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Tidipa

Rohitassasutta (The Discourse to Rohitassa)

· 23 min read

15A4/1.5.5, the fifth discourse of the Aṅguttara Nikāya's Rohitassavagga of the Fours: the deity Rohitassa asks whether the end of the world can be reached by going, and the Bhagavā declares the world, its origin, its cessation and the path in this fathom-long body.

Original text: 15A4/1.5.5 Rohitassasutta 312–320 in the World Tipitaka Edition

Summary

Section titled “Summary”

At Sāvatthī the deity Rohitassa asks the Bhagavā whether the end of the world, where there is no birth, ageing, death, passing away or reappearing, can be reached by going. The Bhagavā says it cannot, and Rohitassa tells how, as a seer of great speed in a former life, he walked a hundred years and died on the way. Without reaching the end of the world there is no end of suffering, he adds, yet it is in this fathom-long body with apperception and mind that he declares the world, its origin, its cessation and the path.

Diagram

Section titled “Diagram”
flowchart TB
    Q["Rohitassa asks: can the end of the world be reached by going?"] --> A["the Bhagavā: it cannot be known, seen or reached by going"]
    A --> R["Rohitassa recalls his former life as a seer of great speed"]
    R --> J["a hundred years of walking; death without reaching it"]
    J --> B["no end of suffering without reaching the end of the world"]
    B --> C["in this fathom-long body: the world, its origin, its cessation, the path"]
    C --> V["verses: the wise one, at peace, wishes for no world"]

Text

Section titled “Text”

(45.)

312. At one time the Bhagavā was dwelling at Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. Then the devaputta (deity) Rohitassa, when the night was advanced, with his surpassing beauty, illuminating the entire Jeta’s Grove, approached the Bhagavā; having approached, he bowed to the Bhagavā and stood to one side. Standing to one side, the deity Rohitassa said this to the Bhagavā:

313. “Where, Bhante, one is not born, does not grow old, does not die, does not pass away and does not reappear — is it possible, Bhante, to know, to see or to reach that end of the world by going?” “Where, Āvuso, one is not born, does not grow old, does not die, does not pass away and does not reappear — I do not say that that end of the world could be known, seen or reached by going.”

314. “Wonderful, Bhante, marvellous, Bhante. How well said is this, Bhante, by the Bhagavā: ‘Where, Āvuso, one is not born, does not grow old, does not die, does not pass away and does not reappear — I do not say that that end of the world could be known, seen or reached by going.’”

315. “Formerly, Bhante, I was a seer named Rohitassa, a son of Bhoja, possessing psychic power, going through the air. My speed, Bhante, was such — just as an archer with a strong bow, trained, dexterous and practised, might with little difficulty shoot a light arrow across the shadow of a palm tree. My stride, Bhante, was such — just as from the eastern sea to the western sea. To me, Bhante, endowed with such speed and with such a stride, such a wish arose: ‘I will reach the end of the world by going.’ So I, Bhante, apart only from eating, drinking, chewing and tasting, apart from defecating and urinating, apart from dispelling sleep and fatigue, with a lifespan of a hundred years, living a hundred years, having gone for a hundred years, died along the way without having reached the end of the world.

316. Wonderful, Bhante, marvellous, Bhante. How well said is this, Bhante, by the Bhagavā: ‘Where, Āvuso, one is not born, does not grow old, does not die, does not pass away and does not reappear — I do not say that that end of the world could be known, seen or reached by going.’”

317. “‘Where, Āvuso, one is not born, does not grow old, does not die, does not pass away and does not reappear — I do not say that that end of the world could be known, seen or reached by going’: this I say. Nor do I say, Āvuso, that an end of suffering is made without having reached the end of the world. But, Āvuso, it is in this very fathom-long body, with its apperception and its mind, that I declare the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world and the path leading to the cessation of the world.

318. By going it cannot be reached,
the end of the world, at any time;
And without having reached the end of the world
there is no release from suffering.

319. Therefore indeed the knower of the world, the wise one,
Gone to the end of the world, who has lived the optimal life;
Having known the end of the world, at peace,
Does not wish for this world or another.”

320. The fifth.

Commentary

Section titled “Commentary”
  • “The world” relocated: not a place at a journey’s end but this fathom-long body with apperception and mind, declared with its origin, cessation and path on the pattern of the four realisations (https://buddhavacana.github.io/pali-textbook/5-dhammacakka/); the same declaration to Anurādha is at https://buddhavacana.github.io/sutta/tetralemma/.
  • The deity and the seer’s psychic power, speed and former life are the narrative’s rhetoric, for the author’s rational reading; devaputta “deity”, iddhimant “possessing psychic power” as on the Khandhaka’s twelfth section.
  • Renderings by the DPD: upapajjati “reappears” (the glossary’s punabbhava “appearing again”; the Mahāpadāna pages have “is reborn”), antakiriyā “making an end”, sasaññī and samanaka “with apperception” and “with mind”, samitāvī “at peace”.
  • The night-visit frame (312) is the Khandhaka’s (1-12), here “bowed to … and stood to one side”; the Bhagavā’s speech from 317 runs through the verses to 319.

