Reading guide
An old verse, given new commentary
Rather than teaching something entirely new, this discourse takes a genuinely older text — a verse from the Pārāyanavagga — and has Sāriputta supply the detailed explanation its terse original language leaves compressed.
Three silences, left honestly unexplained
The text doesn't say why Sāriputta stays silent three times before answering; this reading guide doesn't invent a motive for it, whether caution, humility, or genuine uncertainty, and leaves the silence as the source presents it.
A question reframed, not simply repeated
Rather than asking a fourth time in the same words, the Buddha shifts to a more direct, concrete question — do you see that this has come to be? — and this reframing is what finally draws out Sāriputta's answer.
A threefold pattern applied at two distinct depths
The same three-part seeing — what has come to be, its fuel, and its cessation — is applied first to describe a trainee still practicing toward disillusionment, and then again, in slightly stronger language, to describe one who has already appraised the teaching and is freed.
Confirmation given word for word
The Buddha doesn't merely approve of Sāriputta's answer in passing; he repeats it in full, affirming that this is exactly how the verse's brief statement should be understood in detail.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī. Then the Buddha said to Venerable Sāriputta, “Sāriputta, this was said in ‘The Way to the Far Shore’, in ‘The Questions of Ajita’:
§2‘There are those who have appraised the teaching, and many kinds of trainees here. Now you, being alert, are asked to tell me their behavior, good fellow.’ How should we see the detailed meaning of this brief statement?”
§3When he said this, Sāriputta kept silent. For a second time … For a third time … Sāriputta kept silent.
§4“Sāriputta, do you see that this has come to be?” “Sir, one truly sees with right wisdom that this has come to be. Seeing this, one is practicing for disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding what has come to be. One truly sees with right wisdom that it originated with that as fuel. Seeing this, one is practicing for disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding the fuel for its origination. One truly sees with right wisdom that when that fuel ceases, what has come to be is liable to cease. Seeing this, one is practicing for disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding what is liable to cease. In this way one is a trainee.
§5And what, sir, is one who has appraised the teaching? Sir, one truly sees with right wisdom that this has come to be. Seeing this, one is freed by not grasping through disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding what has come to be. One truly sees with right wisdom that it originated with that as fuel. Seeing this, one is freed by not grasping through disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding the fuel for its origination. One truly sees with right wisdom that when that fuel ceases, what has come to be is liable to cease. Seeing this, one is freed by not grasping through disillusionment, dispassion, and cessation regarding what is liable to cease. In this way one has appraised the teaching. Sir, regarding what was said in ‘The Way to the Far Shore’, in ‘The Questions of Ajita’:
§6‘There are those who have appraised the teaching, and many kinds of trainees here. Now you, being alert, are asked to tell me their behavior, good fellow.’ This is how I understand the detailed meaning of what was said in brief.”
§7“Good, good, Sāriputta!” (The Buddha repeated all of Sāriputta’s explanation, concluding:)
§8This is how to understand the detailed meaning of what was said in brief.”
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