AN 10.118 Orimatīra Sutta: The Near Shore

AN 10.118 Orimatīra Sutta: The Near Shore (AN 10.3.2.6; PTS AN v.233)
“Monks, I shall point out the near shore and the other shore. Hear this, and work over it thoroughly in your mind. I shall speak.”

“Just so, Venerable One,” the monks assented to the Blessed One.

“Which, monks, is the near shore, which is the other shore?

“Wrong view is the near shore, right view is the other shore; “Wrong intention is the near shore, right intention is the other shore; “Wrong speech is the near shore, right speech is the other shore; “Wrong conduct is the near shore, right conduct is the other shore; “Wrong livelihood is the near shore, right livelihood is the other shore; “Wrong effort is the near shore, right effort is the other shore; “Wrong mindfulness is the near shore, right mindfulness is the other shore; “Wrong concentration is the near shore, right concentration is the other shore; “Wrong knowledge is the near shore, right knowledge is the other shore; “Wrong liberation is the near shore, right liberation is the other shore.

“This, monks, is the near shore, this is the other shore.

“Amongst humans, very few are they, those mortals going to the other shore; “Rather, the rest of humankind runs after just this shore.

“Those, indeed, who, when the Dhamma is well-taught, follow the Dhamma, “They are mortals who will go beyond the sway of death, so difficult to escape.

“Renouncing the dark support [1], the wise person cultivates the bright; “From home, having come to homelessness, in seclusion, where delight is difficult,

“There, one can wish to feel delight, having destroyed sensual pleasures, a person of nothing; “The wise person should purify himself of the defilements of the mind. “Those with right mind well-cultivated in the seven qualities of perfect awakening, Who, in the giving-up of grasping, without clinging, are delighted, The brilliant ones with mental intoxicants exhausted, they, even in this world, are completely extinguished.” [2]

Translator’s Notes:

[1] Dhamma. I have translated the term here in its most literal, radical sense, which encompasses all of its varied but interconnected meanings and uses, given that the word is a form of the verbal root dhṛ, ‘to hold, bear, support, maintain, sustain’ (compare the Pali and Sanskrit verb form dharati, ‘to hold, bear, carry; to hold up, support’).

[2] This poem occurs also in AN 10.117, which is almost identical to this sutta, with the difference that the Buddha therein addresses a brahmin named Saṅgārava, rather than the assembly of monks; in SN 45.34 Pāraṅgama Sutta: Going Beyond (SN 5.1.4.4; PTS SN v.24) and the very similar SN 46.17 Pāraṅgama Sutta (SN 5.2.7.7, PTS SN v.82); and as the last section of Dhammapada, Chapter 6, ‘Panditavagga: The Wise’, verses 85-89.