Reading guide
A real dispute, not a mythic episode
Nearly every discourse in this saṃyutta narrates events among gods and titans; this one instead responds directly to a conflict between two ordinary mendicants, grounding Sakka's teaching in the monastic community's actual present-day life.
Fault symmetrically distributed, not placed on one side
The Buddha doesn't simply side with the transgressor who confessed or the one who was wronged; he identifies a specific failure on each side — one failing to recognize their own fault, the other failing to accept a sincere confession.
Two pairs of fools and wise, precisely mirrored
The teaching's structure is deliberately symmetrical: each kind of foolishness names is answered by exactly one corresponding kind of astuteness, with nothing left asymmetric between the two categories.
Refusing a confession named as its own kind of fault
The discourse doesn't treat only the original transgression as blameworthy; refusing a properly offered confession is named as an equally serious failure, not merely an understandable reaction to being wronged.
A borrowed verse applied to a new situation
Sakka's verse on controlling anger wasn't composed for this dispute; the Buddha recalls it from an earlier occasion among the gods and applies it here, showing the same teaching reaching across entirely different audiences.
Key terms
The text
§1Now at that time two mendicants had clashed. One of them transgressed against the other. The transgressor confessed to the other mendicant, but they didn’t accept it. Then several mendicants went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what had happened.
§2
§3“Mendicants, there are two fools. One who doesn’t recognize when they’ve made a mistake. And one who doesn’t properly accept the confession of someone who’s made a mistake. These are the two fools. There are two who are astute. One who recognizes when they’ve made a mistake. And one who properly accepts the confession of someone who’s made a mistake. These are the two who are astute.
§4Once upon a time, mendicants, Sakka, lord of gods, guiding the gods of the thirty-three, spoke this verse: ‘Control your anger; don’t let friendships decay. Don’t blame the blameless, and don’t backbite. For anger crushes bad people like a mountain.’”
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