarch," the Indian term for a universal ruler. This was what Gotama could have become if he had not become a Buddha. The devas are aware of Citta's great virtues (though they possibly exaggerate in thinking he could become a world-ruler!), but are not wise enough to think of his spiritual progress (cf. SN 1.20, n. 4).
3. Ayyaputta = Ariyaputta lit. "son of the Ariyans" (cf. SN 22.7, n. 1).