Website of the Arya Sanghata Sutra


Guide for Readers

The Young and the Old

Among the enduring puzzles of the Sanghāta Sūtra are the groups of young and old beings who appear during the second half of the text. Who are they? What are they doing in this sutra? Buddha's efforts to interest these beings in their spiritual future dominates much of the later portions of the sutra, but the theme of young and old is present right from the very beginning.

The discourse presented in the Ārya Sanghāta Sūtra is offered by the Buddha in response to a bodhisattva's request for a teaching that can speak to both young and old at the same time, inspiring the young and setting them irrevocably in motion toward enlightenment, while lifting the heavy burden of negative karma carried by the old. What follows, then, is a teaching tailored to meet the very different requirements that persons will have at different points in their lives.

But just what it means to be old is not made entirely clear. At a certain point, Buddha explains that the young do not know about birth, death or other sufferings that await them, and thus do not take steps to change their future. Even after Buddha introduces them to the concept of suffering, the young beings do not identify with others they see suffering, and do not recognize themselves as the people whose future experiences of suffering the Buddha is describing. At another point, a group of listeners asks the Buddha: Which of us is old? And which of us is young? Buddha's reply is illuminating: He tells them that since they do know about birth and death in samsara, but are still not fed up with it, they are old. The old are also described as having heard much Dharma, believing they already know it all, and so not listening attentively.

One way to make the theme of young and old productive while  reading the Sanghāta is to consider: Are you young? Or are you old? Or both?
 
Another possibility is to take the groups of young and old in the Sanghāta as symbolic representations. While reading the text with its English translator, Geshe Lhundup Sopa commented that perhaps the young beings refer to Mahāyāna practitioners, while those who are old are followers of the shravakayana and pratyekabuddhayana. The Sanghāta Sūtra would then be a text for both sets of practitioners, invigorating and renewing the old, while urging the young to connect to the sufferings around them, and move forward swiftly on their path to enlightenment.

To contribute your thoughts on the significance of the young and the old in the Sanghāta Sūtra, please join the Sanghāta discussion forum.


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