Ananussutasutta — Balavagga — the second chapter of the Fives
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 5.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A first-person claim to unprecedented insight, followed by the five powers that ground it
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The lion's roar and bull's-place imagery for the Buddha's unprecedented insight recurs widely across the Chinese Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — short, but its list is the chapter's most surprising turn so far
Why this discourse
This chapter is also called ‘Powers’, the same English title as the last, and its first discourse makes an audacious move: it takes the exact five terms named in AN 5.1 for a mere trainee — faith, conscience, prudence, energy, wisdom — and applies them, word for word, to the Realized One himself, calling them tathāgatabala, a Realized One's powers. The claim attached to them is the boldest in the collection so far: insight into principles never learned from anyone else.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The Buddha claims to have reached perfection in insight into principles not learned from another, and says the Realized One has five powers — faith, conscience, prudence, energy, wisdom — by which he claims the bull’s place, roars his lion’s roar in the assemblies, and turns the divine wheel.
The same five words, a different subject
AN 5.1’s sekhabala belonged to a sekha, someone still training. Here the identical five Pāli compounds — saddhābalaṁ, hirībalaṁ, ottappabalaṁ, vīriyabalaṁ, paññābalaṁ — are named tathāgatabala instead, powers belonging to one who has completed the path. The discourse does not explain why the same five items work for both a beginner and a Buddha; it simply uses them at both ends of the path without comment, which is itself worth noticing.
Three images of authority
Āsabhaṁ ṭhānaṁ, the bull’s place, sīhanādaṁ, the lion’s roar, and brahmacakkaṁ, the divine wheel, are three separate images for the same claim to unmatched authority — a lead bull among cattle, the boldest cry in the forest, and the wheel of a world-ruling monarch turned instead as teaching. All three appear together often enough in the canon to function as a set formula for public, confident proclamation, not private certainty.
‘Not learned from anyone else’
Ananussutesu dhammesu is the discourse’s own title and its central claim: this insight has no human teacher behind it. Whatever else the five tathāgatabala are doing here, they are offered as the grounds for that specific claim — not evidence of general virtue, but the named support for a claim to originality that nothing prior in this series has made this explicitly.
What the rest of the chapter does with this opening
AN 5.12, immediately following, stays with the sekhabala one more discourse before the chapter pivots, at AN 5.13, to the more familiar five faculties/powers list already flagged at AN 4.163 and AN 5.1. Read in order, this chapter moves from the Buddha’s own powers, to a trainee’s powers restated once more, to the standard list shared across the thirty-seven aids to awakening — three related but distinct five-item sets in the space of a few discourses.
Key terms
tathāgatabala — “power of a Realized One” — the same five terms as AN 5.1’s sekhabala, here applied to the Buddha rather than to a trainee.
ananussuta — “not learned from another” — this discourse’s title and central claim, that this insight had no human teacher.
āsabhaṁ ṭhānaṁ — “the bull’s place” — the first of three images of public authority this discourse uses, a lead bull among cattle.
sīhanādaṁ — “lion’s roar” — the second image, a formula recurring across the canon for confident, public proclamation.
brahmacakkaṁ — “the divine wheel” — the third image, recasting a world-ruling monarch’s wheel as the wheel of teaching set in motion.
The text
The discourse in full: the claim to unprecedented insight, and the five powers of a Realized One that ground it. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
An unprecedented claim
§1“I claim to have attained perfection and consummation of insight regarding principles not learned before from another. The Realized One has five powers of a Realized One. With these he claims the bull’s place, roars his lion’s roar in the assemblies, and turns the divine wheel. What five? The powers of faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom. These are the five powers of a Realized One. With these he claims the bull’s place, roars his lion’s roar in the assemblies, and turns the divine wheel.”
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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 five terms does AN 5.11 use for the Realized One's own powers?
Correct: B. Word for word the same five compounds, applied to a different subject.
Question 2 of 10
What claim does 'ananussuta' name in this discourse's title?
Correct: B. The discourse's central and boldest claim so far in this series.
Question 3 of 10
What three images of authority does this discourse use together?
Correct: B. A recurring formula for public, confident proclamation of authority.
Question 4 of 10
Does the discourse explain why the same five terms apply both to a trainee (AN 5.1) and to the Realized One himself?
Correct: B. Worth noticing as a deliberate silence, not an oversight.
Question 5 of 10
What does 'brahmacakkaṁ', the divine wheel, recast?
Correct: B. One of three images of unmatched authority used together in this discourse.
Question 6 of 10
What happens to the sekhabala list at AN 5.12, the very next discourse?
Correct: B. A brief overlap before the chapter's larger pivot.
Question 7 of 10
According to the guide, how many related but distinct five-item lists does this chapter move through in its first several discourses?
Correct: B. The Buddha's own powers, then a trainee's, then the standard shared list — moving through the chapter in order.
Question 8 of 10
What is the setting of AN 5.11?
Correct: B. Consistent with the chapter's pattern so far.
Question 9 of 10
Is this discourse spoken in the first person by the Buddha?
Correct: B. A direct first-person claim opens the discourse.
Question 10 of 10
How does this discourse compare in tone to AN 5.1's opening of the previous chapter?
Correct: B. The chapter opens on an audacious note distinct from the previous chapter's terse start.
