The Related Suttas Collection 9.10

1. In the Woods

Recitation

At one time one of the bhikkhus was staying in the land of the Kosalans in a certain forest grove.

Now at that time that bhikkhu had previously been spending too much time in recitation. But some time later they adhered to passivity and silence. Not hearing the teaching, the deity haunting that forest approached that bhikkhu, and addressed them in verse:

“Bhikkhu, why don’t you recite passages of the teaching, living together with other bhikkhus? When you hear the teaching confidence grows; and the reciter is praised in the present life.”

“I used to be enthusiastic about passages of the teaching, so long as I’d not realized dispassion. But then I realized dispassion, which the good call the laying to rest by completely understanding whatever is seen, heard, and thought.”