Reading guide
The same factor, a different lens
Where Iti 6 asked simply for conceit to be given up, in exchange for non-return, this sutta asks for conceit to be directly known, completely understood, grown dispassionate toward, and then given up — the same fourfold sequence introduced at Iti 7, here applied to a single named factor rather than to “the all” in general. The reward, correspondingly, is larger: not non-return specifically, but the ending of suffering.
A verse with two movements
Unlike every other verse in this chapter, this one runs to two stanzas rather than one. The first describes the condition of those who have not completed the task: “caught up in conceit, tied by conceit, delighting in existence” — three phrases in quick succession, each adding a slightly different shade to the same bound condition. The second describes the opposite condition point by point: “given up conceit, freed with the ending of conceit, vanquishers of the tie of conceit.” The structure itself performs the teaching: bound, then freed, matched clause for clause.
“Delighting in existence”
One phrase in the first stanza is worth pausing on: those caught up in conceit are described as “delighting in existence.” This links conceit to something larger than a merely social or interpersonal fault — it ties conceit to the basic pull toward continued existence itself, the very momentum that keeps rebirth going. Read this way, conceit is not simply a matter of how one compares oneself to others; it is one of the ways a mind stays attached to going on existing at all.
Why conceit needed a second visit
Recall from Iti 6 that conceit sits, in the traditional list of ten fetters, among the very last to be abandoned — only at complete awakening. Giving it a second, more demanding treatment here, with the fuller four-part formula and the longest verse of the chapter, fits that picture: conceit is not a fault dealt with quickly or dismissed after one mention. It merits sustained attention, examined here from two different angles across two different discourses.
Key terms
The text
The teaching
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, without directly knowing and completely understanding conceit, without dispassion for it and giving it up, you can’t end suffering. By directly knowing and completely understanding conceit, having dispassion for it and giving it up, you can end suffering.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
The verse
§3“These folk are caught up in conceit,
tied by conceit, delighting in existence.
Not completely understanding conceit,
they return in future lives.
§4Those who have given up conceit,
freed with the ending of conceit,
vanquishers of the tie of conceit,
have risen above all suffering.”
§5This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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