an.5.77 Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numbered Discourses)

Future Perils (1st)

“Mendicants, seeing these five future perils is quite enough for a wilderness mendicant to meditate diligently, keenly, and resolutely for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.
What five?
Firstly, a wilderness mendicant reflects:
‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.
While living here alone
I might get bitten by a snake, a scorpion, or a centipede.
And if I died from that it would stop my practice.
I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’
This is the first future peril …
Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:
‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.
While living here alone
I might stumble and fall, or get food poisoning, or my bile or phlegm or stabbing wind might get upset.
And if I died from that it would stop my practice.
I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’
This is the second future peril …
Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:
‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.
While living here alone
I might encounter wild beasts—a lion, a tiger, a leopard, a bear, or a hyena—which might take my life.
And if I died from that it would stop my practice.
I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’
This is the third future peril …
Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:
‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.
While living here alone
I might encounter youths escaping a crime or on their way to commit one, and they might take my life.
And if I died from that it would stop my practice.
I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’
This is the fourth future peril …
Furthermore, a wilderness mendicant reflects:
‘Currently I’m living alone in a wilderness.
But in a wilderness there are savage monsters who might take my life.
And if I died from that it would stop my practice.
I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’
This is the fifth future peril …
These are the five future perils, seeing which is quite enough for a wilderness mendicant to meditate diligently, keenly, and resolutely for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.”