Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Breaking all five lay precepts is a dark deed with a dark result; keeping all five is a bright deed with a bright result, within the same fourfold framework given at AN 4.232–234.
The fifth precept, finally complete
Pāṇātipāta, adinnādāna, kāmesumicchācāra, musāvāda, and now surāmerayamajjapamādaṭṭhāna, intoxicants that cause negligence — the same four items given at AN 4.214 and AN 4.224, joined at last by the fifth. This is the first point in this series where all five lay precepts appear together as a single set, rather than four of the five standing in for the whole.
The middle two deeds, unchanged
The dark-and-bright and the fourth, ending kind of deed are given here in the same compressed form already explained at AN 4.233: mixed choices by body, speech, and mind for the third; the intention to give up all three for the fourth. Their full explanation stands at AN 4.233 and does not need repeating.
A tetrad built for a different purpose than most of this series
Where the recycled tetrads of chapters 22 and 23 mostly reused a single four-item template across many discourses, this discourse instead takes a template — the four kinds of deeds — that this chapter itself just introduced, and pours a different, well-known content into only two of its four slots. The dark and bright slots take the precepts; the mixed and ending slots keep their standard definitions from AN 4.233 unchanged.
Key terms
The text
The 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; bright deeds with bright results; dark and bright deeds with dark and bright results; and neither dark nor bright deeds with neither dark nor bright results, which lead to the ending of deeds.
Dark deeds: breaking the five precepts
§2And what are the dark deeds with dark results? It’s when someone kills living creatures, steals, commits sexual misconduct, lies, and consumes beer, wine, and liquor intoxicants. These are called dark deeds with dark results.
Bright deeds: keeping the five precepts
§3And what are bright deeds with bright results? It’s when someone doesn’t kill living creatures, steal, commit sexual misconduct, lie, or consume beer, wine, and liquor intoxicants. These are called bright deeds with bright results.
The remaining two kinds
§4And what are dark and bright deeds with dark and bright results? It’s when someone makes both hurtful and pleasing choices by way of body, speech, and mind. These are called dark and bright deeds with dark and bright results. And what are neither dark nor bright deeds with neither dark nor bright results, which lead to the ending of deeds? It’s the intention to give up dark deeds with dark results, bright deeds with bright results, and both dark and bright deeds with both dark and bright results. These are called 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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