Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The Buddha teaches the mendicants the near shore and the far shore directly: each wrong factor is the near shore, each right factor the far shore, and the same closing verse on the rarity of crossing and the mark of those who do.
A narrative removed, content kept whole
Unlike some of this project's paired discourses, where removing a narrative frame also trims or alters the content, this discourse preserves AN 10.117's entire teaching intact, including its full six-stanza closing verse — only the brahmin's presence and his opening question are gone.
Two audiences for one teaching
Read together, AN 10.117 and this discourse suggest the same content was considered suitable both as an answer to an outsider's genuine inquiry and as material worth teaching the ordained community directly, unprompted — the teaching's value evidently did not depend on who happened to be asking.
This chapter's fifth reframing, its plainest delivery
As the fifth distinct image this chapter and its predecessor have used for the ten-factor path, the near and far shores here appear in their most direct possible form: no brahmin, no debate, no ceremony — simply the Buddha stating the image and its verse to his own assembly.
Key terms
The text
The near shore and the far shore
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you the near shore and the far shore. Listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this: “And what, mendicants, is the near shore? What is the far shore? Wrong view is the near shore, and right view is the far shore. … Wrong freedom is the near shore, and right freedom is the far shore. This is the near shore, and this is the far shore.
Closing verse: crossing to the far shore
§2Few are those among humans who cross to the far shore. The rest just run around on the near shore. When the teaching is well explained, those who practice accordingly are the ones who will cross over Death’s dominion so hard to pass. Rid of dark qualities, an astute person should develop the bright. Leaving home behind for the seclusion so hard to enjoy, try to find satisfaction there, having left behind sensual pleasures. With no possessions, an astute person should cleanse themselves of mental corruptions. And those whose minds are rightly developed in the awakening factors; letting go of attachments, they delight in not grasping. With defilements ended, brilliant, they are quenched in this world.”
Self-check quiz
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