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AN 6.15

Regret

Anutappiyasutta

from: 2. Warm-hearted

Regret

There Sāriputta addressed the mendicants:

“As a mendicant makes their bed, so they must lie in it, and die tormented by regrets. And how do they die tormented by regrets?

Take a mendicant who relishes work, talk, sleep, company, closeness, and proliferation. They love these things and like to relish them. A mendicant who makes their bed like this must lie in it, and die tormented by regrets. This is called a mendicant who enjoys substantial reality, who hasn’t given up substantial reality to rightly make an end of suffering.

As a mendicant makes their bed, so they must lie in it, and die free of regrets. And how do they die free of regrets?

Take a mendicant who doesn’t relish work, talk, sleep, company, closeness, and proliferation. They don’t love these things or like to relish them. A mendicant who makes their bed like this must lie in it, and die free of regrets. This is called a mendicant who delights in extinguishment, who has given up substantial reality to rightly make an end of suffering.

A beast who likes to proliferate,
enjoying proliferation,
fails to win extinguishment,
the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.

But one who gives up proliferation,
enjoying the state of non-proliferation,
wins extinguishment,
the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.”

Translation: German (Ayyā Sabbamittā), English (Bhikkhu Sujato). Source: SuttaCentral / Bilara (public domain, CC0).

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