Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
All skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, which is said to be the best of them all — a claim illustrated through ten different images of one thing standing supreme among many.
A famous teaching, given its fullest treatment here
The core claim — diligence as the root of all skillful qualities — is one of the most quoted teachings in the canon, often appearing in much briefer form. This version develops it at unusual length, multiplying its similes specifically to reach ten, matching this nipāta's own number.
Ten images, one shared logic
Each simile follows the identical structure: name something supreme in its category (footprint, roof-peak, root, heartwood, flower, monarch, moon, sun, river's destination), then apply the identical comparison — just as this excels, diligence excels among skillful qualities. The opening simile, the elephant's footprint, and the closing rivers-to-the-ocean image are all given in full; the six similes in between (root, heartwood, flower, monarch, moon, sun) are compressed to their images alone, trusting the refrain already established.
From nature to kingship to cosmology
The similes range widely: two are botanical (root, heartwood, flower), one is political (the wheel-turning monarch), two are astronomical (moon, sun), and one is geographic (all rivers to the ocean) — a deliberately varied catalogue rather than similes drawn from a single domain, suggesting diligence's primacy is meant to be recognized from every possible angle.
Key terms
The text
Ten similes of one thing supreme among many
§1“Mendicants, the Realized One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, is said to be the best of all sentient beings—be they footless, with two feet, four feet, or many feet; with form or formless; with perception or without perception or with neither perception nor non-perception. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them.
§2The footprints of all creatures that walk can fit inside an elephant’s footprint, so an elephant’s footprint is said to be the biggest of them all. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them.
§3The rafters of a bungalow all lean to the peak, slope to the peak, and meet at the peak, so the peak is said to be the topmost of them all. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them.
§4Of all kinds of fragrant root, spikenard is said to be the best. In the same way …
§5Of all kinds of fragrant heartwood, red sandalwood is said to be the best. In the same way …
§6Of all kinds of fragrant flower, jasmine is said to be the best. In the same way …
§7All lesser kings are vassals of a wheel-turning monarch, so the wheel-turning monarch is said to be the foremost of them all. In the same way …
§8The radiance of all the stars is not worth a sixteenth part of the moon’s radiance, so the moon’s radiance is said to be the best of them all. In the same way …
§9In the autumn the heavens are sunny and cloudless. And as the sun is rising to the firmament, having dispelled all the darkness of space, it shines and glows and radiates. In the same way …
§10All the great rivers—that is, the Ganges, Yamunā, Aciravatī, Sarabhū, and Mahī—flow, slant, slope, and incline towards the ocean, and the ocean is said to be the greatest of them. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them.”
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