Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Aṅguttara Nikāya · Discourse 8.34

A Field

Khettasutta — Dānavagga — the fourth chapter of the Eights

Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Two paired similes — a poor field and a good one, each with eight factors — mapped onto the eightfold path reversed and upright, closing with an extended series of verses built on the word 'excellent'
Length
~3 minutes to read
The eightfold path, mapped both ways
This discourse gives the noble eightfold path in its wrong-view form as what makes a recipient unfruitful, and in its right-view form as what makes a recipient bountiful — a rare case of the same eightfold structure given both inverted and upright in a single discourse
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a clear double simile, followed by a verse sequence built almost entirely on repetitions of one word

Why this discourse

AN 8.34 compares a poor field — full of mounds, ditches, stones, and salt, without deep furrows or irrigation — to an ascetic or brahmin with the eight wrong factors of the path, and a good field — free of those defects, well irrigated and bounded — to one with the eight right factors, closing with verses that build an entire teaching on generosity around the single word “excellent.”

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

Just as a field marred by mounds, ditches, stones, salt, shallow furrows, and poor irrigation yields little from any seed sown in it, a gift given to someone with wrong view, purpose, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and immersion is not very fruitful — while the same gift given to someone with the eightfold path's right factors is highly fruitful, like a well-tended field.

Eight defects, eight virtues, in the field itself

The poor field has mounds and ditches, stones and gravel, salinity, and shallow furrows, and lacks water inlets, outlets, irrigation channels, and boundaries. The good field simply lacks every one of those defects and has every one of those provisions — the same eight factors, inverted.

The eightfold path, given both wrong and right

The simile's real weight falls on its application: the unfruitful recipient has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion — the noble eightfold path's own eight factors, each inverted — while the fruitful recipient has the identical eight factors in their upright, right form.

A closing verse sequence built on one word

The discourse closes with an extended run of verses that repeat the word “excellent” (bhaddaka) again and again — excellent field, excellent seed, excellent rainfall, excellent growth, excellent food, excellent ethics — building toward “the excellence of extinguishment” as the culmination of the entire sequence.

Key terms

khettaṁ — “field” — this discourse's own title term and central image, mapped onto a gift's recipient.
micchādiṭṭhi, micchāsaṅkappo, micchāvācā, micchākammanto, micchāājīvo, micchāvāyāmo, micchāsati, micchāsamādhi — the eight factors of the noble eightfold path, each inverted, describing the recipient in whom a gift bears little fruit.
sammādiṭṭhi ... sammāsamādhi — the same eight factors of the noble eightfold path, in their upright form, describing the recipient in whom a gift is highly fruitful and bountiful.
khettasampadā ca bījasampadā ca vuṭṭhisampadā ca — “an excellent field, an excellent seed, and excellent rainfall” — the three conditions the closing verses name as jointly producing an excellent harvest.
nibbānasampadā — “the excellence of extinguishment” — the closing verses' own culmination, the final “excellent” in a sequence that builds from agricultural imagery to complete freedom.

The text

The discourse in full: a poor field and a good one, mapped onto the eightfold path reversed and upright, and closing verses. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

A poor field, and an unfruitful recipient

§1“Mendicants, when a field has eight factors a seed sown in it is not very fruitful or rewarding or productive. What eight factors does it have? It’s when a field has mounds and ditches. It has stones and gravel. It’s salty. It doesn’t have deep furrows. And it’s not equipped with water inlets, water outlets, irrigation channels, and boundaries. When a field has these eight factors a seed sown in it is not fruitful or rewarding or productive. In the same way, when an ascetic or brahmin has eight factors a gift given to them is not very fruitful or beneficial or brilliant or bountiful. What eight factors do they have? It’s when an ascetic or brahmin has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion. When an ascetic or brahmin has these eight factors a gift given to them is not very fruitful or beneficial or brilliant or bountiful.

A good field, and a bountiful recipient

§2When a field has eight factors a seed sown in it is very fruitful and rewarding and productive. What eight factors does it have? It’s when a field doesn’t have mounds and ditches. It doesn’t have stones and gravel. It’s not salty. It has deep furrows. And it’s equipped with water inlets, water outlets, irrigation channels, and boundaries. When a field has these eight factors a seed sown in it is very fruitful and rewarding and productive. In the same way, when an ascetic or brahmin has eight factors a gift given to them is very fruitful and beneficial and brilliant and bountiful. What eight factors do they have? It’s when an ascetic or brahmin has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. When an ascetic or brahmin has these eight factors a gift given to them is very fruitful and beneficial and brilliant and bountiful.

Closing verses: a sequence of 'excellent'

§3When the field is excellent, and the seed sown in it is excellent, and the rainfall is excellent, the crop of grain will be excellent. The absence of crop loss is excellent, its growth is excellent, its maturation is excellent, and its fruit is excellent. So too, when you give excellent food to those of excellent ethics, it leads to many excellences, for what you did was excellent. So if a person wants excellence, let them excel in this. You should frequent those with excellent wisdom, so that your own excellence will flourish. Excelling in knowledge and conduct, and having excellence of mind, you perform excellent deeds, and gain excellent benefits. Truly knowing the world, and having attained excellence of view, one who excels in mind proceeds, relying on excellence in the path. Shaking off all stains, and attaining the excellence of extinguishment, you’re freed from all sufferings: this is complete excellence.”

· · ·

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 eight factors describe the recipient in whom a gift bears little fruit?
Correct: B. A simile whose real weight falls on mapping the eightfold path onto the recipient, inverted.
Question 2 of 6
What describes the recipient in whom a gift is highly fruitful and bountiful?
Correct: B. The same eightfold structure as the unfruitful case, now given upright.
Question 3 of 6
What eight defects mark the poor field in this discourse's opening simile?
Correct: B. Eight physical defects, mapped point for point onto the eightfold path's own wrong factors.
Question 4 of 6
What word do the closing verses repeat throughout their sequence?
Correct: B. A word repeated across field, seed, rainfall, ethics, and finally extinguishment itself.
Question 5 of 6
What does the verse sequence culminate in?
Correct: B. The final 'excellent' in a sequence building from agriculture to complete freedom.
Question 6 of 6
Is a setting given for this discourse?
Correct: C. A bare formula, matching several other discourses in this chapter.
Answered 0 of 6 · Correct 0

Further reading

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