Kaṇhamaggasutta — Ariyamaggavagga — the nineteenth chapter of the Tens, the fourth chapter of the Fourth Fifty, echoing chapter 15's own ten word-pairs
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The identical compressed template, with a new content base
Length
under 1 minute to read
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the second of this chapter's ten near-identical variations
Why this discourse
This discourse reruns chapter 15's dark/bright path pairing from AN 10.146, this time making the sensory image unusually literal: killing, stealing, and lying are the dark path one can nearly picture walking.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The dark path is the ten courses of unskillful action; the bright path is avoiding all ten and cultivating their opposites.
A title matching chapter 15 exactly
As at AN 10.189, this discourse's title matches its chapter 15 counterpart word for word — Kaṇhamagga for Kaṇhamagga — the same exact-match pattern already established by this chapter's own opening discourse.
An image made more literal by concrete acts
AN 10.146 already noted this dark/bright vocabulary's kinship with the kamma classification of deeds themselves as dark, bright, or mixed; applying it here directly to the ten courses of action — rather than to an abstract cultivation path — closes that gap entirely, since the acts being classified as dark or bright now literally are deeds, not factors held.
Key terms
kaṇhamagga — “the dark path” — this discourse's own title, identical to chapter 15's AN 10.146.
sukkamagga — “the bright path” — the mirrored term, applied here to avoiding the ten courses of unskillful action.
kaṇha — “dark” or black — the same kamma-classification vocabulary already noted at AN 10.146, now applied directly to concrete deeds rather than an abstract path.
musāvādā veramaṇī — “avoiding false speech” — one of the ten items in this discourse's list.
micchādiṭṭhi — “wrong view” — the tenth and final item, closing the list.
The text
The discourse in full: the ten courses of action defined as the dark path and the bright path. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The dark path, and the bright path
§1“I will teach you the dark path and the bright path. … And what is the dark path? Killing living creatures … wrong view. This is called the dark path. And what is the bright path? Not killing living creatures … right view. This is called the bright path.”
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Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 6
What pairing does this discourse apply to the ten courses of action?
Correct: A. The same pairing already met at chapter 15's AN 10.146, with an identical title.
Question 2 of 6
According to the guide, how does applying this vocabulary to the ten courses of action "close the gap" already noted at AN 10.146?
Correct: B. A more literal fit between the image and its underlying content.
Question 3 of 6
How does this discourse's title compare to AN 10.146's, according to the guide?
Correct: B. The same exact-match naming already seen at AN 10.189.
Question 4 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
Question 5 of 6
Who does this discourse's audience consist of, per the glance box?
Correct: A. The same simple audience as every discourse in this compact chapter.
Question 6 of 6
What chapter of AN10 does this discourse belong to?
Correct: B. The fourth chapter of the Fourth Fifty.
