SN 1.5Cut How Many?
Pāli / Sanskrit:Katichindasutta
A cryptic set of questions, which the Buddha answers equally cryptically.
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– Chapter 1: Linked Discourses with Deities
– I: A Reed
1.5. Cut How Many?
… Standing to one side, that deity recited this verse in the presence of the Blessed One:
How many must be cut off?
How many must be abandoned?
How many more must be developed?
How many bonds must be crossed
For one to earn the name
“A bhikkhu who has crossed the flood”?
(The Blessed One):
Five must be cut off,
Five must be abandoned,
Five further qualities must be developed,
And five bonds must be crossed
For one to earn the name
“A bhikkhu who has crossed the flood.”
These discourses were translated into Vietnamese by Venerable Thích Minh Châu and published by Vạn Hạnh Meditation Monastery in the early 1980s. Later, as part of the Vietnamese Buddhist Canon translation and publication program, the collection was reprinted in 1993 and assigned sequence numbers 12 through 16.
Prepared for SuttaCentral by Blake Walsh .
The “…” is an abbreviation carried over from the Pāli original itself, called peyyāla. The early canon was memorized and recited, so passages repeated verbatim from a preceding discourse were commonly contracted to an elision mark rather than written out in full. Venerable Thích Minh Châu's translation preserves this convention. Some texts therefore look short — but that is the canonical form, not missing content or a truncated translation. The elided passages can be read in full in the preceding discourses of the same chapter.
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