Paṭhamakhatasutta — Maṅgalavagga — the fifteenth 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
The same adjective pair as AN 3.146, restated with the image of a person kept broken or intact, and the judgment of sensible observers
Length
≈30 seconds to read
Northern parallel
The image of unethical conduct as self-inflicted damage, judged by the wise, recurs across the Chinese Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the first of four restatements, and the discourse marking, in the traditional count, the close of the Threes' third fifty (paṇṇāsaka) of discourses
Why this discourse
The same unskillful and skillful deeds named in AN 3.146, given a different image entirely: not a cosmic destination but a person who keeps themselves “broken and damaged” or “intact and unscathed,” deserving or not deserving the blame of sensible people, brimming with wickedness or with merit.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Unskillful deeds of body, speech, and mind leave a person broken, blamed by the sensible, and full of wickedness; Skillful deeds leave them intact, unblamed, and full of merit.
A different image for the same judgment
AN 3.146 uses a cosmic image, hell and heaven reached after death. This discourse uses a structural one: khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati, keeping oneself carried around chipped and damaged, like an object that has taken harm and now bears it everywhere it goes. The judgment is identical; only the metaphor's home register has changed, from cosmology to something closer to physical damage.
Judged in this life, not only the next
This discourse adds something the hell-and-heaven formula does not state directly: a person acting this way deserves to be blamed and reproved by sensible people, viññū, right now, in addition to whatever destination eventually follows. The wise observer’s verdict is not a metaphor for the afterlife destination; it is a separate, present-tense consequence running alongside it.
Fool and astute, echoing the opening of the whole nipāta
Bālo abyatto asappuriso, a foolish, incompetent, untrue person, and paṇḍito viyatto sappuriso, an astute, competent, true person — the same bāla/paṇḍita pair AN 3.1 uses to open the entire Threes. Nearly at the collection’s far end, this discourse returns to its opening vocabulary, applying it now to unskillful and skillful conduct specifically.
What "unskillful" names here
“unskillful,” akusala — the same broadest term AN 3.146 uses, here restated with the image of self-carried damage rather than a cosmic destination.
Merit and demerit, brimming rather than earned in small amounts
The discourse’s closing phrase, bahuñca apuññaṁ pasavati or bahuñca puññaṁ pasavati, says a person “brims with” much wickedness or much merit — not accumulates gradually, but generates abundantly, as a natural overflow of the threefold conduct already described.
Key terms
khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati — “keeps themselves broken and damaged” — the image of carrying oneself around chipped by one’s own conduct.
bālo abyatto asappuriso — “a foolish, incompetent, untrue person” — the same bāla the whole nipāta opens on in AN 3.1, applied here specifically.
paṇḍito viyatto sappuriso — “an astute, competent, true person” — the matching opposite, echoing AN 3.1’s paṇḍita.
viññū — “sensible people, the wise” — the observers whose blame or absence of blame is named as a present-life consequence, alongside the eventual destination.
unskillful — “unskillful,” akusala — the same broadest term AN 3.146 uses, here restated with the image of self-carried damage rather than a cosmic destination.
The text
The discourse in full: unskillful conduct kept broken, skillful conduct kept intact. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Kept broken and damaged
§1“When a foolish, incompetent untrue person has three qualities they keep themselves broken and damaged. They deserve to be blamed and reproved by sensible people, and they brim with much wickedness. What three? Unskillful deeds by way of body, speech, and mind. …
Kept intact and unscathed
§2When an astute, competent true person has three qualities they keep themselves intact and unscathed. They don’t deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they brim with much merit. What three? Skillful deeds by way of body, speech, and mind. …”
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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 image does this discourse use, in place of AN 3.146's hell and heaven?
Correct: A. A structural image of self-carried damage, in place of a cosmic destination.
Question 2 of 10
What does "khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati" picture?
Correct: B. Damage borne everywhere the person goes, rather than a distant afterlife destination.
Question 3 of 10
What present-life consequence does this discourse name, beyond the eventual destination?
Correct: B. A separate, present-tense consequence running alongside the eventual destination.
Question 4 of 10
What pair of terms does this discourse share with AN 3.1, opening the entire nipāta?
Correct: B. Nearly at the collection's far end, this discourse returns to its opening vocabulary.
Question 5 of 10
What does "bahuñca apuññaṁ pasavati" say about wickedness?
Correct: B. Abundant generation, not gradual accumulation.
Question 6 of 10
Which adjective pair does this discourse share with AN 3.146?
Correct: B. The same moral content, restated in a different register.
Question 7 of 10
What is the relationship between this discourse's image and AN 3.146's?
Correct: B. Only the metaphor's home register changes; the underlying judgment is identical.
Question 8 of 10
What three channels of conduct does this discourse use, matching its sibling discourse?
Correct: A. The same exhaustive threefold division used throughout this vagga.
Question 9 of 10
What is the discourse's overall length and form?
Correct: B. As bare as its sibling discourse, differing only in its central image.
Question 10 of 10
What does the term "viññū" refer to?
Correct: B. A social, present-tense verdict, distinct from the eventual cosmic destination.
