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Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 13.4

Where the Waters Join Together (2nd)

Dutiyasambhejjaudakasutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
SN 13.3's same image, reversed from drawing water out to water drying up and leaving a remainder
Length
~1 minute 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
★★☆☆☆ — a small but genuine shift in framing from SN 13.3

Why this discourse

Where SN 13.3 asked which is more, a few drops actively drawn from the river confluence or the confluence itself, this discourse imagines the confluence drying up and evaporating entirely, leaving only two or three drops behind, and asks which is more: the water that dried up, or the drops that remain. The numeric answer is identical either way, but the logic of the image has shifted in a way worth noticing, since it's this reversed framing, not SN 13.3's, that actually matches how the closing application describes a stream-enterer's suffering — not sampled or drawn from, but used up and exhausted, with only a remainder left.

Reading guide

The same water, a different fate

SN 13.3's confluence had water drawn out of it by someone acting deliberately; this discourse's identical confluence simply dries up and evaporates on its own, changing an act of sampling into a process of exhaustion.

A comparison between a loss and a remainder, not a whole and a part

SN 13.3 compared the confluence itself to the drops taken from it; this discourse instead compares the water that has already dried up to the water still left, a comparison between what's gone and what remains, rather than between a whole and a sample drawn from it.

The framing that actually matches the closing application

The stream-enterer's suffering is described as "parikkhīṇaṁ pariyādiṇṇaṁ," ended and finished, compared to what's left — language of exhaustion and remainder, which this discourse's dried-up confluence models far more directly than SN 13.3's act of drawing water out.

A pairing that rewards being read together

Neither discourse is fully self-sufficient on its own terms; SN 13.3 establishes the image's scale, and this discourse supplies the framing — loss against remainder — that the doctrinal point actually depends on, making the two discourses a single argument told in two movements rather than one teaching repeated twice.

A pattern confirmed three more times in this saṃyutta

This same shift — from "tiny sample against vast whole" to "vast exhausted against tiny remainder" — recurs in each of the three further matched pairs still to come in this saṃyutta, for the earth, the ocean, and the Himalayas in turn.

Key terms

taṁ udakaṁ parikkhayaṁ pariyādānaṁ gaccheyya — “that water dried up and evaporated” — the confluence's fate reversed from SN 13.3's deliberate drawing out.
ṭhapetvā dve vā tīṇi vā udakaphusitāni — “except for two or three drops” — the same tiny quantity as SN 13.3, now framed as a remainder rather than a sample.
etadeva, bhante, bahutaraṁ sambhejjaudakaṁ yadidaṁ parikkhīṇaṁ pariyādiṇṇaṁ — “sir, the water in the confluence that has dried up and evaporated is certainly more” — a comparison between loss and remainder, not whole and sample.
dukkhaṁ… parikkhīṇaṁ pariyādiṇṇaṁ — “suffering… ended and finished” — the closing application's own language of exhaustion, matched directly by this discourse's image rather than SN 13.3's.
evameva kho, bhikkhave…pe… dhammacakkhupaṭilābho — “in the same way, mendicants… the vision of the teaching” — the same elided closing application as SN 13.3.

The text

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

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, there are places where the great rivers—the Ganges, Yamunā, Aciravatī, Sarabhū, and Mahī—join together and converge. Suppose that water dried up and evaporated except for two or three drops. What do you think, mendicants? Which is more: the water in the confluence that has dried up and evaporated, or the two or three drops left?”

§2“Sir, the water in the confluence that has dried up and evaporated is certainly more. The two or three drops left are tiny. Compared to the water in the confluence that has dried up and evaporated, it’s not nearly a hundredth, a thousandth, or a hundred thousandth part.” “In the same way, for a noble disciple, the suffering that’s over and done with is more …”

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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 happens to the river confluence in this discourse, unlike SN 13.3?
Correct: A. A shift from deliberate sampling to natural exhaustion.
Question 2 of 10
What comparison does this discourse make, unlike SN 13.3's whole-versus-sample comparison?
Correct: A. A comparison between loss and remainder, not whole and part.
Question 3 of 10
Why does this discourse's framing match the closing application more directly than SN 13.3's?
Correct: A. "Parikkhīṇaṁ pariyādiṇṇaṁ" — ended and finished — matches exhaustion, not sampling.
Question 4 of 10
How should SN 13.3 and this discourse be read, according to this reading guide?
Correct: A. SN 13.3 sets the scale; this discourse supplies the framing the point depends on.
Question 5 of 10
How many more times does this same forward-to-reverse shift recur in this saṃyutta?
Correct: A. A pattern repeated across the remaining pairs in this short saṃyutta.
Question 6 of 10
What tiny quantity remains after the confluence dries up?
Correct: A. The identical quantity used in SN 13.3, now reframed as a remainder.
Question 7 of 10
What does the mendicants' response confirm in this discourse?
Correct: A. The same brief confirmation pattern used through most of this saṃyutta.
Question 8 of 10
How is this discourse's closing formula given, compared to SN 13.1 and SN 13.2?
Correct: A. The same brief, elided form established starting with SN 13.3.
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

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