Near Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Grove — the same recurring circumstances as the discourses before it
Speakers
An unnamed deity, posing a paradox, and the Buddha, resolving it with a single repeated number
Form
A four-line riddle-verse built on paradox, answered by a four-line verse supplying the same number to each part
Length
~1 minute to read
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — the paradox (sleeping among the waking) is easy to read past without noticing it is a riddle at all
Companion discourse
SN 1.5, immediately before this one, is the same riddle shape answered with the same number, five
Why this discourse
This riddle plays on a paradox: how can someone ‘sleep’ while outwardly ‘awake,’ or ‘wake’ while outwardly asleep? The deity asks how many things account for this, and by how many things a person gathers dust or is cleansed. As with SN 1.5 immediately before it, the Buddha's answer supplies a single number — five — to every part of the riddle, again without spelling out what the four sets of five are.
Reading guide
A paradox stated as a riddle
The deity's opening two lines invert the ordinary meaning of waking and sleeping: some people ‘sleep among the waking’ — they are physically alert but spiritually unroused — while others ‘wake among the sleeping,’ spiritually alert even in circumstances that dull most people. The riddle asks how many of each kind there are.
The same shape as SN 1.5, the same number
Like the discourse immediately before it, this one is a four-part riddle answered with a single repeated number: five sleep among the waking, five wake among the sleeping, by five one gathers dust, by five one is cleansed. Commentarial tradition again supplies content the verse itself withholds — commonly the five hindrances (nīvaraṇa) as what dulls a person into figurative sleep, and the five faculties (indriya) as what wakes and cleanses them.
Dust and cleansing
The closing two lines shift the image again, from waking and sleeping to gathering dust (rajaṁ ādeti) and being cleansed (parisujjhati). Read alongside the hindrances/faculties gloss, dust is what obscures and faculties are what clear it — the same five-versus-five structure carried through a third pair of images within one verse.
Two riddles, back to back
SN 1.5 and SN 1.6 form a matched pair: both riddle-verses, both answered with the number five repeated four times, both left unglossed in the verse itself. Placed next to each other in this vagga, they read as two variations on the same rhetorical device rather than as unrelated discourses.
Key terms
suttā jāgarataṁ — “asleep among the waking” — the discourse's opening paradox, describing spiritual dullness beneath outward alertness.
jāgarā suttesu — “awake among the sleeping” — the paradox's mirror image, spiritual alertness beneath outward dullness.
rajaṁ ādeti — “gathers dust” — the image for whatever obscures or contaminates, paired in this verse with being cleansed.
parisujjhati — “is cleansed, purified” — the counterpart to gathering dust, completing the verse's third pair of images.
nīvaraṇa — the five “hindrances” — commentarial tradition's common reading of what causes figurative sleep and gathered dust in this verse, though unnamed in the verse itself.
The text
The discourse in full: a paradox stated as a riddle, resolved with the same number used at SN 1.5. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1At Sāvatthī. Standing to one side, that deity spoke this verse in the Buddha’s presence:
§2“How many sleep among the waking? How many wake among the sleeping? By how many do you gather dust? By how many are you cleansed?”
§3“Five sleep among the waking. Five wake among the sleeping. By five you gather dust. By five you’re cleansed.”
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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 paradox does the deity's riddle open with?
Correct: A. Suttā jāgarataṁ / jāgarā suttesu — the verse's opening inversion.
Question 2 of 10
What number does the Buddha's answer supply to every part of the riddle?
Correct: A. The same number used at SN 1.5, the discourse immediately before this.
Question 3 of 10
What two images does the verse's closing half use?
Correct: A. Rajaṁ ādeti and parisujjhati, a third pair of paired images in one verse.
Question 4 of 10
Does the verse itself name what the four sets of five actually are?
Correct: A. Commentarial tradition supplies the gloss the verse withholds.
Question 5 of 10
What does commentarial tradition commonly read as the cause of figurative sleep here?
Correct: A. A common, though not text-stated, gloss.
Question 6 of 10
How does this discourse relate to SN 1.5, immediately before it?
Correct: A. Two variations on the same rhetorical device, placed back to back.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'jāgarā suttesu' mean?
Correct: A. The mirror image of the verse's opening paradox.
Question 8 of 10
What is the setting of this discourse?
Correct: A. The Devatāsaṃyutta's recurring frame continues.
Question 9 of 10
What is the form of the Buddha's answering verse?
Correct: A. The same shape as SN 1.5's answer, one verse earlier.
Question 10 of 10
What does 'parisujjhati' mean?
Correct: A. The counterpart to gathering dust in the verse's closing image.
