Mendicants in general — no named individual, no location, no occasion is given
Form
A single terse prose statement followed by a four-couplet verse restating the identical point
Length
Under a minute to read
Series
The last of seven “complete understanding” discourses (Iti 7–13), closing the run that began with all things and moved through conceit, greed, hate, delusion, and anger
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — plain and very short, though the claim it makes is total
Why this discourse, thirteenth
This is the last of a run of seven discourses that share one formula and one purpose: naming a mental state, one at a time, and insisting that suffering cannot end without directly knowing it, completely understanding it, losing one’s taste for it, and giving it up. Disdain closes the list — less commonly discussed today than greed, hate, or anger, but treated here with exactly the same weight.
Reading guide
Closing the set
With this discourse the run that opened at Iti 7 (“Complete Understanding of All”) and continued through conceit, greed, hate, delusion, and anger comes to an end. Structurally, nothing changes: the same opening and closing attributions, the same two-part demand, the same verse shape. What changes, one final time, is the target. Disdain gets exactly the same treatment as greed or hate — a sign that the compilers of this collection did not treat some defilements as more serious than others by giving them more elaborate discourses; each gets the identical, complete formula.
What “disdain” names
The English word here translates a state of mind belonging to the same family as anger, denigration, envy, and rivalry — the kind of secondary corruption of the heart that shows up in lists throughout the canon describing subtler ways a mind turns against others, short of open hostility. Rather than guess at fine distinctions the brief text itself doesn’t draw, it is enough to notice what the discourse does with it: disdain is treated as serious enough to warrant the identical total claim made for anger and for delusion — that failing to deal with it thoroughly means suffering cannot end.
The demand, restated one more time
As in the two discourses before it, understanding alone is explicitly ruled insufficient. The text requires directly knowing and completely understanding disdain together with dispassion toward it and actually giving it up. Read across all seven discourses in this set, that pairing is the constant: each defilement must be both seen clearly and let go of, not merely diagnosed.
The verse: an ending, echoed one final time
The verse repeats, once more, the shape used throughout this set: overcome by disdain, beings go to a bad place; understood by the discerning and given up, they never return to this world. There is a kind of quiet emphasis in reading these final lines as the close of a longer sequence — six discourses (Iti 8–13, following on from Iti 7) have now each ended on this identical note, applied every time to something different.
What comes next
Having closed out this list of specific mental states, the Itivuttaka moves on: the following discourse, Iti 14, steps back to a single overarching cause — ignorance itself — described as the one shroud that keeps beings transmigrating longer than any other.
Key terms
disdain — the state of mind this discourse addresses, belonging to a family of “secondary” mental corruptions alongside anger, denigration, envy, and rivalry.
pariññā — “complete understanding,” the same exhaustive knowing demanded throughout this set of seven discourses.
virāga — “dispassion,” paired again with giving up as the required second condition.
duggati — “a bad place,” the destination named for those overcome by disdain.
Iti 7–13 — the full run this discourse closes: all things, conceit, greed, hate, delusion, anger, and disdain, each treated with the identical formula.
The text
The discourse in full. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, without directly knowing and completely understanding disdain, without dispassion for it and giving it up, you can’t end suffering. By directly knowing and completely understanding disdain, having dispassion for it and giving it up, you can end suffering.”
The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3“When overcome by disdain beings go to a bad place. Having rightly understood that disdain, the discerning give it up. Once they’ve given it up, they never return to this world.”
§4This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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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 single state of mind does this discourse address?
Correct: D. The discourse applies the “complete understanding” formula to disdain, closing the set.
Question 2 of 10
Where does this discourse fall in the run of seven “complete understanding” discourses (Iti 7–13)?
Correct: B. Iti 13 is the closing entry.
Question 3 of 10
What two operations does the discourse demand with respect to disdain?
Correct: A. The identical two-part demand used throughout Iti 7–13.
Question 4 of 10
According to the reading guide, what family of mental states does disdain belong to?
Correct: C. The reading guide places disdain among this wider family rather than the three roots.
Question 5 of 10
According to the verse, what happens to beings overcome by disdain?
Correct: B. “When overcome by disdain, beings go to a bad place.”
Question 6 of 10
What happens, per the verse, once the discerning have rightly understood disdain and given it up?
Correct: D. The same closing line used throughout this set of seven discourses.
Question 7 of 10
What discourse comes immediately after this one, and what does it address?
Correct: A. Iti 14 shifts from specific mental states to ignorance itself as the root cause.
Question 8 of 10
Is disdain given a less serious or less complete treatment than greed, hate, or anger in this set?
Correct: B. Every defilement in Iti 7–13 gets the same full treatment, without gradation.
Question 9 of 10
Does this discourse name a specific person, place, or occasion?
Correct: C. No setting or named audience appears anywhere in the text.
Question 10 of 10
What is the full list of seven mental states or topics covered across Iti 7 through Iti 13?
Correct: B. This is the full run of seven discourses sharing the identical “complete understanding” formula.
