Vuddhisutta — Yodhājīvavagga — the fourteenth chapter of the Threes
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 3.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A bare list of three, identical in content to AN 3.138 and differing only in its title term
Length
≈15 seconds to read
Northern parallel
Faith, ethics, and wisdom as a growth triad recur throughout the Chinese Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — identical content to its immediate predecessor, differing in exactly one word
Why this discourse
The same three items as the discourse just before it — faith, ethics, and wisdom — renamed from accomplishments to growth. The change of a single word reframes the entire triad from a finished state to an ongoing process, and that reframing is the whole of what this discourse adds.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Faith, ethics, and wisdom are not only things a person can have accomplished; they are things a person can still be growing in, and the discourse names them a second time under exactly that heading.
One word changed, and what it does
AN 3.138 calls the triad sampadā, accomplishment, implying a state already reached. This discourse calls the identical triad vuddhi, growth, implying a process still underway. Nothing else in the wording changes. The entire content of the reframing rides on that single substitution.
Why the collection keeps both instead of one
A less careful redactor might have treated these as duplicates and dropped one. Keeping both makes a specific claim: faith, ethics, and wisdom are not either accomplished or growing, as though a person had to be sorted into one category permanently. The same three qualities can be described honestly both ways at once, accomplished so far and still increasing, without contradiction.
A caution against treating accomplishment as an endpoint
Read after AN 3.138 rather than before it, this discourse works as a corrective. A reader who takes “accomplishment” to mean a finished project, nothing further required, meets this discourse immediately afterward insisting that the same three things are also, and simultaneously, still growing.
What growth actually measures
The discourse gives no metric for what counts as growth in faith, ethics, or wisdom — no stages, no thresholds, no comparison points. Left this open, a reader has to supply their own honest answer: is there more faith now than a year ago, more consistency in conduct, more actual understanding, or has growth stalled while the vocabulary of practice continues uninterrupted.
A pair worth reading together, not in sequence only
Teaching these two discourses apart from each other loses the point of either. Taught together, in either order, they make a single claim neither makes alone: the same three qualities are properly described as both a standing that has been reached and a direction still being traveled.
Key terms
vuddhi — “growth, increase” — the single word that distinguishes this discourse from AN 3.138, reframing accomplishment as an ongoing process.
sampadā — “accomplishment” — the term AN 3.138 uses for the identical triad, a state already reached rather than a process underway.
saddhā, sīla, paññā — “faith, ethics, wisdom” — the three items, unchanged from the previous discourse.
vaḍḍhati — “grows, increases” — the verb form behind the noun vuddhi, implying continuous change rather than a fixed state.
ṭhāna — “a state, a standing” — not a term used in the discourse itself, but the kind of static condition “growth” is implicitly contrasted against.
The text
The discourse in full, a single sentence identical to AN 3.138 except for its title term. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Three kinds of growth
§1“Mendicants, there are three kinds of growth. What three? Growth in faith, ethics, and wisdom. These are the three kinds of growth.”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What three items does this discourse name as "growth"?
Correct: B. The identical triad from AN 3.138.
Question 2 of 10
How does this discourse differ from AN 3.138?
Correct: B. Nothing else in the wording changes.
Question 3 of 10
What does the change from "accomplishment" to "growth" reframe?
Correct: B. The entire content of the reframing rides on that single substitution.
Question 4 of 10
What claim does the guide say keeping both discourses (rather than treating them as duplicates) makes?
Correct: B. Not either/or, but both at once.
Question 5 of 10
How does the guide say this discourse functions when read after AN 3.138?
Correct: B. Immediately insisting the same three things are also still growing.
Question 6 of 10
What metric does the discourse give for measuring growth in faith, ethics, or wisdom?
Correct: B. The reader has to supply their own honest answer about whether growth is actually occurring.
Question 7 of 10
What question does the guide suggest a reader ask, given the lack of a stated metric?
Correct: B. An honest, self-administered check rather than an externally supplied answer.
Question 8 of 10
What does the guide recommend for teaching these two discourses (3.138 and 3.139)?
Correct: B. A single claim neither discourse makes alone.
Question 9 of 10
What is "vaḍḍhati"?
Correct: B. Grows, increases — the verb underlying the noun growth.
Question 10 of 10
What is the discourse's overall length and form?
Correct: B. As bare as AN 3.138, differing from it in exactly one word.
