Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
What matters is not how much of the teaching you have learned but whether you understand the meaning and practise accordingly — though the verses will not let you conclude that learning is unnecessary.
The grid
Little learning, no point. Little learning, point taken. Much learning, no point. Much learning, point taken. The Pāli phrase behind ‘getting the point’ is sutena upapanna — furnished or endowed by what one has heard.
Each cell is spelled out in identical words, varying only in the two variables. This is the standard Aṅguttara method and it is designed for oral transmission: the listener holds one template and swaps two terms. Read on a page it is tedious; recited it is a single memorable shape.
The definition of ‘getting the point’ is given three times over and is consistent: they understand the meaning (attha), understand the teaching (dhamma), and practise in line with the teaching. Three components, and the third is behavioral. Comprehension alone does not satisfy the definition.
The nine divisions
The content that is learned much or little is given as a standard list: statements, mixed prose and verse, discussions, verses, inspired exclamations, legends, stories of past lives, amazing stories, and elaborations. This is the navaṅga, the ninefold division of the teaching by literary form.
It is worth knowing that this list, not the later three-basket division, is how the early texts describe their own contents. It is a classification by genre rather than by subject or authority, and it includes narrative and verse forms alongside doctrinal exposition. Whatever the earliest canon looked like, it was not organized as we now find it.
Where the ranking bites
The prose does not explicitly rank the four, but the arrangement does: the pairs are given as little-without, little-with, much-without, much-with. The praise attaches to ‘with’, not to ‘much’.
That is a real claim in a tradition where recitation was the qualification for teaching and seniority. The person who has memorized a great deal and does not practise in line with it is placed below the person who has memorized little and does. This is the same point that AN 3.2 made about deeds, applied to the one domain where the tradition might have been expected to exempt itself.
The verses pull back
The four stanzas that follow run the grid again, but they change one variable: instead of getting the point they use steady in ethics. Learned and unethical, unlearned and ethical, and so on — criticized on both counts, praised on one, praised on both.
And the last stanza is unambiguous about learning: a wise disciple of the Buddha who is learned and has memorized the teachings is like a pendant of Black Plum River gold, praised even by the gods. The verses do not undo the prose, but they insist that learning is a genuine good and not merely a neutral quantity. Read together the two halves say: learning is worth having, and it is worth nothing by itself.
The simile in that stanza — jambonada, gold from the Jambu river — names a legendary grade of gold, the finest available. The image is of an ornament that needs no defense; the rhetorical question ‘who is worthy to criticize them?’ assumes the answer nobody.
Teaching this discourse
It works well as a self-audit and badly as a judgment of others, because only one of the two variables is externally visible. How much someone has learned can be checked. Whether they have got the point — on the discourse’s own three-part definition — requires knowing whether they practise accordingly, which takes time and proximity.
Used on oneself the grid is sharp and easy to apply. Used on others it invites exactly the unexamined verdict AN 4.3 warned about three discourses earlier.
Key terms
The text
The four, and the first
§1“Mendicants, these four individuals are found in the world. What four? They may have: Little learning and not get the point of learning. Little learning but get the point of learning. Much learning but not get the point of learning. Much learning and get the point of learning. And how has an individual learned little and not got the point of learning? It’s when an individual has learned little of the statements, mixed prose & verse, discussions, verses, inspired exclamations, legends, stories of past lives, amazing stories, and elaborations. And with the little they’ve learned, they understand neither the meaning nor the teaching, nor do they practice in line with the teaching. That’s how an individual has learned little and not got the point of learning.
Little learning, point taken
§2And how has an individual learned little but has got the point of learning? It’s when an individual has learned little of the statements, mixed prose & verse, discussions, verses, inspired exclamations, legends, stories of past lives, amazing stories, and elaborations. But with the little they’ve learned, they understand the meaning and the teaching, and they practice in line with the teaching. That’s how an individual has learned little but has got the point of learning.
Much learning, point missed
§3And how has an individual learned much but hasn't got the point of learning? It’s when an individual has learned much of the statements, mixed prose & verse, discussions, verses, inspired exclamations, legends, stories of past lives, amazing stories, and elaborations. But even though they’ve learned much, they understand neither the meaning nor the teaching, nor do they practice in line with the teaching. That’s how an individual has learned much but hasn't got the point of learning.
Much learning, point taken
§4And how has an individual learned much and has got the point of learning? It’s when an individual has learned much of the statements, mixed prose & verse, discussions, verses, inspired exclamations, legends, stories of past lives, amazing stories, and elaborations. And with the large amount they’ve learned, they understand the meaning and the teaching, and they practice in line with the teaching. That’s how an individual has learned much and has got the point of learning. These are the four individuals found in the world.
The verses
§5If you don’t learn much, and aren’t steady in ethics, they’ll criticize you on both counts, for your ethics and your learning.
§6If you don’t learn much, and you are steady in ethics, they’ll praise your ethical conduct, since your learning has succeeded.
§7If you learn much, but aren’t steady in ethics, they’ll criticize your ethical conduct, for your learning hasn’t succeeded.
§8If you learn much, and you are steady in ethics, they’ll praise you on both counts, for your ethics and your learning.
§9A wise disciple of the Buddha who is learned and has memorized the teachings; like a pendant of Black Plum River gold, who is worthy to criticize them? Even the gods praise them, and by the Divinity, too, they’re praised.”
Self-check quiz
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