"Monks, Kassapa[1] here is content with any old robe. He praises contentment with any robe, nor does he commit any offense of unseemliness or impropriety[2] on account of a robe. If he has not got a robe, he does not worry; if he has got a robe he enjoys the use of it without clinging or foolish attachment, not committing any offense, aware of the danger and wisely avoiding it.[3] Kassapa is content with whatever alms he gets... whatever lodging... whatever requisites in the way of medicines for sickness... he enjoys the use of these things without clinging or foolish attachment, not committing any offense, aware of the danger and wisely avoiding it.

"Therefore, monks, you should train yourselves thus: We will be content with whatever robe,... alms... lodging... medicines... we may get... We will enjoy the use of these things without clinging or foolish attachment, not committing any offense, aware of the danger and wisely avoiding it.

"Monks, I will exhort you by the example of Kassapa, or one like Kassapa. So exhorted, you should practice to gain the goal."[4]

Notes

1.: This is Kassapa the Great (Mahaa-Kassapa), one of the Buddha's chief disciples and later leader of the Sangha. Not to be confused with Kassapa mentioned in SN 12.17.
2.: Unlike, e.g., Nanda (SN 21.8).
3.: Nissara.napañño: lit. "wise as to deliverance."
4.: Tathatta: "the state of thusness," Nibbaana. With a different suffix there is the almost equivalent term tathataa, found mainly in Mahaayaana texts, but also occurring in VM XVII, 6, etc., where it means "the state of being really so."

Copyright © 1985 Buddhist Publication Society. The text of this page (“Santu.t.tha.m Sutta: Contentment”, by Maurice O'Connell Walshe) is licensed under a Buddhist Publication Society free-distribution licence. From Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013. You may copy, reformat, reprint, republish, and redistribute this work in any medium whatsoever, provided that: (1) you only make such copies, etc. available free of charge and, in the case of reprinting, only in quantities of no more than 50 copies; (2) you clearly indicate that any derivatives of this work (including translations) are derived from this source document; and (3) you include the full text of this license in any copies or derivatives of this work. Otherwise, all rights reserved. This presentation is a derivative of that source document: it has been restyled and its links rewritten. The translation itself is unaltered.