Jaliya Sutta

JĀLIYA SUTTA. [IS THE SOUL DISTINCT FROM THE BODY?]

[This Sutta having been incorporated, word for word, as Sections 15-19, inclusive, in the last Sutta, the reader is referred to the translation given there.

The Mahāli Sutta must have already included, when the Dīgha was put together, this Jāliya episode. For there would otherwise be no reason for the Mahāli Sutta being put into the Sīlakkhanda Vagga, the Sīlas being contained only in that episode.

Why then should the episode appear also again, in full, as a separate Sutta? Is it merely because of the importance of the question? We have another instance of a similar kind, where the episode of Nigrodha’s question, only referred to at Section 23 of the Kassapa-Sīhanāda Sutta, is set out afterwards, in full, in the Udumbarīka Sīhanāda Sutta (No. 25 in the Dīgha). But there the whole episode is not given twice in full. Such cross-references are fairly frequent in the Piṭakas, and are of importance for the history of the literature. One of the most striking cases is where the Saṃyutta quotes a Sutta, now contained in the Dīgha, by name. (Sakkapañha Sutta, S. III, 13; compare Sum. I, 51; Mil. 350.)]