Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 14.16

With Verses

Sagāthāsutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, closing in verse addressed to the assembled mendicants
Form
Two full three-time-frame statements, each bracketing a five-item simile, followed by three verses of applied ethical advice
Length
~5 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 longest and most structurally varied discourse in this vagga so far

Why this discourse

This discourse gives SN 14.14's convergence teaching its most vivid and most complete treatment yet. The inferior half is illustrated by a genuinely visceral simile — dung with dung, urine with urine, spit, pus, and blood, each joining only with its own kind — while the good half gets the opposite treatment: milk with milk, oil, ghee, honey, and molasses. Each simile is bracketed by the full three-time-frame formula, given once before the simile and once again after it. Then, unusually for this saṃyutta, the discourse closes not in prose but in three verses of applied advice — warning against relying on a lazy companion, and recommending the company of the secluded, energetic, and wise instead.

Reading guide

The three-time-frame formula, doubled

Unlike SN 14.14 and SN 14.15, which state the past-present-future formula once per category, this discourse states it twice for each half — once before its simile, once again after — bracketing the vivid image on both sides.

Two similes, deliberately visceral and deliberately fine

Dung, urine, spit, pus, and blood cluster with their own kind on one side; milk, oil, ghee, honey, and molasses cluster with theirs on the other — the discourse doesn't soften the first list to make a comfortable point.

A title that echoes this collection's very first book

Sagāthāsutta, “with verses,” shares its name with Sagāthāvagga, the Saṃyutta Nikāya's entire first book — a small echo, though this single discourse is prose throughout except for its three closing verses.

Verses that shift from description to instruction

Everything before the verses describes how beings sort themselves; the verses themselves give direct advice — avoid a lazy companion, because relying on one drags even a person living well down with them.

A closing image of drowning

The verses' central picture — clambering onto a small log in the middle of a great ocean, only to sink — makes vivid what abstract convergence theory implies: the wrong company can pull down someone who was otherwise doing well.

Key terms

sagāthā — “with verses” — this discourse's title, sharing its name with Sagāthāvagga, the entire first book of the Saṃyutta Nikāya.
gūtho gūthena saṁsandati — “dung joins together with dung” — the first and most visceral of five paired substances illustrating inferior convergence.
khīraṁ khīrena saṁsandati — “milk joins together with milk” — the first of five paired substances illustrating good convergence, mirroring the dung simile's structure exactly.
saṁsaggā vanatho jāto — “socializing creates a snarl” — the closing verses' opening line, warning that the wrong company entangles rather than helps.
kusīta, hīnavīriya — “lazy, lacking energy” — the companion the closing verses instruct the reader to avoid, contrasted with the secluded and energetic ones recommended instead.

The text

The discourse in full, including the source's own elision of repeated clauses in the past- and future-tense sections. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§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. In the past …

§2In the future …

§3At 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.

§4It’s like how dung joins together with dung, urine with urine, spit with spit, pus with pus, and blood with blood. In the same way, 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. In the past … In the future … At 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.

§5Sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions. In the past …

§6In the future … At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.

§7It’s like how milk joins together with milk, oil with oil, ghee with ghee, honey with honey, and molasses with molasses. In the same way, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions. In the past … In the future … At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.”

§8That is what the Buddha said. Then the Holy One, the Teacher, went on to say:

§9“Socializing creates a snarl; they’re cut off by being aloof. If you’re lost in the middle of a great sea, and you clamber up on a little log, you’ll sink.

§10So too, a person who lives well sinks by relying on a lazy person. Hence you should avoid such a lazy person who lacks energy.

§11Dwell with the noble ones who are secluded and determined and always energetic; the astute who practice absorption.”

· · ·

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
How many times does the three-time-frame formula appear for each half of this discourse?
Correct: A. Bracketing each simile on both sides, a new structural variation.
Question 2 of 10
What five substances illustrate inferior convergence?
Correct: A. A deliberately visceral simile, each joining only with its own kind.
Question 3 of 10
What five substances illustrate good convergence?
Correct: A. The positive mirror of the earlier visceral simile.
Question 4 of 10
What does this discourse's title, Sagāthāsutta, share its name with?
Correct: A. A small structural echo, though this discourse is mostly prose.
Question 5 of 10
How does this discourse end, unusually for this saṃyutta?
Correct: A. A genuine verse close, rare this far into Dhātusaṃyutta.
Question 6 of 10
What image do the closing verses use to warn against relying on a lazy companion?
Correct: A. A vivid drowning image, illustrating how the wrong company can pull someone down.
Question 7 of 10
What do the closing verses recommend instead of a lazy companion?
Correct: A. Pavivittehi ariyehi, secluded noble ones, recommended by name.
Question 8 of 10
What does the opening line of the closing verses claim about socializing?
Correct: A. Saṁsaggā vanatho jāto, the verses' opening claim.
Question 9 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. Back to Sāvatthī, after SN 14.15's Rājagaha setting.
Question 10 of 10
What numbering tag closes this discourse?
Correct: A. The sixth discourse of Dutiyavagga.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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