Exalted Utterances - Udāna (KN 3)

1
1: The Chapter (including) the Awakening (Tree) 4
Reverence to him, the Gracious One, the Worthy One,
the Perfect Sambuddha
1.1 The First Discourse about the Awakening (Tree) 5
Thus I heard: at one time the Gracious One was dwelling near
Uruvelā, 6 on the bank of the river Nerañjarā, at the root of the
Awakening tree, in the first (period) after attaining Awakening. Then
at that time the Gracious One was sitting in one cross-legged posture
for seven days experiencing the happiness of freedom.
4 The chapter titles in the Udāna are principally named after one or, as here,
more of the main discourses that occur in the chapter; the only exception to
this being the 7 th chapter Cullavagga, the Chapter (including) the Short
Discourses. Book, chapter, and discourse titles in Pāḷi are normally quoted
in the nominative, which is the so-called label-use of the nominative; see
Perniola pg. §245d. But note that in the manuscript editions of the texts the
end-title is the rule, quoting the title at the beginning of a text is a modern
felicity.
5 Bodhi in the title here and in the next two discourses refers to the Tree of
Awakening, not to the Awakening itself, as the events described herein took
place some time after that momentous event. Compare 1.4 Nigrodhasuttaṁ
(The Discourse about the Banyan Tree).
6 Most of the discourses open with the same formula: Evam me sutaṁ: ekaṁ
samayaṁ Bhagavā....viharati. Notice the use of the historical present,
literally: ...at one time the Gracious One...dwells. The locative in the place
name which precedes the verb in these formulas is proximate, and usually
means near (not at or in), which is more specifically stated in what follows
the verb.