Saṅkhittasutta — Kammavagga — the twenty-fourth chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Kammavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A list of four, stated in brief with no definitions
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
The four kinds of deeds are widely attested across the Nikāyas and Āgamas, notably in the parallel to MN 57; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — brief in itself, but opening one of the more important teachings this nipāta contains
Why this discourse
Dark deeds with dark results. Bright deeds with bright results. Dark-and-bright deeds with dark-and-bright results. And a fourth kind, neither dark nor bright, with neither dark nor bright results — which leads to the ending of deeds. This four-part classification of kamma is one of the more consequential teachings the Aṅguttara contains, and this chapter opens by stating it as bare as possible, the way AN 4.148 once stated the four kinds of bad speech: a skeleton, named and left for the next discourse to fill in.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are four kinds of deeds: dark, bright, a mixture of both, and a fourth kind that is neither, which brings deeds themselves to an end.
The four kinds, named without explanation
Kammaṁ kaṇhaṁ kaṇhavipākaṁ, dark deeds with dark results; kammaṁ sukkaṁ sukkavipākaṁ, bright deeds with bright results; kammaṁ kaṇhasukkaṁ kaṇhasukkavipākaṁ, deeds that are both, with results that are both; and kammaṁ akaṇhaasukkaṁ akaṇhaasukkavipākaṁ kammakkhayāya saṁvattati, deeds that are neither, with results that are neither, which lead to the ending of deeds.
The fourth item is the one to read twice. The first three are a complete classification of ordinary moral action — harmful, beneficial, mixed. The fourth does not complete that set with a fourth kind of ordinary action; it names something that steps outside the set altogether, ending the whole mechanism the first three describe.
Declared, not merely repeated
The discourse opens with an unusual first-person claim: mayā sayaṁ abhiññā sacchikatvā paveditāni, ‘which I declare, having realized them with my own insight’. This is not the ordinary teaching-formula of this collection; it is a claim of direct discovery, the kind of language reserved for material the tradition treats as central to what the awakening itself disclosed.
A pattern the chapter is about to repeat
As at several points earlier in this series, a discourse this bare is a skeleton waiting to be filled in, and the very next discourse, AN 4.233, does exactly that — unusually, at considerable length. A third discourse after that, AN 4.234, fills it in again, this time inside an actual conversation. Three consecutive discourses giving the identical content in three registers — bare statement, full explanation, narrated dialogue — is the chapter’s own way of signalling how much weight this particular teaching carries.
Where the fourth kind will resurface
This chapter does not let the fourth, transcending kind of deed sit as an abstraction. Two later discourses, AN 4.237 and AN 4.238, name exactly what it consists of: the noble eightfold path, and separately the seven factors of awakening. The ending of deeds, in other words, is not a mystery the chapter declines to specify. It has an address, and the chapter gives it twice.
Key terms
kaṇha / sukka — “dark” and “bright” — the basic moral coloring this fourfold classification of deeds is built from.
kammakkhaya — “the ending of deeds” — what the fourth kind of deed leads to, distinguishing it from the first three, which each lead to a result.
mayā sayaṁ abhiññā sacchikatvā paveditāni — “which I declare, having realized them with my own insight” — a claim of direct discovery, marking this teaching as central rather than incidental.
vipāka — “result, ripening” — the consequence a deed produces; absent only from the fourth kind of deed.
kamma — “deed, action” — specifically intentional action, the basic unit this whole classification sorts into four kinds.
The text
The discourse in full: the four kinds of deeds, named. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Four kinds of deeds
§1“Mendicants, I declare these four kinds of deeds, having realized them with my own insight. What four? There are dark deeds with dark results. There are bright deeds with bright results. There are dark and bright deeds with dark and bright results. There are neither dark nor bright deeds with neither dark nor bright results, which lead to the ending of deeds. These are the four kinds of deeds that I declare, having realized them with my own insight.”
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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 kinds of deeds does this discourse name?
Correct: B. A fourfold classification of kamma, stated here without explanation.
Question 2 of 10
What does the fourth kind of deed lead to, distinguishing it from the first three?
Correct: B. It steps outside the mechanism the first three describe, rather than completing it.
Question 3 of 10
What unusual claim opens this discourse?
Correct: B. Language the collection reserves for material it treats as central.
Question 4 of 10
What does the very next discourse, AN 4.233, do with this same content?
Correct: B. The first of three consecutive discourses giving the same content in different registers.
Question 5 of 10
How many consecutive discourses give this identical content, according to the guide?
Correct: B. AN 4.232, AN 4.233, and AN 4.234.
Question 6 of 10
Which two later discourses specify what the fourth, transcending kind of deed consists of?
Correct: B. The ending of deeds is given a concrete address, not left abstract.
Question 7 of 10
What earlier discourse in this series gave a similarly bare, unexplained list?
Correct: B. A skeleton stated and left, for a later discourse to fill in.
Question 8 of 10
What is the Pāli word for ‘result’ used throughout this teaching?
Correct: B. Present for the first three kinds of deed, absent from the fourth.
Question 9 of 10
What does the guide say the first three kinds of deed form together?
Correct: B. The fourth kind then steps outside that set entirely.
Question 10 of 10
What kind of source does this discourse's content parallel in another collection?
Correct: B. One of the more widely attested teachings on kamma in the early texts.
