Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 14.18

Beginning With the Faithless

Assaddhamūlakasutta

Setting
Sāvatthī
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
Five three-item chains, each bookended by the same fixed pair with one middle quality varying
Length
~4 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 most combinatorially dense discourse in this vagga, worth reading against SN 14.17 side by side

Why this discourse

This discourse takes SN 14.17's seven-item septet and recombines it into a tighter structure: five separate three-item chains, each one fixed at both ends — faithless first, witless last — with one of the five remaining qualities filling the middle slot in turn. The first chain, spelled out in full, pairs faithless with unconscientious and witless; the following four swap in imprudent, unlearned, lazy, and unmindful respectively, each mirrored by the matching positive chain. After giving the second chain in full, the source pauses to instruct the reciter directly — “the following should be told in full like the first section” — before compressing the remaining three chains into brief, elided form.

Reading guide

Seven qualities, five three-item chains

Rather than repeating the whole septet each time, this discourse fixes faithless and witless at both ends and lets only the middle position vary across the five remaining qualities, generating five distinct chains from one base list.

Two chains given in full, three compressed

The first chain (faithless, unconscientious, witless) and the second (faithless, imprudent, witless) are both spelled out completely; the third, fourth, and fifth are each given in heavily elided form, trusting the pattern already established.

An instruction to the reciter, translated and quoted

Between the second and third chains, the source inserts an explicit editorial note — “the following should be told in full like the first section” — a rare case of a recitation instruction surviving translation rather than being left as a bare …pe… elision marker.

Faithless and witless as fixed bookends

Across all five chains, only faithless (assaddhā) opens and only witless (duppaññā) closes; the discourse never varies these two positions, giving every chain the same overall shape despite the shifting middle term.

A combinatorial exercise, not new content

Every quality named in this discourse already appeared in SN 14.17; nothing new is introduced here except the specific way of recombining what came before into smaller, fixed-end units.

Key terms

assaddhamūlaka — “rooted in,” or “beginning with, the faithless” — this discourse's title, naming its method of fixing faithless as every chain's starting point.
assaddhā … ahirikā … duppaññā — “faithless … unconscientious … witless” — the first, fully spelled chain, establishing the fixed-ends-varying-middle pattern.
paṭhamavāro viya vitthāretabbo — “the following should be told in full like the first section” — a rare, explicitly translated instruction to the reciter, embedded directly in the source.
saddhā … hirimanā … paññavanto — “faithful … conscientious … wise” — the positive mirror of the first chain, following the same fixed-ends structure.
kusītā, muṭṭhassatino — “lazy, unmindful” — two of the middle terms cycled through in this discourse's fourth and fifth chains.

The text

The discourse in full, including the source's own elision of the third, fourth, and fifth chains' repeated clauses. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element: the faithless with the faithless, the unconscientious with the unconscientious, the witless with the witless, the faithful with the faithful, the conscientious with the conscientious, and the wise with the wise. In the past … In the future …

§2At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. …

§3Sentient beings join together and converge because of an element: the faithless with the faithless, the imprudent with the imprudent, the witless with the witless, the faithful with the faithful, the prudent with the prudent, and the wise with the wise. (The following should be told in full like the first section.)

§4Sentient beings come together because of an element: the faithless … unlearned … witless … the faithful …

§5Sentient beings come together because of an element: the faithless … lazy … witless. the faithful … energetic … wise.

§6Sentient beings come together because of an element: the faithless … unmindful … witless. the faithful … mindful … wise.”

· · ·

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 structure does this discourse build from SN 14.17's seven-item septet?
Correct: A. Fixed ends, one of five remaining qualities cycling through the middle.
Question 2 of 10
What are the fixed first and last terms in every chain this discourse builds?
Correct: A. Assaddhā and duppaññā, unchanged across all five chains.
Question 3 of 10
How many of the five chains are given in fully spelled-out form, rather than elided?
Correct: A. The first two establish the pattern; the remaining three compress it.
Question 4 of 10
What unusual feature appears between the second and third chains?
Correct: A. A rare recitation instruction surviving translation, rather than a bare elision marker.
Question 5 of 10
Is any quality introduced in this discourse that didn't already appear in SN 14.17?
Correct: A. A combinatorial exercise recombining, not expanding, the existing list.
Question 6 of 10
What middle term does the first fully-spelled chain use?
Correct: A. The first chain: faithless, unconscientious, witless.
Question 7 of 10
What middle term does the second fully-spelled chain use?
Correct: A. The second chain: faithless, imprudent, witless.
Question 8 of 10
Who is the sole speaker in this discourse?
Correct: A. No interlocutor or visitor appears; the Buddha teaches directly, with an embedded recitation note.
Question 9 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. The setting shared with most discourses in this collection.
Question 10 of 10
What numbering tag closes this discourse?
Correct: A. The eighth discourse of Dutiyavagga.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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