Itivuttaka 24

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Adapted From the Translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu(Geoffrey DeGraff)

Compared with the Pali Tipitaka at www.tipitaka.org

24. Atthipunjasuttam (Heap of Bones)

This was said by the Lord Buddha(Bhagavata), said by the Arahant, so I have heard:

“Monks, if a single person were to wander & transmigrate (rebirth) on for an eon(kappa,kalpa), he/she would leave behind a chain of bones, a pile of bones, a heap of bones, as large as this Mount Vepulla, if there were someone to collect them and the collection were not destroyed.”

The accumulation of a single person’s bones for an eon would be a heap on a par with the mountain, so said the Great Seer. (He declared this to be the great Mount Vepulla to the north of Vulture’s Peak in the mountain-ring of the Magadhans.)[1] But when that person sees with right direct-understanding the four Noble Truths— suffering, the cause of suffering, <p style="text-align:center;">the transcending of suffering, <p style="text-align:center;">& the noble eightfold path, <p style="text-align:center;">the way to the stilling of suffering— <p style="text-align:center;">having wandered on <p style="text-align:center;">seven times at most, then, <p style="text-align:center;">with the ending of all fetters, <p style="text-align:center;">he makes an end <p style="text-align:center;">of suffering.

NOTE:

1. Magadha was a kingdom in the time of the Buddha, corresponding roughly to the present day state of Bihar. Its capital city, Rajagaha, was surrounded by a ring of five mountains. Vulture’s Peak, a secluded rock outcrop in the middle of the ring, was a spot frequented by the Buddha.

See also: SN 15:3

2.Eon for kappa (kalpa-sanskrit)