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Āsīvisa Sutta

1. Āsīvisa Sutta.– Taught at Sāvatthi. Man has to tend four snakes of fierce heat and fearful venom — the four primary elements (mahābhūta); be is constantly followed by five murderous foes — the five aggregates of attachment (upādānakkhandhā); he is pursued by a murderous house­breaker with uplifted sword — passionate desire (nandirāga); while trying to escape them, he wanders into an empty village, where everything is empty — the sixfold personal sense sphere (ajjhattikāyatana), and into it come village-plunderers — the sixfold external sense-spheres (bāhirāyatana). Fleeing from there he comes to a broad stretch of water beset with danger on the hither side; the further side is secure from fear, but there is no boat and no bridge — the fivefold flood (ogha), the hither shore being personality-view (sakkāya-diṭṭhi) and the further shore nibbāna. S.iv.172‑5.

2. Āsīvisa Sutta.– There are four kinds of snakes in the world: the venomous but not fierce, the fierce but not venomous, the one that is both and the one that is neither. Similarly there are four kinds of persons: the one quick to get angry but with short-lived anger, the one slow to get angry but with lasting anger, etc. (A.ii.110‑11)

Āsīvisa Vagga.– The nineteenth chapter of the Saḷāyatana Saṃyutta of the Saṃyuttanikāya. J.iv.172‑204.