Dovacassatāsutta — Tikavagga — the eleventh chapter of the Sixes, continuing the Second Fifty
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
This chapter's shared template, applied to three faults spanning correction, company, and meditation
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The pairing of being easy to admonish with mindfulness of breathing as a specific antidote recurs widely across the Chinese Āgamas' meditation instructions; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — the only discourse in this chapter naming a specific meditation practice as one of its three antidotes
Why this discourse
AN 6.115 names three faults spanning three different domains — being hard to admonish, bad friendship, a scattered mind — reversed by being easy to admonish, good friendship, and, distinctively, mindfulness of breathing: the only discourse in this chapter to name a specific meditation technique rather than a general quality as one of its three antidotes.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
To give up being hard to admonish, bad friendship, and a scattered mind, one should develop being easy to admonish, good friendship, and mindfulness of breathing.
Two familiar terms from this chapter's namesake discourse
Sovacassatā (being easy to admonish) and kalyāṇamittatā (good friendship) were already named together as the fifth and sixth items of AN 6.69's respect formula — itself one variant among several such formulas met across this collection's earlier chapters, here isolated as the first two of this discourse's own antidote triad.
A concrete technique closes the list, unlike this chapter's other discourses
Every other antidote across AN 6.107–114 names a general quality — wisdom, love, contentment, rejoicing — but this discourse's third antidote, ānāpānassati, mindfulness of breathing, names a specific, describable meditation practice, distinct in kind from this chapter's usual abstractions.
A scattered mind, met without technique elsewhere
Vikkhittacittatā, a scattered mind, is reversed nowhere else in this collection by a named technique this specific — earlier discourses on mental discipline, such as AN 6.85's fourfold management of mind, spoke of restraining, exerting, encouraging, and watching the mind, but stopped short of naming one concrete practice as the entire remedy.
Key terms
dovacassatā, sovacassatā — “being hard to admonish, being easy to admonish” — this discourse's own title term and its direct antidote, echoing AN 6.69's respect formula.
pāpamittatā, kalyāṇamittatā — “bad friendship, good friendship” — the second pairing, also echoing AN 6.69, and connecting to AN 6.67's chain on friendship earlier in this collection.
vikkhittacittatā — “a scattered mind” — the third blocking item, the only fault in this discourse reversed by a specific named technique rather than a general quality.
ānāpānassati — “mindfulness of breathing” — the third antidote, the only concrete meditation practice named across this chapter's several triads.
tika — “triad” — this chapter's structural principle, here spanning three distinct domains: correction, company, and meditation.
The text
The discourse in full: being hard to admonish, bad friendship, and a scattered mind, and their three matched antidotes. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Three things to give up
§1“Mendicants, there are these three things. What three? Being hard to admonish, bad friendship, and a scattered mind. These are the three things.
Three things to develop against them
§2To give up these three things you should develop three things. What three? You should develop being easy to admonish to give up being hard to admonish, good friendship to give up bad friendship, and mindfulness of breathing to give up a scattered mind. These are the three things you should develop to give up those three things.”
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Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 6
What earlier discourse in this collection already named two of this discourse's antidotes together, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Terms isolated here as two of three antidotes, previously part of a larger six-item formula.
Question 2 of 6
What makes this discourse's third antidote distinct from every other antidote in this chapter, according to the guide?
Correct: B. The only concrete technique among this chapter's several abstract antidote triads.
Question 3 of 6
How does this discourse's treatment of a scattered mind compare to AN 6.85's earlier discussion of mental management, according to the guide?
Correct: B. A specific technique named here, where AN 6.85 stayed at the level of general management principles.
Question 4 of 6
What earlier discourse does this discourse's second pairing, bad and good friendship, connect to?
Correct: A. A theme this collection has treated at length before, in a different form.
Question 5 of 6
Is a setting stated for AN 6.115?
Correct: B. A bare formula, matching this chapter's other discourses.
Question 6 of 6
What does vikkhittacittatā mean?
Correct: C. The third blocking item, uniquely reversed by a named meditation technique.
