Pāṇātipātīsutta — 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
One heavily elided line, the same four courses of action as AN 4.214
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the chapter’s compression at full strength
Why this discourse
Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying — the same four courses of action AN 4.214 gave a chapter back, here compressed into a single elided line and wrapped in this chapter’s khata formula instead of the hell/heaven formula. Content, form, and compression all repeat patterns this series has already named; what is worth recording is simply that the pattern holds.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying keep a fool broken and blameworthy; abstaining from all four keeps an astute person intact and praiseworthy.
The same four, a chapter later
Pāṇātipāta, adinnādāna, kāmesumicchācāra, musāvāda are exactly the four courses of action AN 4.214 named — three bodily, one verbal, together forming four of the five lay precepts. That discourse’s discussion of why these particular four were selected, and what the compression does and does not lose, applies here without change.
Full compression
Like AN 4.214, this discourse survives in the source as a single elided segment, the …pe… marks doing the work that two full paragraphs did at AN 4.222. Combined with the substitution pattern already seen at AN 4.223, this discourse shows the chapter now running its content through the same heavy-elision machinery the previous chapter used, just with the khata formula standing where yathābhataṁ nikkhitto stood before.
A chapter converging on its predecessor’s shape
By this point the two chapters’ run of tetrads has become almost a template laid over a template: same content order (view, ingratitude, four courses of action, then the path in two parts, then two on truthful expression, then conscience), same tightening compression as the run continues, different formula. A reader who has been through both chapters in sequence is, at this point, reading the previous chapter a second time through a different lens.
Key terms
pāṇātipāta, adinnādāna, kāmesumicchācāra, musāvāda — killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying — identical to AN 4.214’s selection.
khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati — this chapter’s formula, from AN 4.3, continued unchanged from AN 4.222.
peyyāla — “repetition-series” — here compressing the whole discourse to a single line, as at AN 4.214.
pañca sīlāni — the five lay precepts — four of which this discourse’s tetrad matches, as discussed at AN 4.214.
bālo abyatto asappuriso — “a foolish, incompetent untrue person” — the character-type this formula describes.
The text
The discourse exactly as the source abridges it, ellipsis marks included. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The elided discourse
§1“A foolish person … brims with much wickedness. … They kill living creatures, steal, commit sexual misconduct, and lie. … An astute person … brims with much merit. … They don’t kill living creatures, steal, commit sexual misconduct, or lie. …”
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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 items does this discourse name?
Correct: B. Identical to AN 4.214’s selection, a chapter earlier.
Question 2 of 10
What formula wraps this discourse’s content?
Correct: B. This chapter’s consistent wrapper since AN 4.222.
Question 3 of 10
How does this discourse’s form compare to AN 4.214’s?
Correct: B. The same heavy compression technique.
Question 4 of 10
What does the guide say about the relationship between this chapter’s tetrad sequence and the previous chapter’s?
Correct: B. A reader through both chapters is, at this point, reading the first chapter again through a different lens.
Question 5 of 10
What five lay precepts do this discourse’s four items correspond to, minus one?
Correct: B. As already discussed at AN 4.214.
Question 6 of 10
Which of the ten courses of action does this tetrad’s single verbal item represent?
Correct: B. The same selection made at AN 4.214.
Question 7 of 10
What does the guide say is preserved despite the heavy compression?
Correct: B. As already established when this technique was first read at AN 4.214.
Question 8 of 10
What discourse in the previous chapter does this one most closely match?
Correct: B. Identical content, different formula.
Question 9 of 10
What comes next in this chapter’s sequence?
Correct: B. The same path-splitting pattern seen in the previous chapter, repeated here.
Question 10 of 10
What does the guide suggest about reading this chapter’s remaining discourses given how closely they track the previous chapter?
Correct: B. Consistent with the chapter’s own demonstrated economy.
