007/ MN005 Anangana
The fifth sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya is the Anangana sutta. Angana means, or is translated in the Ñanamoli and Bodhi translation of the Majjhima Nikaya as, blemishes. So Anangama means without blemishes.
Now this sutta is actually a conversation between Shariputra and Moggallana. The Buddha himself does not appear in this sutta. I think we can sense that this sutta belongs in a late time in the Sangha, not the earliest time. It's at a time when the Sangha has become established. There are probably quite a lot of new recruits, young monks, some of whom are excellent, some of whom are not. And Shariputra and Moggallana have much of the responsibility for training, inducting these new members of the Sangha.
So Shariputra gives a little talk, a little homily, on the matter of blemishes. He says some people have blemishes, some people don't have blemishes. If you have blemishes and are aware of it, then this is better than not being aware of it.
If you don't have blemishes and you're aware of it, this is better than not being aware of it. So a first lesson or moral of this sutta is about objectivity in regard to one's own condition. One should be able to think of one's own condition without the ego getting in the way, without subjectivity overruling perception. One should be able to see things as they are. If I have some fault, I should be aware of that fault. If I'm not aware of it, it may get worse. If I'm free of that fault, then it's better to be aware that that's the case. If I'm not aware of it, then the fault may creep back in. This is the first moral.
So what are blemishes? Well, blemishes are small faults. They're not big faults, they're little things. They're little things like a monk might think, if I do something wrong and I get found out, I do hope that I'm reprimanded in private and not in front of everybody else.
Or I hope I'm reprimanded by somebody senior and not by somebody who's junior to myself, that would be very humiliating. Or I hope I'm not found out at all, and so on. These are factors of pride, essentially, not wanting to be put in an embarrassing position, wanting to shine.
You can imagine some modern equivalent. There's going to be a group photo. So wanting to be in pride of place, wanting to be in the middle next to the important person in the photo, not wanting to be stuck at the back where nobody can see you or whatever.
So this is sort of, it's not a big deal, but these are little blemishes in the character. And the sutta is saying, be aware of them. The first essential is to notice this.
Don't immediately leap to your defense or try to pretend it's not so, or not notice. Notice what is true. Notice this sort of thing coming up in you.
Be aware of it. This is the better state. So there could be any number of these little blemishes, but awareness is the key in this sutta.
And Maudgalyayana gets Shariputra to spell it out, not just to give the simple talk, but to give the detail. And that's it, really. That's the whole sutta.
It's not a sutta of enormous importance, but I think it speaks to us in a very personal way. We can all imagine having these sorts of thoughts. Thank you very much.
Namo Amida Bu.
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