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Itivuttaka · Book of the Threes, Chapter Two · Iti 68

Greed (1st)

Paṭhamarāgasutta

Setting
None given — no place, audience beyond “mendicants,” or occasion, in keeping with the Itivuttaka’s spare form throughout
Speakers
The Buddha alone; the Itivuttaka’s bipartite form never includes an interlocutor
Form
A conditional statement in two mirrored halves, restated in a single, denser six-line verse
Length
Under a minute to read the passage itself
Parallels
No complete Chinese Itivuttaka survives; a partial parallel collection exists in Tibetan translation, with scattered individual parallels across the Āgamas, none specifically identified for this short discourse
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — the three roots named are foundational, though the prose’s two-part structure takes a moment to see clearly

Why this discourse

The English title says “Greed,” but read the prose and three things are actually named: greed, hate, and delusion (rāga, dosa, moha) — the three “unwholesome roots” that later tradition treats as the shared source of all unskillful action. This is the first of two discourses on exactly this trio, cast here as the difference between being “trapped” in Māra’s snare and being “free” of it — and its verse, describing the person who has let all three go, reaches for some of the loftiest epithets in the collection: “a manifestation of divinity,” “the Buddha.”

Reading guide

“Greed” in the title, three roots in the text

The Pali title, Paṭhamarāgasutta, means “the first discourse on greed” (rāga) — yet the prose actually names three things together, every time: “greed, hate, and delusion” (rāga, dosa, moha). This trio is one of the most fundamental frameworks in the entire tradition, usually called the three unwholesome roots (akusala-mūla), from which every unskillful action is said ultimately to grow. The title’s focus on greed alone is best read as shorthand for the whole set, not a claim that greed is somehow the only factor at stake.

Māra’s snare

The prose states its point as a strict conditional, twice, with everything mirrored: whoever has not given up greed, hate, and delusion is “trapped,” “caught in Māra’s snare,” and subject to the Wicked One’s will; whoever has given them up is “free,” “released from Māra’s snare,” beyond his reach. Māra, the tempter figure who appears throughout the canon testing the Buddha and his disciples, functions here almost as a personification of exactly these three roots — to be caught by greed, hate, or delusion is already, this discourse suggests, to be caught by him.

The verse’s swap: delusion becomes “ignorance”

The verse names the same two roots — “greed and hate” — but for the third, swaps in a different, closely related word: not moha (delusion) as in the prose, but avijjā (ignorance). The two terms overlap heavily in meaning and are often used near-interchangeably across the canon, but the shift is a real one, worth noticing rather than smoothing over: the prose’s tidy three-item list becomes, in the verse, a slightly looser pairing of near-synonyms.

Epithets for the Buddha: “evolved,” “become divine”

Having faded away greed, hate, and ignorance, the verse says, one “belongs with those who are evolved” (bhāvitatta, literally “one whose self has been developed”), is “a manifestation of divinity, realized” (brahmabhūta, “become brahma” or divine), and is named directly: “the Buddha, beyond enmity and fear.” This is an unusually dense cluster of exalted epithets for such a short verse, and it closes, as in Purity and Sagacity two suttas earlier, with “they’ve given up everything, they say” — the same closing phrase, appearing again.

The form itself

As throughout this collection, Greed (1st) opens with “This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard,” states its teaching in prose, restates it in a single six-line verse, and closes with a near-mirror of the opening line. No place, occasion, or listener is named beyond “mendicants” — nothing narrative frames it at all.

Key terms

rāga, dosa, moha — greed, hate, and delusion: the three unwholesome roots (akusala-mūla) from which unskillful action is said to grow.
mārapāsa — “Māra’s snare”: the prose’s image for being trapped by these three roots left ungiven-up.
avijjā — “ignorance”: the term the verse substitutes for “delusion” (moha) used in the prose, a closely related but distinct word.
bhāvitatta — “one who is evolved,” literally one whose self or character has been developed; an epithet in the verse.
brahmabhūta — “a manifestation of divinity, realized,” literally “become brahma”; an exalted epithet applied to the Buddha in the verse.

The text

The discourse in full — a mirrored conditional statement in prose, followed by a single, denser six-line verse naming several exalted epithets. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.

The teaching

§2a“Whoever has not given up greed, hate, and delusion is said to be trapped. They’re caught in Māra’s snare, and the Wicked One can do with them what he wants.

§2bWhoever has given up greed, hate, and delusion is said to be free. They’re released from Māra’s snare, and the Wicked One cannot do with them what he wants.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:

The verse

§3“Those in whom greed, hate, and ignorance have faded away, belong with those who are evolved; A manifestation of divinity, realized, awakened, beyond enmity and fear, they’ve given up everything, they say.”

§4This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.

· · ·

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
Although the English title says “Greed,” what three things does the prose statement actually name together?
Correct: C. These three — rāga, dosa, moha — are the classic “three unwholesome roots.”
Question 2 of 10
What happens, per the prose, to whoever has NOT given up greed, hate, and delusion?
Correct: B. This is the prose’s stated condition for someone who has not let go of the three roots.
Question 3 of 10
What word does the verse use in place of “delusion” (moha), which appears in the prose?
Correct: D. The reading guide notes this as a real, if closely related, shift in vocabulary between prose and verse.
Question 4 of 10
What epithet does the verse use that literally means “become brahma” or divine?
Correct: A. This is one of several exalted epithets clustered in this short verse.
Question 5 of 10
What closing phrase does this verse share with Iti 66 (Purity) and Iti 67 (Sagacity)?
Correct: C. This exact phrase recurs across several discourses in this chapter.
Question 6 of 10
Who or what is Māra, as the reading guide describes his role in this discourse?
Correct: B. Being caught by the three roots is treated as equivalent to being caught by Māra.
Question 7 of 10
What does the prose say happens to whoever HAS given up greed, hate, and delusion?
Correct: D. This is the positive mirror of the prose’s first half.
Question 8 of 10
Is any specific place, listener, or occasion named in this discourse?
Correct: A. Only the standing address “mendicants” appears.
Question 9 of 10
What is the traditional name for the trio of greed, hate, and delusion, as given in the reading guide?
Correct: C. This is one of the most fundamental frameworks in the tradition’s account of unskillful action.
Question 10 of 10
What does the reading guide say the title’s focus on “greed” alone likely represents?
Correct: B. The prose itself always names all three roots together.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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