Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are three unskillful thoughts: the thought of status, the thought of gain and honor and popularity, and the thought of fondness for others.
A new chapter, a shift in vocabulary
This discourse opens Chapter Four, immediately following the ten discourses of Chapter Three collected elsewhere on this site (Iti 71 through Iti 79). Its concern is vitakka, thought itself — specifically three varieties singled out as akusala, unskillful. Where several of the preceding discourses dealt with visible conduct — giving, ethics, association — this one turns to something more internal: the concerns that occupy a person’s mind before any action is taken at all.
Status, gain, and — fondness?
The first two items are unsurprising for a list of unskillful preoccupations: wanting to be looked up to, and wanting material things, honor, and popularity. The third is more interesting: “fondness for others” (parānuddayatā) named as unskillful is a less obvious inclusion, and worth sitting with. The verse’s gloss on it — “sharing joys with friends” — suggests the concern isn’t affection itself, but a particular kind of investment in companionship and mutual delight that, like status and gain, still keeps someone tied to “the ending of fetters” being far off.
A verse that reaches beyond the list
The verse’s second stanza goes further than the three-item prose list, naming what the capable trainee actually gives up: “children and herds, marriage and acquisitions.” This is a noticeably more concrete and domestic list than “status” or “fondness” — the verse translates the three abstract thoughts into the literal shape a renunciate life takes when those thoughts are set down.
Key terms
The text
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, there are these three unskillful thoughts. What three? The thought of status; of getting material things, honor, and popularity; and of fondness for others. These are the three unskillful thoughts.” The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3“One concerned with being looked up to,
with possessions, honor, and respect,
with sharing joys with friends,
is far from the ending of fetters.
§4But one who gives up children and herds,
marriage and acquisitions—
such a mendicant is capable
of experiencing the highest awakening.”
§5This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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