Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Sentient beings join together and converge according to an underlying element or disposition — those of inferior conviction with others of inferior conviction, and those of good conviction with others of good conviction — and this has held true in the past, holds true now, and will hold true in the future.
A formulaic repetition, not an omission
Readers of the full text will notice something that looks, at first glance, like missing content: the sections on the past and the future each consist of a single line, “In the past …” and “In the future …”, each followed by an ellipsis. This is not a gap in the source or an error in translation — it is a standard convention in Pali prose, indicating that the full sentence already given for the present should be understood as repeated verbatim for the other two time periods. The full translation reproduces this ellipsis exactly as it appears in Bhikkhu Sujato’s English, rather than either expanding it silently or omitting it.
From doctrine to a warning about company
The prose statement is offered as a simple, almost cosmological observation about how beings cluster. The verse takes the same underlying idea — that association shapes and reveals character — and turns it into direct advice. “Socializing creates a snarl; they’re cut off by being aloof” opens the verse, followed by a specific image: someone “lost in the middle of a great sea” who “clambers up on a little log” will sink. The application follows directly — “a person who lives well sinks by relying on a lazy person.”
“Dwell with the noble ones”
The verse’s closing line gives the positive counterpart to its warning: seek out “the noble ones who are secluded and determined, constantly energetic, the astute who practice absorption.” Read alongside the discourse’s opening principle — that like converges with like — the advice is almost a piece of practical strategy: since convergence with similar character is close to inevitable, the only real choice is which company to actively seek out.
Key terms
The text
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element: Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.
§3In the past …
§4In the future …
§5At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§6“Socializing creates a snarl;
they’re cut off by being aloof.
If you’re lost in the middle of a great sea,
and you clamber up on a little log, you’ll sink.
§7So too, a person who lives well
sinks by relying on a lazy person.
Hence you should avoid such
a lazy person who lacks energy.
§8Dwell with the noble ones
who are secluded and determined
constantly energetic,
the astute who practice absorption.”
§9This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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