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Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 13.2

A Lotus Pond

Pokkharaṇīsutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
The same structure as SN 13.1 — a comparison posed, confirmed by the mendicants, then applied — using a described rather than a physically present image
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — the same teaching as SN 13.1, in a different image

Why this discourse

This discourse carries SN 13.1's exact comparison — the suffering already ended dwarfing what remains for a stream-enterer — into a second image, and shifts from the tangible dirt-on-a-fingernail to a described scene: a vast lotus pond, fifty leagues long, fifty wide, and fifty deep, filled right to the brim, against a single drop of water someone picks up on the tip of a blade of grass. Read beside SN 13.1, this discourse begins the pattern the rest of this saṃyutta will follow: the same underlying comparison, restated through a fresh, increasingly vivid picture each time, without adding any new doctrinal content to what SN 13.1 already established.

Reading guide

A described scene, not a present object

Unlike SN 13.1's actual fingernail, this discourse's pond exists only as a description the mendicants are asked to picture, the first instance of the imagined rather than physically demonstrated comparisons that will structure the rest of this saṃyutta.

Scale given in three dimensions at once

The pond's size isn't left to the imagination in a single measurement; it's given length, width, and depth each as fifty leagues, a deliberately layered way of establishing scale that SN 13.1's simple "great earth" didn't need.

A specific, almost proverbial detail

"Full to the brim so a crow could drink from it" (kākapeyyā) is a stock phrase in the Pali canon for a body of water filled exactly to its rim, adding a concrete, almost folkloric texture to what could otherwise be an abstract measurement.

A single drop, drawn deliberately rather than found

Where SN 13.1's dirt was simply picked up, this discourse's drop of water is drawn out specifically on the tip of a blade of grass, a small but deliberate change in how the tiny quantity is obtained.

The same conclusion, unchanged

Every element of the closing application — the noble disciple accomplished in view, the threefold negative comparison, the seven-lives bound, the benefit of comprehending the teaching — is repeated here exactly as SN 13.1 gave it, confirming that the point itself doesn't change from discourse to discourse, only the image carrying it.

Key terms

pokkharaṇī paññāsayojanāni āyāmena paññāsayojanāni vitthārena paññāsayojanāni ubbedhena — “a lotus pond fifty leagues long, fifty leagues wide, and fifty leagues deep” — scale given in three dimensions at once.
puṇṇā udakassa samatittikā kākapeyyā — “full to the brim so a crow could drink from it” — a stock Pali phrase for water filled exactly to the rim.
kusaggena udakaṁ uddhareyya — “pick up some water on the tip of a blade of grass” — the deliberately drawn tiny quantity, distinct from SN 13.1's simply picked-up dirt.
ariyasāvakassa diṭṭhisampannassa puggalassa abhisametāvino — “a noble disciple accomplished in view, an individual with comprehension” — the same defining term as SN 13.1.
evaṁ mahatthiyo kho… dhammābhisamayo; evaṁ mahatthiyo dhammacakkhupaṭilābho — “that's how very beneficial it is to comprehend the teaching and gain the vision of the teaching” — the same closing refrain as SN 13.1, unchanged.

The text

The discourse in full. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, suppose there was a lotus pond that was fifty leagues long, fifty leagues wide, and fifty leagues deep, full to the brim so a crow could drink from it. Then a person would pick up some water on the tip of a blade of grass. What do you think, mendicants? Which is more: the water on the tip of the blade of grass, or the water in the lotus pond?”

§2“Sir, the water in the lotus pond is certainly more. The water on the tip of a blade of grass is tiny. Compared to the water in the lotus pond, it’s not nearly a hundredth, a thousandth, or a hundred thousandth part.”

§3“In the same way, for an individual with comprehension, a noble disciple accomplished in view, the suffering that’s over and done with is more, what’s left is tiny. Compared to the mass of suffering in the past that’s over and done with, it’s not nearly a hundredth, a thousandth, or a hundred thousandth part, since there are at most seven more lives. That’s how very beneficial it is to comprehend the teaching and gain the vision of the teaching.”

· · ·

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 image does this discourse use, unlike SN 13.1's physically present dirt?
Correct: A. The first of this saṃyutta's imagined, rather than physically demonstrated, comparisons.
Question 2 of 10
How is the pond's scale established?
Correct: A. A deliberately layered way of establishing scale in three dimensions at once.
Question 3 of 10
What does "kākapeyyā" (so a crow could drink from it) describe?
Correct: A. A stock Pali phrase for water filled precisely to its rim.
Question 4 of 10
How is the tiny quantity of water obtained, in contrast to SN 13.1's dirt?
Correct: A. A small but deliberate variation from SN 13.1's simply picked-up dirt.
Question 5 of 10
How does this discourse's closing application compare to SN 13.1's?
Correct: A. Confirming the point stays constant while only the image changes.
Question 6 of 10
What pattern does this discourse begin that structures the rest of this saṃyutta?
Correct: A. No new content added, only a new picture carrying the same point.
Question 7 of 10
What term names the noble disciple this comparison applies to?
Correct: A. The same defining phrase as SN 13.1.
Question 8 of 10
What formula closes the comparison between suffering ended and suffering remaining?
Correct: A. The same threefold negative used throughout this saṃyutta.
Question 9 of 10
Who is the sole speaker in this discourse?
Correct: A. No interlocutor or visiting figure appears.
Question 10 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. The consistent setting shared with every discourse in this saṃyutta.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 13.1 · A Fingernail