Rāgapeyyāla — continuing the thirteenth and final chapter of the Sixes, its abbreviation-series at full speed
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
One compressed formula, running nine verbs against the three six-item lists already given in full at AN 6.140–142, representing twenty-seven individually numbered discourses
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
This same nine-verb, near-synonym technique for describing the abandoning of a defilement recurs across the Chinese Āgamas' own abbreviation series; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — the compression is nearly total; nothing in it is new content, and that is the point worth understanding
Why this discourse
AN 6.140–142 gave three six-item lists in full, each developed for direct knowledge of greed. This block represents what the source gives next: the identical three lists, developed for nine further ways of relating to greed — complete understanding, complete ending, giving up, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, giving away, and letting go. Three lists times nine verbs is twenty-seven individually numbered discourses, all compressed by the source into a single sentence — the identical apparatus this series already met at AN 4.277–303, closing the Fours.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The same three six-item lists already given in full — the unsurpassable things, the recollections, the graduated perceptions — are developed not only for direct knowledge of greed but for nine further ways of relating to it: understanding it completely, ending it completely, giving it up, ending it, and so on through letting it go.
Nothing new, deliberately
Every piece of content this block represents has already appeared in full at AN 6.140–142. What changes across these twenty-seven discourses is only the verb governing the relationship between the list and greed: pariññāya, for complete understanding; parikkhayāya, for complete ending; pahānāya, for giving up; khayāya, for ending; vayāya, for vanishing; virāgāya, for fading away; nirodhāya, for cessation; cāgāya, for giving away; and paṭinissaggāya, for letting go.
The identical device already met closing the Fours
This nine-verb sequence, crossed against three lists already given in full, is not a new technique invented for the Sixes: it is the same apparatus this series already read in full at AN 4.277–303, closing the Book of the Fours' own Rāgapeyyāla. The specific three lists differ (there, the four establishments of mindfulness and two further fourfold sets; here, the unsurpassable things, the recollections, and the graduated perceptions), but the nine-verb multiplication device is identical.
How twenty-seven discourses become one page
Three lists times nine verbs is twenty-seven combinations, each technically its own numbered discourse in the traditional count, AN 6.143 through AN 6.169. The bilara-data source this site draws from compresses the entire run into a single continuous line using the peyyāla convention this chapter is named for, on the assumption that a reader who has followed AN 6.140–142 can supply the full expansion for every remaining combination without needing each one spelled out.
Key terms
pariññā, parikkhaya, pahāna, khaya, vaya, virāga, nirodha, cāga, paṭinissagga — complete understanding, complete ending, giving up, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, giving away, and letting go — nine near-synonyms for the release of a defilement, run here against the same three lists as AN 6.140–142.
peyyāla — “repetition-series, abbreviation” — the device that lets twenty-seven discourses share one continuous formula rather than being spelled out in full twenty-seven times.
abhiññā — “direct knowledge” — the verb already used at AN 6.140–142, the first in what becomes a ten-verb sequence once this block's nine further verbs are counted alongside it.
rāga — “greed” — the single target of this block's content, and the term this chapter, Rāgapeyyāla, takes its name from.
AN 4.277–303 — the structurally identical block already read in this series closing the Fours' own Rāgapeyyāla — the same nine-verb device, applied there to different underlying lists.
The text
The formula exactly as the source compresses it: the same three six-item lists, developed for nine further ways of relating to greed. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The compressed formula
§1“For the complete understanding of greed … complete ending … giving up … ending … vanishing … fading away … cessation … giving away … letting go of greed these six things should be developed.”
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Self-check quiz
7 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 7
What three lists does this block's content develop, and where were they given in full?
Correct: B. This block represents nine further verbs applied to those same three lists.
Question 2 of 7
How many verbs does this block apply to greed, beyond the direct knowledge of AN 6.140–142?
Correct: B. Three lists times nine verbs equals the twenty-seven discourses this block represents.
Question 3 of 7
Where has this exact nine-verb, three-list combinatorial device already appeared in this series?
Correct: B. The same multiplication device, reused across nipātas with different specific content.
Question 4 of 7
How many individually numbered discourses does this block's single formula represent?
Correct: B. Compressed by the source into one continuous line using the peyyāla convention.
Question 5 of 7
Why does the source compress twenty-seven discourses into a single line rather than spelling each one out?
Correct: B. Nothing is lost in the compression; the pattern is fully predictable once seen.
Question 6 of 7
What is paṭinissagga, the ninth and final verb in this block's sequence?
Correct: B. The last of the nine near-synonyms applied to greed on this page.
Question 7 of 7
What single defilement does this entire block's content address?
Correct: B. The chapter's own name, Rāgapeyyāla, is built on this same term.
