Gaṇḍasutta — Sīhanādavagga — the second chapter of the Nines
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A single extended simile, stated once as an image and once applied directly to the body
Length
~30 seconds to read
The shortest kind of discourse in this chapter
One image, stated and then applied, with no narrative frame and no further teaching attached
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief and blunt, best read for its intended discomfort
Why this discourse
The body is compared to an old boil with nine orifices, each a continually open wound oozing and exuding what is filthy, stinking, and disgusting — a body produced by mother and father, built up from food, liable to impermanence and breaking up, of which mendicants are told to have no illusion.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
‘Boil’ is a term for this body, made up of the four principal states, produced by mother and father, and built up from food; like an old boil with nine continually open, oozing orifices, it is filthy, stinking, and disgusting, and mendicants should have no illusion about it.
An image, then its application
The discourse states its simile first in the abstract — a many-years-old boil with nine open, oozing orifices — then applies it directly: the body itself is the boil, its nine orifices are its own natural openings, and what oozes from them is, by the text's own plain word, filthy, stinking, and disgusting.
Nine orifices, the body's own
The number nine names the body's own natural openings — the standard reckoning of two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the mouth, and the two lower openings — reframed here not as neutral anatomy but as continually open wounds, tying this discourse's number to the collection it belongs to.
A blunt close, without softening
The discourse draws no further conclusion and offers no consoling turn: it simply names the body a boil and instructs mendicants to have no illusion about it, trusting the image itself to do the teaching's work without further elaboration.
Key terms
gaṇḍo — “boil” — the discourse's own title term and central image for the body.
navahi vaṇamukhehi — “nine orifices that were continually open wounds” — the boil's nine openings, applied directly to the body's own natural orifices.
cātumahābhūtiko — “made up of the four principal states” — the standard description of the body as earth, water, fire, and air, given here as part of the boil's own definition.
mātāpettikasambhavo — “produced by mother and father” — naming the body's ordinary biological origin as part of its unglamorous reality.
mā ca imasmiṁ kāye apekkhaṁ akattha — “have no illusion about this body” — the discourse's own closing instruction, its only explicit call to action.
The text
The discourse in full: a single simile, stated and then applied directly to the body. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The image, and its application
§1“Mendicants, suppose there was a boil that was many years old. And that boil had nine orifices that were continually open wounds. Whatever oozed out of them would be filthy, stinking, and disgusting. Whatever exuded from them would be filthy, stinking, and disgusting. ‘Boil’ is a term for this body made up of the four principal states, produced by mother and father, built up from rice and porridge, liable to impermanence, to wearing away and erosion, to breaking up and destruction. And that boil has nine orifices that are continually open wounds. Whatever oozes out of them is filthy, stinking, and disgusting. Whatever exudes from them is filthy, stinking, and disgusting. So, mendicants, have no illusion about this body.”
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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 image does this discourse use for the body?
Correct: B. A single blunt image, stated and then applied.
Question 2 of 6
What do the boil's nine orifices correspond to on the body?
Correct: B. Ordinary anatomy, reframed as continually open wounds.
Question 3 of 6
What three words describe what oozes from the boil's orifices?
Correct: B. The discourse's own blunt, repeated description.
Question 4 of 6
What instruction closes the discourse?
Correct: B. A direct call to action, without further elaboration.
Question 5 of 6
How does the guide describe this discourse's overall approach?
Correct: B. One stark image, applied directly, with nothing added.
Question 6 of 6
Is a setting given for this discourse?
Correct: C. A bare formula, the shortest form in this chapter.
