Abhijjhālusutta — Kammapathavagga — the twenty-seventh chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Kammapathavagga 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, opening the mental group of three courses of action
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — the eighth of ten, and a genuinely interesting case for the encourage/approve/praise structure
Why this discourse
Covetousness opens the third and final group of the ten courses of action, the mental courses, and raises the sharpest version yet of a question this chapter keeps returning to: what does it mean to encourage, approve of, or praise a state of mind rather than an outward act?
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Being covetous oneself, encouraging others to covetousness, approving of it, and praising it deliver a person to hell; contentment, and encouraging, approving, and praising contentment, deliver a person to heaven.
The mental group begins
Abhijjhālu, covetous, opens the third group of the ten courses of action, following the completed bodily and verbal groups. Where the previous seven discourses addressed acts — killing, stealing, various kinds of speech — covetousness is an inner disposition, wanting what belongs to others.
Encouraging a state of mind
The four-degree structure this chapter has applied throughout takes on a different texture here. Encouraging someone to kill or to lie describes a fairly direct social act; encouraging someone toward covetousness is subtler, closer to cultivating an attitude in another person than instructing a specific deed. The discourse does not flinch from applying the identical structure anyway — suggesting that shaping another person’s inner disposition toward greed is treated as no less real a form of complicity than inciting their outward action.
Its positive counterpart, already named elsewhere
Anabhijjhālu, content, not covetous, is the heaven half’s defining term — the same quality this series has already met as part of the ideal monastic’s description, including at AN 4.259–260’s thoroughbred simile, where beauty was defined partly through restraint and freedom from craving for what is not one’s own.
Key terms
abhijjhā / anabhijjhā — “covetousness” and “contentment” — the first of the three mental courses of action, an inner disposition rather than an outward act.
manokammapatha — “mental course of action” — the group this discourse opens: covetousness, ill will, and wrong view.
attanā, samādapeti, samanuñño, vaṇṇaṁ bhāsati — the same four degrees of involvement, here applied to an inner state rather than a physical or verbal act.
byāpāda — “ill will” — the second mental course of action, taken up at the next discourse.
yathābhataṁ nikkhitto — “placed as if delivered there” — the formula continued unbroken across this chapter.
The text
The discourse exactly as the source abridges it, ellipsis marks included. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The elided discourse
§1“… They themselves are covetous … … They themselves are content …”
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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 course of action does this discourse address, and what group does it open?
Correct: B. Following the completed bodily and verbal groups.
Question 2 of 10
How does covetousness differ from the seven courses of action treated before it in this chapter?
Correct: B. The first of the three mental courses of action.
Question 3 of 10
What does the guide say changes in texture when the four-degree structure is applied to covetousness?
Correct: B. The discourse applies the identical structure anyway, treating this as a real form of complicity.
Question 4 of 10
What is the heaven half's defining term, opposite covetousness?
Correct: B. Also part of the ideal monastic's description at AN 4.259–260.
Question 5 of 10
Where else in this series has contentment or freedom from covetousness already appeared as a positive quality?
Correct: B. Restraint and freedom from craving for what is not one's own.
Question 6 of 10
What structure does this discourse apply?
Correct: B. Doing it, encouraging, approving, and praising, applied here to an inner disposition.
Question 7 of 10
What form does this discourse take?
Correct: B. Continuing the chapter's compression pattern.
Question 8 of 10
What two courses of action complete the mental group after this discourse?
Correct: B. The remaining two of the traditional three mental courses.
Question 9 of 10
What formula wraps this discourse?
Correct: B. Unbroken across this chapter.
Question 10 of 10
What does the guide suggest is the implication of applying the identical structure to an inner state?
Correct: B. The discourse does not flinch from the extension.
