"[Chunky] Sutra" (MN 95)

Canki Sutra (MN 95), based on excerpts translated from Pali by Ñanamoli Thera

Exotic stone Buddha figure in the ruins of Sukhothai, Thailand

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was wandering in Kosala with a large Sangha and arrived at a brahmin village named Opasada, ruled over by Canki [pronounced Chunky]... Then Canki and a large company of brahmins went to see him....

HOW ONE FINALLY ARRIVES AT TRUTH

There are five ideas that ripen here and now in two ways. What five?

1. faith (confidence)
2. preference
3. hearsay-learning
4. arguing on evidence, and
5. liking through pondering a view

Now something may have faith [or confidence, conviction, trust] well placed in it and yet be hollow, empty, and false. And again something may have no faith placed in it -- and yet be factual, true, and not other than it seems. The same is true with preference and the rest.

If a person has faith, then one guards truth when one says, "My faith is thus." But on that account one does not draw the unreserved conclusion, "Only this is true, all else is wrong." In this way one guards the truth. But there is as yet no discovery of truth. And the same is true with preference and the rest.

How is truth discovered?

Here a Buddhist monastic lives near some village or town. Then a householder or a householder's son or daughter goes to that monastic to test him or her on three kinds of ideas, ideas provocative of

1. greed
2. hate
3. delusion

All the while one is wondering, "Are there in this venerable one any such ideas whereby one's mind, being obsessed, might unknowing, say 'I know,' unseeing, say 'I see,' or to get others to do likewise, which would be long for their suffering and harm?" While thus testing someone, one comes to find that there are no such ideas obsessing that venerable one's mind, and one finds that:

"The bodily and verbal behavior of that venerable one are not those of one affected by lust or anger or delusion. But the True Idea [Dharma] that this venerable one teaches is profound, hard to see and discover yet it is the most peaceful and superior of all, out of reach of logical reasoning, subtle, for the wise to experience; such a True Idea cannot be taught by one affected by lust or hate or delusion."

It is as soon as by testing someone that one comes to see that that venerable one is purified from ideas provocative of greed, hatred, and delusion, that one then plants one's faith in that person.

• When one visits that venerable one, one shows respect.
• And owing to respect one gives ear.
• One who gives ear hears the True Idea, remembers it, and investigates the meaning of the ideas remembered.
• When one does that one acquires a preference by pondering the ideas.
• That produces interest.
• One interested is actively committed.
• So committed one makes a judgment.
• According to one's judgment one exerts oneself.
• When one exerts oneself one comes to realize with the body the ultimate truth.
• And one sees it by the penetrating of it with [insight] understanding.

That is how there is discovery of truth -- but there is as yet no final arrival at truth.

How is truth finally arrived at?

Final arrival at truth is the repetition, the keeping in being, the development, of those same ideas. That is how there is final arrival at truth...."