MN 114 — What Should and Should Not Be Cultivated

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

Across conduct, speech, thought, perception, view, the kind of existence one takes on, the objects of the senses, and even the places one lives and the people one keeps company with, there is a single test for what to cultivate and what to avoid: does it make skillful qualities grow and unskillful ones decline — or the reverse?

The brief and the detailed

The discourse is a model of how the early community worked. The Buddha lays down a terse outline — a series of “two kinds: to be cultivated and not to be cultivated” — without yet explaining the criterion. Sāriputta then steps forward: “This is how I understand the detailed meaning of the Buddha’s brief statement,” and supplies it. The Buddha’s response — “Good, good, Sāriputta!” — both confirms the answer and models a teaching method: the teacher gives the seed, the able disciple grows it, and understanding is shared rather than simply handed down. It is also a quiet tribute: Sāriputta can reliably draw out the Buddha’s meaning, which is why the Buddha can teach in brief at all.

The one criterion

Everything hinges on the test Sāriputta provides:

The single measure. Do not cultivate what makes “unskillful qualities grow and skillful qualities decline.” Do cultivate what makes “unskillful qualities decline and skillful qualities grow.” The thing itself is not judged good or bad in the abstract — it is judged by its effect on the wholesome and unwholesome states of the heart.

This is the engine of the whole discourse, and one of the most practical principles in the teaching. It makes ethics dynamic and personal: the same outward thing — a place, a friend, even a kind of food or robe — may be worth cultivating for one person at one time and worth avoiding for another, depending on what it actually does to their mind. The practitioner is asked not merely to obey a code but to observe: to watch which inputs nourish greed, hate, and delusion, and which starve them.

From conduct to view

Sāriputta first applies the test to the familiar ground of action. Bodily conduct: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct (not to be cultivated) versus their abandoning (to be cultivated). Verbal conduct: lying, divisive, harsh, and idle speech versus their opposites. Mental conduct: covetousness and ill will versus contentment and loving intention. Then he moves inward to the more subtle: the arising of thought, the acquisition of perception — whether the mind dwells full of covetousness, malice, and harm, or full of contentment, good will, and kindness. And then to the most decisive of all, the acquisition of view: the nihilist denial that deeds bear fruit (not to be cultivated) versus the affirming view that they do (to be cultivated). The test reaches from the grossest deed all the way down to the orientation of one’s deepest convictions.

Even the kind of existence one takes on

One paired opposite is unusual and striking: the two kinds of “reacquisition of existence” (attabhāva-paṭilābha) — the very mode of selfhood or rebirth one generates. Here the criterion is reframed: a “hurtful” reacquisition, generated “not for the sake of the state of perfection,” lets the unskillful grow; a “pleasing” one, generated “for the sake of the state of perfection,” lets the skillful grow. Even what kind of being one is becoming — the trajectory of one’s very existence — falls under the same single question: does it bend toward awakening, or away from it?

Outward, to the world one moves in

Then the Buddha extends the teaching, and Sāriputta the analysis, outward to everything that meets the senses and surrounds a life:

The objects of the six senses — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and ideas: two kinds of each, to be cultivated or not.
Requisites — robes, almsfood, lodging: two kinds of each.
Places — village, town, city, country: two kinds of each.
And, last and most pointed, persons — “the kind of individual you should cultivate, and the kind you should not.”

The same criterion governs them all. A sight, a meal, a robe, a town, a companion — none is to be sought or shunned by its category, but by whether, for this person, it makes the wholesome grow or the unwholesome. The inclusion of people is especially important: who we spend our time with is, the discourse implies, as much an ethical choice as what we do or say — for company shapes the heart as surely as action does. The whole of a life’s environment becomes material for discernment.

For the welfare of the whole world

The Buddha closes by lifting the teaching beyond the monastic setting: “If all the aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials were to understand this… it would be for their lasting welfare and happiness… if the whole world — with its gods and humans — were to understand this, it would be for the whole world’s lasting welfare and happiness.” The single test is not a monk’s technicality but a universal art of living: anyone, of any station, who learns to weigh each choice by whether it nourishes or starves the wholesome has the key to their own well-being. It is, in the end, an offering of practical wisdom to everyone — a way of meeting the countless small decisions of a life with one clear question.

Key terms

sevitabba / asevitabba — “to be cultivated” and “not to be cultivated”: the two kinds into which everything is sorted — not by category, but by effect.

the single criterion — cultivate what makes skillful qualities grow and unskillful ones decline; avoid the reverse. The engine of the whole discourse, making ethics a practice of observation, not just rule-following.

the brief and the detailed — the teaching method: the Buddha gives the seed in brief, Sāriputta grows out its detailed meaning, the Buddha confirms it. Understanding shared, not merely handed down.

from conduct to view — the test runs from the grossest deed (killing, lying) through thought and perception to the most decisive of all, the acquisition of view: nihilism versus the affirming of deeds and their fruit.

attabhāva-paṭilābha — the “reacquisition of existence,” the kind of selfhood one generates: a “pleasing” one for the sake of perfection grows the skillful; a “hurtful” one does not. Even one’s trajectory of becoming falls under the test.

the world one moves in — the same criterion applied outward to the six senses’ objects, to requisites, to villages and countries, and — most pointedly — to the people one keeps company with.

company shapes the heart — the inclusion of persons makes whom we spend time with an ethical choice as real as what we do or say — cultivate those who make the wholesome grow.

