Dutiyamaggasutta — Parisāvagga — the twenty-second chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Parisāvagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
One elided line, naming the second four factors of the noble eightfold path
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the second half of a pair, best read straight after its predecessor
Why this discourse
The path’s second half completes what AN 4.215 began: livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and immersion, the four factors that extend ethics into a way of making a living and then into the cultivation of the mind itself. Read alone, this is a bare list; read as the second half of a pair, it finishes an eight-factor path the chapter could not hold in one discourse.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion deliver a person to hell as if placed there; the right counterparts deliver them to heaven the same way, completing the eightfold path.
The second half
Micchāājīva, micchāvāyāma, micchāsati, micchāsamādhi — wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion. These complete the eightfold path begun at AN 4.215: livelihood extends the ethics grouping into how one supports oneself, and the remaining three — effort, mindfulness, immersion — are the concentration grouping, the factors most directly concerned with training the mind in meditation.
Taken together with AN 4.215, the eight factors named across the two discourses are identical, item for item and in the same order, to the eight given in full at AN 4.205. Nothing has been added, dropped, or reordered; only the discourse boundary is new.
Livelihood as a hinge
Sammāājīva, right livelihood, sits at the seam between the two discourses in the traditional grouping — the last item of ethics broadly construed, and the bridge into the three factors of concentration that follow it. That it falls on the second discourse rather than the first is a reminder that the split chosen at AN 4.215 groups view-thought-speech-action as one unit and livelihood-effort-mindfulness-immersion as the other, rather than splitting strictly along the wisdom/ethics/concentration threefold division sometimes used to describe the path.
A path completed, and a chapter’s form vindicated
With this discourse the eightfold path is whole again, delivered across exactly the two discourses its length required. The chapter’s tetrad form did not shrink the path or distort it; it simply took two turns to say what AN 4.205 said in one. A reader who has followed both discourses in sequence has the identical eight factors either way — the only cost paid is that this chapter needed twice the space.
Key terms
micchāājīva / sammāājīva — “wrong livelihood” and “right livelihood” — the fifth path factor, extending ethics into how one earns a living, and the hinge between this discourse’s two halves of the path.
micchāvāyāma / sammāvāyāma — “wrong effort” and “right effort” — the first of the three concentration-grouping factors.
micchāsati / sammāsati — “wrong mindfulness” and “right mindfulness” — the second concentration factor.
micchāsamādhi / sammāsamādhi — “wrong immersion” and “right immersion” — the eighth and final factor, completing the path.
ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga — “the noble eightfold path” — now complete across this discourse and AN 4.215, identical to the path given whole at AN 4.205.
The text
The discourse exactly as the source abridges it, ellipsis marks included. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The elided discourse
§1“Someone with four qualities is placed in hell as if delivered there. … wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion. Someone with four qualities is placed in heaven as if delivered there. … right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. …”
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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 four path factors does this discourse name?
Correct: B. The second half of the eightfold path begun at AN 4.215.
Question 2 of 10
How do the eight factors named across AN 4.215 and AN 4.216 compare to AN 4.205’s list?
Correct: B. Only the discourse boundary is new; nothing in the path itself has changed.
Question 3 of 10
What role does right livelihood play in the traditional grouping, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Falling on this discourse rather than AN 4.215.
Question 4 of 10
What three factors make up the concentration grouping named in this discourse?
Correct: B. The factors most directly concerned with training the mind.
Question 5 of 10
What does the guide say the chapter’s tetrad form cost, in splitting the path across two discourses?
Correct: B. A reader who follows both discourses has the identical eight factors either way.
Question 6 of 10
Which discourse gives the same eight factors as a single, unsplit list?
Correct: B. The source this two-discourse pair reproduces in full.
Question 7 of 10
What formula structures this discourse, as with the rest of the chapter since AN 4.212?
Correct: B. Continued unchanged from AN 4.212 through this discourse.
Question 8 of 10
What is the eighth and final factor of the path, named at the end of this discourse?
Correct: B. Completing the eightfold path across this discourse and its predecessor.
Question 9 of 10
How does the guide describe the split chosen between AN 4.215 and AN 4.216?
Correct: B. Not the only possible cut, but a coherent one following the tradition’s usual grouping.
Question 10 of 10
What discourse immediately follows this one in the chapter?
Correct: B. Moving from the path to a different four-item formula about truthful and false speech.
