Reading guide
A direct continuation of SN 14.13's grading
Where the previous discourse graded perception, view, and rebirth by their element, this one draws out a social consequence: beings of matching grade don't just resemble each other, they actually converge and associate together.
Only two categories, not three
Unlike SN 14.13's hīna/majjhima/paṇīta threefold grading, this discourse names only two — hīnādhimuttikā and kalyāṇādhimuttikā, inferior conviction and good conviction — a simpler, starker division.
Four time frames, not one
The claim is stated for the present, then for the past, then for the future, then restated for the present once more — a structure emphasizing that this isn't a passing observation but something the discourse treats as constant across all time.
Elided repetition carrying real weight
The past and future sections are given in full Pali but left untranslated for their repeated middle clauses, trusting the reader to carry forward the present tense's wording — brevity standing in for what would otherwise be near-total repetition.
A teaching recognizable outside the canon
The core claim — that like-minded people converge with one another — will be immediately familiar to readers from ordinary experience and from proverbs in many languages, though this discourse roots it specifically in dhātu, element, rather than treating it as simple social observation.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.
§2In the past, too, sentient beings came together and converged because of an element. …
§3In the future, too, sentient beings will join together and converge because of an element. …
§4At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.”
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