Numbered Discourses 5.77 8. Warriors 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 be an obstacle to my progress. I’d better rouse up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.’ This is the first future peril …