3.1.2

Lesson 3.1.2 Sīsapāvanasuttaṃ – Like a Handful of Leaves

One time when staying in a wooded area called the Sīsapā forest, the Buddha pointed to the importance of comprehending the Four Noble Truths by using a renowned simile presented in this lesson. In this sutta, Sīsapāvanasuttaṃ, the Buddha compared a handful of leaves with the immense number of leaves in a measureless forest to show that essential truths for one’s own well-being were, like the handful of leaves, just a few. It is due to ignorance and simple curiosity that a vast amount of seemingly important and never-ending queries keep humankind entangled in issues of no real importance, while ignoring the issues regarding their own well-being and calm! That is why the Buddha himself refused to reply to a certain a set of questions which were similarly based on false preconditions. Some of these are asked by the wandering mendicant, Vacchagotta, and collected in the Abyākatasaṃyuttaṃ. The Introduction refers to them and explains why ultimately the Buddha did not provide any answers to these queries.