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Aṅguttara Nikāya · Discourse 4.43

Valuing Anger

Paṭhamakodhagarusutta — Rohitassavagga — the fifth chapter of the Fours

Setting
None stated; the Rohitassavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Four individuals, their four mirrors, and two verses
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The kodhagaru set appears in the Chinese Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — short, and built on one word worth understanding

Why this discourse

Four people, sorted by what they hold more important than the teaching: anger, denigration, material things, or honor. The Pāli word is garu, weighty — the same root as the reverence of AN 4.21, whose absence was said to be a life of suffering. The discourse asks not what a person believes but what carries weight with them when something has to give.

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

What a person actually values is shown by what wins when it conflicts with the teaching, and four things commonly win.

The word garu

Kodhagaru: one for whom anger is weighty. The suffix runs through all eight items, positive and negative, and the same root gives gārava, the reverence AN 4.21 said one cannot live well without, and guru, a teacher — one who is weighty.

The image is of a scale. To value something is for it to weigh more than what it is set against, and the discourse always sets these four against saddhamma, the true teaching. Nobody in this discourse is described as rejecting the teaching. They are described as having something that outweighs it.

That is a sharper diagnostic than a question about belief, because it produces a test. What has actually happened on the occasions when your anger and your practice pointed in different directions?

The four

Anger (kodha), denigration (makkha), material things (lābha), and honor (sakkāra).

The pairing is instructive. The first two are hostile states and the second two are acquisitions; the first two make a person hold on to a grievance and the second two make them hold on to a position. Between them they cover the two ordinary reasons for setting a principle aside: because one is angry, and because one has something to lose.

Makkha deserves a note. Usually translated denigration or disparagement, it names the specific move of belittling what someone else has done — and in the commentarial analysis, of refusing to acknowledge a benefit received. It is a colder fault than anger and it survives longer.

Lābha and sakkāra

These two travel together throughout the canon, usually with siloka, popularity, as a third; AN 4.25 named the trio among the things the spiritual life is not lived for.

Their appearance here as things that can outweigh the teaching is the sharper form of the same warning. AN 4.25 said the life is not for them; this says they can come to matter more than it. The second is the observable failure, and it can happen to someone who would sincerely affirm the first.

The positive half

Four individuals who value the true teaching rather than anger, denigration, material things, or honor. The mirror is exact and adds no new content.

The verses add one thing the prose does not: the metaphor of growth. Those who value the four don’t grow in the teaching that was taught by the perfected Buddha; those who value the teaching do grow.

That is the same verb AN 4.26 used of the deceivers and flatterers, and the diagnosis is the same shape. Nothing breaks. The practice simply does not develop, and the reason is that something else is being fed.

Reading it as a pair with AN 4.44

The next discourse takes the identical four and reframes them: instead of four kinds of person, four things that oppose the true teaching. Same content, different grammatical subject.

That is a smaller variation than the AN 4.17–4.19 group but the same phenomenon, and worth noticing for the same reason. The collection preserves a teaching in both its personal and its impersonal form, and the two are useful for different purposes: one sorts people, the other names forces.

Key terms

garu — “weighty” — the suffix on all eight items. The same root gives gārava, reverence, and guru, teacher.
makkha — “denigration” — belittling what someone else has done, and refusing to acknowledge a benefit received. Colder than anger, and longer-lasting.
lābha — “material things, gain” — with honor, one of the pair that travels through the canon as the standing danger to a religious life.
sakkāra — “honor” — the respect paid to a person; usually named with gain and popularity as a trio.
saddhamma — “the true teaching” — what each of the four is weighed against. Nobody here rejects it; they have something that outweighs it.

The text

The discourse in full: the four individuals, their mirrors, and the verses. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

Four who value otherwise

§1“Mendicants, these four individuals are found in the world. What four? People who value anger, or denigration, or material things, or honor rather than the true teaching. These are the four individuals found in the world.

Four who value the teaching

§2These four individuals are found in the world. What four? People who value the true teaching rather than anger, or denigration, or material things, or honor. These are the four individuals found in the world.

The verses

§3Mendicants who value anger and denigration, possessions and honor, don’t grow in the teaching that was taught by the perfected Buddha.

§4But those who value the true teaching, who have lived it, and are living it now, these do grow in the teaching that was taught by the perfected Buddha.”

· · ·

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 things do the individuals value rather than the true teaching?
Correct: B. Two hostile states and two acquisitions.
Question 2 of 10
What does garu mean, and what does the image suggest?
Correct: B. The same root gives gārava, reverence, and guru, teacher.
Question 3 of 10
What is notable about how the four are described?
Correct: B. A sharper diagnostic than a question about belief.
Question 4 of 10
What test does the guide draw from it?
Correct: B. The word produces a test rather than a creed.
Question 5 of 10
What do the first two and the second two cover between them?
Correct: B. Holding on to a grievance, and holding on to a position.
Question 6 of 10
What is makkha?
Correct: B. A colder fault than anger, and it survives longer.
Question 7 of 10
How does this discourse sharpen AN 4.25’s warning about gain and honor?
Correct: B. The second is the observable failure, and it can happen to someone who sincerely affirms the first.
Question 8 of 10
What do the verses add that the prose does not?
Correct: B. The same verb AN 4.26 used of the deceivers.
Question 9 of 10
What diagnosis does that metaphor give?
Correct: B. The same shape as AN 4.26.
Question 10 of 10
How does AN 4.44 reframe the same four?
Correct: B. One sorts people; the other names forces.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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