Pāli Dictionary

Āsīvisa Sutta

Sutta

A discourse taught at Sāvatthi that presents an extended allegory of a man beset by four venomous snakes, five murderous foes, an armed housebreaker, an empty village, and marauders, before finally crossing a perilous flood to safety — each element standing for the elements, aggregates, craving, sense bases, and floods that bar the way from personal identity-view to final liberation.

Taught at Sāvatthi. Man has to tend four snakes of fierce heat and fearful venom — the four primary elements (mahābhūta); be is constantly followed by five murderous foes — the five aggregates of attachment (upādānakkhandhā); he is pursued by a murderous housebreaker with uplifted sword — passionate desire (nandirāga); while trying to escape them, he wanders into an empty village, where everything is empty — the sixfold personal sense sphere (ajjhattikāyatana), and into it come village-plunderers — the sixfold external sense-spheres (bāhirāyatana). Fleeing from there he comes to a broad stretch of water beset with danger on the hither side; the further side is secure from fear, but there is no boat and no bridge — the fivefold flood (ogha), the hither shore being personality-view (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) and the further shore nibbāna. S.iv.172-5.

AN 4.110SN 35.238

All entries named Āsīvisa Sutta

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