The text

The full discourse, abridged where the source repeats the brief-and-detailed pattern across many items. The brief statement, Sāriputta’s key, representative expansions (conduct, view, reacquisition), the outward extension, and the closing are given closely. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

The brief statement

§1–3So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, and addressed the mendicants. “Mendicants, I will teach an exposition on what should and should not be cultivated. There are two kinds of bodily behavior, of verbal behavior, of mental behavior; two arisings of thought; two acquisitions of perception; two acquisitions of view; two kinds of reacquisition of existence — that which should be cultivated, and that which should not.”

Sāriputta supplies the key

§4–5Venerable Sāriputta said: “Sir, this is how I understand the detailed meaning. ‘Two kinds of bodily behavior’ — why was it said? You should not cultivate bodily behavior that makes unskillful qualities grow and skillful ones decline; you should cultivate that which makes unskillful qualities decline and skillful ones grow. What kind grows the unskillful? Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct. What kind grows the skillful? Giving up killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. That is why it was said.”

Speech, mind, thought, perception, view

§6–10“So too with verbal behavior — lying, divisive, harsh, and idle speech versus their abandoning; with mental behavior — covetousness and ill will versus contentment and loving intention; with the arising of thought and the acquisition of perception — a heart full of covetousness, malice, and harm versus one full of contentment, good will, and kindness; and with the acquisition of view — the view that ‘there is no fruit of deeds, no afterlife’ versus the view that there is. In each, cultivate what grows the skillful.”

The reacquisition of existence

§11–14“‘Two kinds of reacquisition of existence’ — for one who generates a hurtful reacquisition, not for the sake of the state of perfection, unskillful qualities grow; for one who generates a pleasing reacquisition, for the sake of the state of perfection, skillful qualities grow.” “Good, good, Sāriputta!” said the Buddha, and repeated and endorsed the explanation in full.

The senses, requisites, places, and persons

§22–48Then the Buddha taught further: “There are two kinds of sight known by the eye — and of sound, smell, taste, touch, and idea — to be cultivated or not.” And again: “Two kinds of robes, almsfood, lodging; of village, town, city, country; and of individual.” Each time Sāriputta explained: cultivate what makes the skillful grow and the unskillful decline, avoid the reverse — including the kind of person: “You should not cultivate the individual who causes unskillful qualities to grow; you should cultivate the one who causes skillful qualities to grow.” And each time the Buddha said, “Good, good, Sāriputta!”

For the welfare of all

§60–61“If all the aristocrats, brahmins, peasants, and menials were to understand the detailed meaning of my brief statement in this way, it would be for their lasting welfare and happiness. If the whole world — with its gods, Māras, and divinities, its ascetics and brahmins, gods and humans — were to understand it, it would be for the whole world’s lasting welfare and happiness.” That is what the Buddha said. Satisfied, Venerable Sāriputta approved what the Buddha said.

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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 teaching method does this discourse model?

Correct: C. The teacher gives the seed, the able disciple grows it — and the Buddha’s “Good, good, Sāriputta!” confirms both the answer and the method.

Question 2 of 10

What is the single criterion Sāriputta supplies for what to cultivate?

Correct: A. The thing is judged not in the abstract but by its effect on the wholesome and unwholesome states of the heart.

Question 3 of 10

What makes this principle “dynamic and personal”?

Correct: D. The practitioner is asked not merely to obey a code but to observe which inputs nourish greed, hate, and delusion, and which starve them.

Question 4 of 10

How far “inward” does the test reach?

Correct: B. Nihilism (denying that deeds bear fruit) is not to be cultivated; the affirming view is.

Question 5 of 10

What is the “reacquisition of existence” (attabhāva-paṭilābha)?

Correct: C. Even one’s trajectory of becoming falls under the same question: does it bend toward awakening, or away?

Question 6 of 10

To what does the Buddha extend the teaching, outward from conduct?

Correct: A. The whole of a life’s environment becomes material for discernment — each judged by the same single criterion.

Question 7 of 10

Why is the inclusion of “persons” especially important?

Correct: D. Cultivate the individual who makes the wholesome grow; avoid the one who makes it decline.

Question 8 of 10

According to the discourse, how should a person, place, or thing be sought or shunned?

Correct: B. This is Buddhist ethics as a practice of discernment rather than a fixed list of rules.

Question 9 of 10

What does the Buddha say about the scope of this teaching at the close?

Correct: C. The single test is a universal art of living, not a monastic technicality — an offering of practical wisdom to everyone.

Question 10 of 10

What is the lasting value of this discourse’s “one clear question”?

Correct: A. One portable criterion — does it grow the skillful? — answers the endless “should I do this, say this, keep this company?”

Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

What Should and Should Not Be Cultivated

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