Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 13.6

The Earth (2nd)

Dutiyapathavīsutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
SN 13.5's same image, reversed from placing clay balls to the earth eroding away and leaving them behind
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
★★☆☆☆ — completing this saṃyutta's second matched pair

Why this discourse

This discourse completes the pair SN 13.5 opened, exactly as SN 13.4 completed SN 13.3's. Rather than someone placing seven clay balls on the earth, this discourse imagines the great earth itself worn away and eroded until only seven clay balls the size of jujube seeds are left. The shift from SN 13.5 is the same one already seen between SN 13.3 and SN 13.4: a comparison between a whole and a placed sample becomes a comparison between a vast loss and a tiny remainder, the framing that actually matches how this saṃyutta describes a stream-enterer's suffering as "ended and finished," not simply outweighed.

Reading guide

Placement reversed into erosion

SN 13.5's clay balls were deliberately set down on an intact earth; this discourse's identical clay balls are instead what's left after the earth itself has worn away, turning an act of addition into a process of loss.

Loss and remainder, not whole and sample

As with SN 13.4, this discourse's comparison isn't between the earth and something placed on it, but between the earth that's gone and the small amount still remaining, the framing this saṃyutta's closing application actually depends on.

The same seven, a different role

Seven clay balls appear in both this discourse and SN 13.5, but where SN 13.5's seven were added to a whole earth, this discourse's seven are what survives after the whole earth is gone, the same number playing two different structural roles across the pair.

A second confirmed instance of this saṃyutta's pairing logic

Together with SN 13.3 and SN 13.4, this pair confirms the pattern is deliberate rather than incidental: every matched pair in this saṃyutta moves from a sample taken or placed to a remainder left behind, never the reverse order.

Two more matched pairs still to come

This discourse completes this saṃyutta's second pair; the ocean and the Himalayas will each receive the same forward-then-reverse treatment in the four discourses that follow.

Key terms

mahāpathavī parikkhayaṁ pariyādānaṁ gaccheyya — “the great earth was worn away and eroded” — the earth's fate reversed from SN 13.5's deliberate placement.
ṭhapetvā satta kolaṭṭhimattiyo guḷikā — “except for seven clay balls the size of jujube seeds” — the same seven balls as SN 13.5, now framed as a remainder rather than an addition.
etadeva, bhante, bahutaraṁ, mahāpathaviyā, yadidaṁ parikkhīṇaṁ pariyādiṇṇaṁ — “sir, the great earth that has been worn away and eroded 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, matched directly by this discourse's eroded-earth image.
evameva kho, bhikkhave…pe… dhammacakkhupaṭilābho — “in the same way, mendicants… the vision of the teaching” — the same elided closing application as SN 13.5.

The text

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

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, suppose the great earth was worn away and eroded except for seven clay balls the size of jujube seeds. What do you think, mendicants? Which is more: the great earth that has been worn away and eroded, or the seven clay balls the size of jujube seeds that are left?”

§2“Sir, the great earth that has been worn away and eroded is certainly more. The seven clay balls the size of jujube seeds are tiny. Compared to the great earth that has been worn away and eroded, 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 …”

· · ·

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 earth in this discourse, unlike SN 13.5?
Correct: A. A shift from deliberate placement to natural erosion.
Question 2 of 10
What comparison does this discourse make?
Correct: A. A comparison between loss and remainder, not whole and sample.
Question 3 of 10
What role do the seven clay balls play here, differing from SN 13.5?
Correct: A. The same number, playing a different structural role across the pair.
Question 4 of 10
What does this pair, together with SN 13.3 and SN 13.4, confirm about this saṃyutta's structure?
Correct: A. A deliberate, consistent pairing logic, not incidental repetition.
Question 5 of 10
How many more matched pairs remain after this one in this saṃyutta?
Correct: A. The same forward-then-reverse treatment still to come twice more.
Question 6 of 10
What tiny quantity remains after the earth erodes?
Correct: A. The identical quantity used in SN 13.5, 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
What language does the closing application share with this discourse's image?
Correct: A. The framing this saṃyutta's doctrinal point actually depends on.
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 13.5 · The Earth