Suttas that deal with accident/illness

Someone close to me just asked me if there are any suttas that deal with accidents/illnesses of a beloved one. There is only one sutta that immediatly came to mind and it was about a woman grieving over the loss of somebody she loved. I don’t remember exactly how it goes but ultimately she went from house to house only to find out that everywhere somebody is grieving over the death of somebody (or something like that).

If anyone knows of any specific sutta that deals with accidents/sickness of people dear to oneself - I’d be grateful for references so I can pass them on.

(I’m familiar with dukkha meaning age, sickness, death, being apart from what is dear to you, and having to deal with things that you don’t like but I’m asking for suttas that explicitly deal with accidents and ill-health.)

Thanks in advace :pray:

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I think you meant Kisa Gotami. Though, I cannot find the story in the sutta. Ajahn Thanissaro’s translation provides commentarial background to Ven Kisa Gotami’s story
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thig/thig.10.01.than.html

I am sorry I can’t specify any relevant sutta, but I’m sure there will be others who can help.

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Our new search function is very useful for such things. You could also look at Reading Faithfully or Sutta Friends.

Venerable Anālayo has a whole book on compilation of suttas on dealing with disease and death Book.

:pray:t5:

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Thank you @WayChuang :pray: That was the story I had in mind.

@trusolo Thanks for the recommendation! I wasn’t aware of this. It looks really all-encompassing! :pray:

I tried using the search function. I’m sure there is a way to narrow down the search results but I failed to find out how to use filters. When I type in “illness” or “disease”, it’ll spit out suttas that contain the word but not necessarily dealing with the topic (e.g. some monk who recovered from a severe illness and then the sutta talks about something entirely unrelated to that illness). If I type in the word accident, I get search result containing Pali words like accimento or similar words like ancient.

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Yeah I can understand that, hence the other sites and the book. I myself am not a pro at using the search function. There are forum members though who are very good at it. Maybe they will give pointers.

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Thanks for sharing these. It might be more helpful if you are wanting to point them to the CIPS to give the direct link to index.readingfaithfully.org, since on mobile, it doesn’t show up on the main site till the bottom of the page.

Yes, this is exactly the situation where an index can be more helpful than a search, i.e. when the term is used frequently in the texts.

Yes…

However this is the instant/quick search. If you hit the enter key, you will get the “real” search:

Unfortunately there isn’t much there of use. There isn’t even an “accident” headword in the CIPS. The closest I can think of is “Or I might stumble off a cliff” in maranasati.

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There is also Beyond Coping: A Study Guide on Aging, Illness, Death, & Separation, by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. Which is my go-to collection.

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Thanks so much @Snowbird :pray:

Yes and given that I’m also not really tech-savvy, getting something out of that search function is against all odds.

This was really helpful. I was able to search for illness - it redirected me to sickness and there I found suttas on sickness in general and an entry for sick person featuring more suttas.

I’ll definitely have a look at Ven. Thanissaro’s collection - thanks for that!

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