Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Saying and doing are independent, and there are four combinations.
The simile’s accuracy
The four cloud types are not invented for the occasion. Dry thunderstorms, rain without audible thunder, overcast that does neither, and a proper storm are all ordinary weather in a monsoon climate, and the audience would have seen all four in a season.
That is worth noticing because it is what makes the simile land. The four cells are presented as a fact about the sky before they are presented as a fact about people, and the listener has already agreed to the structure by the time it is applied.
The Aṅguttara does this repeatedly and this chapter does almost nothing else. Nine discourses, nine natural fourfolds — clouds, pots, lakes, mangoes, mice, oxen, trees, vipers — each observed in the world and then turned on a person.
Thunder and rain
The mapping is not arbitrary. Thunder is noise that announces rain; rain is what was announced. So the talker who does not act is not merely noisy — he is a promise that does not arrive.
That is sharper than a general complaint about talk. Thunder is not bad; it is what precedes and predicts the useful thing. A cloud that thunders and does not rain has raised an expectation, and the frustration it produces is specific to that.
The reverse cell has the same precision. Rain without thunder is unannounced and arrives anyway. It is not more useful than a full storm; it is exactly as useful, and quieter.
Which cell is best
This discourse gives no ranking, and that is worth registering because the next chapter of similes will not always be so restrained.
One might expect the doer-not-talker to be praised above the doer-and-talker, on the grounds that talk is suspect. The discourse does not say that. The fourth cell — both rains and thunders — is listed last, which in this collection normally marks the best, and nothing in the text criticizes thunder that is followed by rain.
Compare AN 4.48, where Visākha is praised for teaching well and the verse says an astute person among fools is not known unless he speaks. The collection wants the announcement as well as the arrival. What it objects to is the announcement alone.
‘A talker, not a doer’
The Pāli is bhāsitā hoti no kattā — a speaker, not a maker. Both are agent nouns, and the discourse gives no further definition.
AN 4.102, immediately next, will define the same four cells by memorizing the teaching against understanding the four truths, and AN 4.107 will do the same with the mouse simile. Those versions narrow the pair to a specific religious context.
This one does not. As it stands the grid applies to anyone who says things and does things, which is everyone, and its lack of definition is why it has travelled better than any other discourse in the chapter.
The chapter ahead
The Valāhakavagga is the most schematic chapter in the Fours. Every discourse is the same grid; what changes is the simile and the pair of variables.
Clouds and mice use memorizing against understanding. Pots, lakes, and mangoes use impressive deportment against understanding. Oxen and trees use a person against their followers. Vipers use how often anger comes against how long it stays.
So four content-pairs, spread across nine similes, in ten discourses — one of which has no text at all. Reading the chapter straight through takes about fifteen minutes and the experience is closer to hearing a set of variations than to reading ten teachings.
Key terms
The text
The setting
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
Four clouds, four individuals
§2“Mendicants, there are these four kinds of clouds. What four? One thunders but doesn’t rain, one rains but doesn’t thunder, one neither thunders nor rains, and one both rains and thunders. These are the four kinds of clouds. In the same way, these four individuals similar to clouds are found in the world. What four? One thunders but doesn’t rain, one rains but doesn’t thunder, one neither thunders nor rains, and one both rains and thunders.
Thunders but does not rain
§3And how does an individual thunder but not rain? It’s when an individual is a talker, not a doer. That’s how an individual thunders but doesn’t rain. That individual is like a cloud that thunders but doesn’t rain, I say.
The other three
§4And how does an individual rain but not thunder? It’s when an individual is a doer, not a talker. …
§5And how does an individual neither thunder nor rain? It’s when an individual is neither a talker nor a doer. …
§6And how does an individual both thunder and rain? It’s when an individual is both a talker and a doer. … These four individuals similar to clouds are found in the world.”
Self-check quiz
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