Introduction
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassa
Introduction to 3.4.6 Cundasuttaṃ, Part One - About Speech That Should Be Avoided and Performed
Yo ca gāthā sataṃ bhāse, anatthapadasaṃhitā;1
Ekaṃ dhammapadaṃ seyyo, yaṃ sutvā upasammati.2
Better than reciting a hundred verses of meaningless words,
One should speak one word only, teeming with Dhamma, Hearing it – it brings ease.
The Cundasutta was delivered at the silversmith, Cunda Kammāraputta’s Mango grove near Pāvā.3 Cunda Kammāraputta later was to be the one to prepare the last meal of the Buddha.4
In this sutta, Buddha asked Cunda about his practice of purifying rites. Cunda said he was practicing exactly as the Brāhmins had told him and gave some examples, i.e., he was in the habit of touching the ground from his bed, if not he was touching fresh cow dung, or stroked green grass, worshipped fire, etc.
Buddha replied that in spite of whatever rites one may perform for the Noble One’s, there were ten kinds of unwholesome actions that produced negative kammic results:
Imesaṃ pana, cunda, dasannaṃ akusalānaṃ kammapathānaṃ samannāgamanahetu5 nirayo paññāyati, tiracchānayoni paññāyati, pettivisayo paññāyati,6 yā vā panaññāpi kāci duggatiyo.
On account of getting engaged in these ten ways of unwholesome action, Cunda, one is bound for hell, bound for the animal world, the world of a peta7 or any other unhappy realm.8
Buddha continued that it was the avoidance of these courses of action and the performance of wholesomeness in ten ways that would lead to real purification:
Imesaṃ pana, cunda, dasannaṃ kusalānaṃ kammapathānaṃ samannāgamanahetu devā paññāyanti, manussā paññāyanti, yā vā panaññāpi kāci sugatiyo”ti.
On account of getting engaged in these ten ways being distinguished by wholesome action, Cunda, one is bound for deva-hood, bound for humankind or any other happy realm.
This Pāli course here splits the Cundasuttaṃ and these ten courses of wrong and right action9 in its respective three parts:
Tividhaṃ kho, cunda, kāyena asoceyyaṃ hoti; catubbidhaṃ vācāya asoceyyaṃ hoti; tividhaṃ manasā asoceyyaṃ hoti.
Threefold is impure bodily action, fourfold that of speech and threefold is impure action of mind.
1. anatthapadasaṃhitā: an + attha + pada + saṃhitā: not + meaning + connected.
2. Sahassavaggo, Dhammapadapāḷi, Khuddakanikāye.
3. Pāvā was a city of the Mallas. After the meal that Cunda offered to the Buddha, which proofed to be his last. From Pāvā the Buddha moved to Kusināra, where he breathed his last, attaining parinibbāna.
4. Cunda was later appeased by Ananda., Ananda, following an advice of the Buddha, told Cunda that this very meal comprised special merits and he need not develop any remorse.
5. samannāgamanahetu: samannāgamana + hetu: the manner of getting engaged in + cause, reason.
6. paññāyati (caus.): to be well known, to be renowned, to be perceived.
7. pettivisaya literally means “the realm of the unhappy ghosts (peta).” Petas can be encountered in the world of humans in forests, on mountains, on islands, or in cemeteries, but remain usually invisible to the human eye. Refer also to the encounter of a peta with the merchant Aṅkura in 3.5.11 Aṅkurapetavatthu, Part One - Not Even Harming a Tree and 4.2.3 Aṅkurapetavatthu, Part Two - Giving with the Proper Attitude and Proper Measure.
8. This refers to the asuraloka, the realm of the ghosts, demons and titans.
9. For those actions of body refer to 3.5.4 Cundasuttaṃ, Part Two - How to Conduct Oneself Correctly in Right Action, for those of the mind see 3.7.7 Cundasuttaṃ, Part Three - Purifying Oneself by Training One`s Mind Properly.