ud6.8:0.1Heartfelt Sayings 6.8
ud6.8:0.2The Courtesan
ud6.8:1.1So I have heard.
ud6.8:1.2At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.
ud6.8:1.3Now at that time two gangs were both hopelessly in love with a certain courtesan.
ud6.8:1.4Fighting, quarreling, and disputing, they attacked each other with fists, stones, rods, and swords,
ud6.8:1.5resulting in death and deadly pain.
ud6.8:2.1Then several mendicants robed up in the morning and, taking their bowls and robes, entered Rājagaha for alms.
ud6.8:2.2Then, after the meal, when they returned from almsround, they went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what was happening.
ud6.8:4.1Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
ud6.8:5.1“What has been attained and what is to be attained are both strewn over with dust for that one training while still sick.
ud6.8:5.2Those for whom the training is the essence, or precepts and observances, chastity, and service as the essence: this is one extreme.
ud6.8:5.3Those who say,
ud6.8:5.4‘There’s nothing wrong with sensual pleasures’: this is the second extreme.
ud6.8:5.5Thus these two extremes swell the charnel grounds, while the charnel grounds swell wrong view.
ud6.8:5.6Not realizing these two extremes, some get stuck and some overreach.
ud6.8:5.7For those who realize these things, who were not found there, who did not conceive by that, there is no cycle of rebirths to be found.”