Parallels

Section titled “Parallels”

The Chinese parallel is the 1307th sūtra of the 雜阿含經 (Saṃyuktāgama; fascicle 49, CBETA T02, no. 99, pp. 359a–b), read here in CBETA’s text. The two versions agree in frame and sequence: at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove (舍衛國祇樹給孤獨園, p. 359a) the deity Red Horse (赤馬天子, the Pāḷi’s Rohitassa) comes in the last watch of the night, his radiance lighting the whole grove; he asks whether one can, by travelling, pass beyond the end of the world to where there is no birth, ageing or death; the Buddha answers that one cannot; the deity praises the saying and recalls his former life as a seer of psychic power, swift as an archer’s arrow crossing a palm’s shadow, striding from the eastern to the western sea, who resolved to reach the end of the world, walked for a hundred years with no pause but for food, rest and relieving himself, and died without reaching it; the Buddha declares the world, its arising, its cessation and the path in this fathom-long body (我今但以一尋之身，說於世界、世界集、世界滅、世界滅道跡, p. 359a); and verses close the exchange. The differences, checked in CBETA’s text:

  • The question and the answer. The Chinese asks of a place “without birth, ageing or death” (不生、不老、不死處, p. 359a), the Pāḷi of where one is not born, does not grow old, die, pass away or reappear; the Chinese Buddha answers simply that no one can pass beyond the end of the world to it (無有能過世界邊, p. 359a), where the Pāḷi says “I do not say that that end of the world could be known, seen or reached by going”. The Chinese deity sits to one side (退坐一面, p. 359a); the Pāḷi’s stands.
  • The former life. The Chinese seer is “an outsider seer with psychic power, free of sensual desires” (作外道仙人，得神通，離諸愛欲, p. 359a), the Pāḷi’s “a son of Bhoja, possessing psychic power, going through the air”; the Chinese adds that he could climb one Sumeru and reach another (能登一須彌，至一須彌, p. 359a), and its archer is “a strong man shooting a sharp arrow across a palm’s shadow in a moment” (如健士夫，以利箭橫射過多羅樹影之頃, p. 359a), the Pāḷi’s trained and practised archer with a light arrow. The journey’s exceptions are “food, rest and relieving himself, with reduced sleep” (唯除食息便利，減節睡眠, p. 359a); the Pāḷi lists eating, drinking, chewing and tasting, defecating and urinating, and dispelling sleep and fatigue, with a lifespan of a hundred years.
  • The praise. The Pāḷi’s “Wonderful, Bhante, marvellous, Bhante. How well said …” stands twice, before and after the story (314, 316); the Chinese has one “Wonderful, World-honoured One, well spoken is this meaning” (奇哉！世尊！善說斯義, p. 359a), and the Buddha addresses the deity by name (佛告赤馬) where the Pāḷi has Āvuso.
  • The Buddha’s teaching. The Pāḷi only names the four, the world, its origin, its cessation and the path (317); the Chinese defines each: the world is the five collections of fuel (五受陰), its arising “craving for future existence accompanied by delight and lust” (當來有愛，貪、喜俱), its cessation the remainderless abandoning of that craving, and the path the eightfold path in full (p. 359a–b), the second realisation’s formulas. The Pāḷi’s “with its apperception and its mind” (sasaññimhi samanake) has no counterpart, and the Pāḷi’s “nor do I say that an end of suffering is made without having reached the end of the world” (317) appears in the Chinese only in the verse. The Chinese adds a closing instruction, to know and abandon the world and its arising, know and realise its cessation, know and cultivate the path, “this is called reaching the end of the world, crossing over the world’s craving” (是名得世界邊，度世間愛, p. 359b).
  • The verses. The Chinese has three stanzas (p. 359b) to the Pāḷi’s two: the first matches the Pāḷi’s first (未曾遠遊行，而得世界邊，無得世界邊，終不盡苦邊); the second has the muni who knows the end of the world and “has established the brahmacariya” (諸梵行已立), the Pāḷi’s “who has lived the optimal life”; the third, “at that end of the world the one who knows with equanimity — this is called the conduct of the liberated, crossing to the world’s far shore” (平等覺知者，是名賢聖行，度世間彼岸), has no Pāḷi counterpart, and the Pāḷi’s “does not wish for this world or another” (319) none in the Chinese.
  • The close. The Chinese deity rejoices, bows at the Buddha’s feet and vanishes (歡喜隨喜，稽首佛足，即沒不現, p. 359b); the Pāḷi ends with the verses and “Pañcamaṃ”.

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