Not narrated in this discourse's source text; presumably the same recurring frame as the rest of this vagga
Speakers
Not named explicitly; a compressed question and an equally compressed answer
Form
A four-line question, answered by a six-line verse
Length
~45 seconds to read
Difficulty
★★★★☆ — brief in length, dense in what it names
A thematic echo
This discourse's question, on where the four elements find no footing, closely resembles a theme also explored at length in the Kevaḍḍhasutta (DN 11)
Why this discourse
The question compresses three related questions into one: from where do streams recoil, where does the cycle of existence spin no more, where does name and form cease without residue? The answer locates all three at a single point: where water, earth, fire, and air — the four elements — have no footing. From there, it says, the streams recoil; in reference to this point, the cycle stops; in reference to this same point, name and form cease.
Reading guide
Three questions, one answer
The question's three parts — streams recoiling, the cycle no longer spinning, name and form ceasing — might seem to call for three separate answers. The reply treats them instead as three descriptions of the same single point, answered together rather than one by one.
The four elements, without footing
Āpo, pathavī, tejo, vāyo — water, earth, fire, and air, the four elements (mahābhūta) that in ordinary experience compose the physical world — are named as together having ‘no footing’ (na gādhati) at exactly the point this verse is describing.
A theme met at greater length elsewhere in the canon
The image of a point where the four elements find no footing closely resembles a question explored at much greater length in the Kevaḍḍhasutta (DN 11), where a mendicant's search for where the elements cease without remainder is eventually redirected back to the Buddha for an answer. This discourse compresses a related question into six lines what that other discourse treats as its central narrative concern.
Streams, cycle, and name-and-form, together
The verse's closing structure repeats ‘in reference to this’ (ettha) twice, tying the cessation of the cycle of rebirth and the cessation of name-and-form to the same single reference point already established by the streams recoiling — a single locus answering what the question posed as three.
Key terms
sara — “a stream” — this discourse's title, and the first of three linked images the opening question asks about.
vaṭṭa — “the cycle” — the round of repeated existence, whose no-longer-spinning the question asks about as its second concern.
nāmarūpa — “name and form” — mental and physical phenomena together, whose cessation without residue is the question's third concern, echoing SN 1.23's closing verse.
āpo pathavī tejo vāyo — “water, earth, fire, and air” — the four elements (mahābhūta), named together as having no footing at the point this verse describes.
na gādhati — “has no footing, finds no foothold” — the specific condition the answer names as marking the point where streams, cycle, and name-and-form all cease.
The text
The discourse in full: three linked questions, answered together at a single point. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1“From where do streams recoil? Where does the cycle spin no more? Where does name and form cease with no residue left behind?”
§2“Where water and earth, fire and air have no footing—from here the streams recoil; in reference to this, the cycle spins no more; in reference to this, name and form ceases with no residue left behind.”
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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 three things does the opening question ask about?
Correct: A. Three questions compressed into a single four-line verse.
Question 2 of 10
Does the answer treat these three questions as needing three separate answers?
Correct: A. One locus, described three ways in the question.
Question 3 of 10
What does the answer name as having 'no footing' at this point?
Correct: A. Āpo pathavī tejo vāyo — the four elements, together.
Question 4 of 10
What discourse elsewhere in the canon explores a closely related theme at greater length?
Correct: A. A mendicant's search for where the elements cease without remainder.
Question 5 of 10
What does 'nāmarūpa' mean?
Correct: A. Echoing the same term from SN 1.23's closing verse.
Question 6 of 10
What word does the verse's closing lines repeat to tie its three concerns together?
Correct: A. Linking the cycle's cessation and name-and-form's cessation to the same point.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'na gādhati' mean?
Correct: A. The specific condition marking the point this verse describes.
Question 8 of 10
What does 'vaṭṭa' mean?
Correct: A. The second of the question's three linked concerns.
Question 9 of 10
What is the setting of this discourse?
Correct: A. Like several discourses in this vagga, no setting is given directly.
Question 10 of 10
How many elements are named together as having no footing?
Correct: A. Water, earth, fire, and air — the four mahābhūta.
