Reading guide
A young tree, not a mature one already standing
Where SN 12.55's great tree was already fully grown and simply persisted so long as it was fed, this discourse's sapling is explicitly still developing, introducing a growth stage this chapter's tree imagery hadn't yet used.
Active cultivation, not passive feeding
The sapling's care is described with more deliberate, gardener-like verbs — clearing around the roots, supplying soil, watering — than the simpler "feeding" language used for the fire, lamp, or mature tree, matching the more hands-on relationship a young plant requires.
Growth as the outcome, not mere persistence
"Vuddhiṁ virūḷhiṁ vepullaṁ āpajjeyya" — grow, increase, and mature — describes an actively developing outcome, distinct from the great tree's simple "stand for a long time" or the fire and lamp's simple continued burning.
A suggestion the tree simile alone hadn't made explicit
By showing craving's growth through a plant that is itself growing, this discourse makes a point the mature-tree and fire similes leave only implicit: fed craving doesn't just persist unchanged, it develops and expands over time.
The same felling, applied to something still young
The cessation half applies this chapter's now-familiar felling sequence — cut down, dug up, chopped, dried, burned, scattered — to the sapling exactly as it was applied to the mature tree, showing that a young, still-developing growth is no more resistant to being uprooted than an established one.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “There are things that tighten the fetters. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a requirement for grasping. … That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.
§2Suppose there was a sapling. And from time to time someone would clear around the roots, supply soil, and water it. Fed and fuelled by that, the sapling would grow, increase, and mature. In the same way, there are things that tighten the fetters. When you concentrate on the gratification provided by these things, your craving grows. Craving is a requirement for grasping. … That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.
§3There are things that tighten the fetters. When you concentrate on the drawbacks of these things, your craving ceases. When craving ceases, grasping ceases. … That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.
§4Suppose there was a sapling. Then a person comes along with a spade and basket. … They’d cut the sapling apart, cut up the parts, and chop it into splinters. They’d dry the splinters in the wind and sun, burn them with fire, and reduce them to ashes. Then they’d winnow the ashes in a strong wind, or glide them down a swift stream. In this way the sapling is cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, and unable to arise in the future. In the same way, there are things that tighten the fetters. When you concentrate on the drawbacks of these things, your craving ceases. When craving ceases, grasping ceases. … That is how this entire mass of suffering ceases.”
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