Diṭṭhisutta — Duccaritavagga — the twenty-third chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Duccaritavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Two parallel statements, the same tetrad as AN 4.212, wrapped in the ‘broken and damaged’ formula from AN 4.3
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — familiar content, but a formula worth tracing to its source
Why this discourse
Same four qualities as AN 4.212 — bad conduct in body, speech, and mind, plus wrong view — but a different consequence formula entirely. Instead of being placed in hell or heaven, a person here keeps themselves broken and damaged or intact and unscathed, deserves or escapes blame from sensible people, and brims with wickedness or merit. That language is not new to this chapter; it is the formula AN 4.3 used at the very start of the Fours, now reattached to content from twenty-one chapters later.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Bad conduct in body, speech, and mind, plus wrong view, keeps a fool broken and damaged and worthy of blame; the four good counterparts keep an astute person intact and worthy of praise.
The same content, a different formula
The tetrad here — kāyaduccaritena, vacīduccaritena, manoduccaritena, micchādiṭṭhiyā — is identical to AN 4.212’s, discussed at length when this series first read it. What has changed is everything around the tetrad: not yathābhataṁ nikkhitto evaṁ niraye, placed in hell as if delivered there, but khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati, sāvajjo ca hoti sānuvajjo viññūnaṁ, keeping oneself broken and damaged, deserving blame from sensible people.
A formula from the chapter that opened the Fours
This exact language — khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati, and its positive mirror, akkhataṁ anupahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati — is not new to this series. It is the formula AN 4.3 used, all the way back in this collection’s first chapter, for four faults of speaking about others without examination. There, the formula announced its own reasoning: the first cost of a fault is what it does to the person who commits it, before any blame from others or any consequence after death.
Twenty chapters and 219 discourses later, that same formula is reattached to a different content — not faulty speech about others, but the tetrad this chapter inherited from AN 4.212. The formula travels; the content travels; here the collection puts a formula from chapter one around content from chapter twenty-two.
A chapter with two consequence formulas, not one
Where the previous chapter ran a single formula, placement in hell or heaven, across its whole run of tetrads, this chapter reaches instead for the older khata formula — older in the sense that it appeared first in the collection, at AN 4.3, well before AN 4.212 introduced its own. Both formulas do comparable work, describing a person’s condition and social standing as consequences of conduct, but neither is more original to this content than the other; both are on loan.
What repeats through this chapter, briefly noted
Since the tetrad itself was covered in full at AN 4.212, this and the following discourses through AN 4.230 will treat the content briefly and give their attention to what varies: which item fills the tetrad’s open slot, and how heavily each discourse elides the shared frame.
Key terms
khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati — “keeps themselves broken and damaged” — the formula first met at AN 4.3, reused here for content from AN 4.212.
sāvajjo ca sānuvajjo viññūnaṁ — “blameworthy and deserving criticism from sensible people” — the social half of this formula, distinct from the hell/heaven formula of the previous chapter.
bālo abyatto asappuriso / paṇḍito viyatto sappuriso — “a foolish, incompetent untrue person” and “an astute, competent true person” — the character-types this formula describes, rather than a rebirth destination.
kāyaduccarita, vacīduccarita, manoduccarita, micchādiṭṭhi — the same tetrad given at AN 4.212: bad conduct by body, speech, and mind, plus wrong view.
puñña / apuñña — “merit” and “wickedness, demerit” — what this formula says a person brims with, in place of a stated destination.
The text
The discourse in full: the fool’s tetrad, then the astute person’s. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The foolish, untrue person
§1“When a foolish, incompetent untrue person has four qualities they keep themselves broken and damaged. They deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they brim with much wickedness. What four? Bad conduct by way of body, speech, and mind, and wrong view. When a foolish, incompetent untrue person possesses these four qualities they keep themselves broken and damaged. They deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they create much wickedness.
The astute, true person
§2When an astute, competent true person has four 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 four? Good conduct by way of body, speech, and mind, and right view. When an astute, competent true person possesses these four qualities they keep themselves healthy and whole. They don’t deserve to be blamed and criticized by sensible people, and they create much merit.”
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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 tetrad does this discourse repeat from AN 4.212?
Correct: B. Identical content, discussed in full when first read at AN 4.212.
Question 2 of 10
What formula does this discourse use in place of AN 4.212’s ‘placed in hell/heaven’?
Correct: B. The khata formula, not the yathābhataṁ nikkhitto formula.
Question 3 of 10
Where did this formula first appear in this series?
Correct: B. Used there for faults of speaking about others without examination.
Question 4 of 10
What did AN 4.3 say the formula’s ordering implies about where the cost of a fault falls first?
Correct: B. The first cost named is what a fault does to the person who commits it.
Question 5 of 10
How does the guide characterize the relationship between this chapter’s formula and the previous chapter’s?
Correct: B. One from AN 4.3, one from AN 4.212 — both on loan to the tetrad-content they wrap.
Question 6 of 10
What does this discourse describe instead of a rebirth destination?
Correct: B. Character-types and social consequence, rather than hell or heaven.
Question 7 of 10
What does the guide say about how the following discourses, AN 4.223–230, will be treated?
Correct: B. The content itself was already covered in full at AN 4.212.
Question 8 of 10
What are the two halves of the term khata, per its earlier discussion at AN 4.3?
Correct: B. Carried over unchanged from its first use in the collection.
Question 9 of 10
How many chapters separate AN 4.3 from this discourse?
Correct: B. A formula carried a very long distance across the collection.
Question 10 of 10
What is the Pāli term for wickedness or demerit that this discourse’s fool brims with?
Correct: B. The negative counterpart of merit, puñña.
