1. Āsīvisa Sutta.-Preached at Sāvatthi.
- Man has to tend four snakes of fierce heat and fearful venom - the four mahābhūtas;
- he is constantly followed by five murderous foes - the five 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 six fold external sense-spheres (bāhirāyatana.)
- Fleeing from there he
comes to a broad sheet 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 sakkāya and the further
shore nibbāna.
S.iv.172-b.
2. Āsīvisa Sutta.-There are four kinds of snakes in the world: the
venomous but not fierce, the fierce but not venomous, the one that is both and
the one that is neither. Similarly there are four kinds of persons: the one
quick to get angry but with short-lived anger, the one slow to get angry but
with lasting anger, etc. (A.ii.110-11)
Āsīvisa Vagga.-The nineteenth chapter of the Salāyatana Samyutta of
the Samyutta Nikāya. J.iv.172-204.
