The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
The refrain-parable-refrain-exhortation template from SN 15.1-2, applied to a new, non-numerical image
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 genuinely different kind of image from every discourse before it in this vagga
Why this discourse
After five consecutive discourses (SN 15.4–8) measuring quantity or duration, this discourse returns to SN 15.1-2's declarative template but with a genuinely different kind of image: not a count or a measure, but unpredictable direction. A stick tossed into the air lands sometimes on its base, sometimes its middle, sometimes its tip — with no way to predict which. In the same way, beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and bound by craving, sometimes pass from this world to another, and sometimes come from another world to this one, with no fixed pattern governing which direction comes next.
Reading guide
A shift from quantity to unpredictability
Every discourse since SN 15.4 measured something — how much, how long, how many; this discourse instead illustrates something structurally different: the sheer unpredictability of which direction transmigration takes at any given moment.
A return to SN 15.1-2's declarative shape
This discourse drops the question-and-answer format SN 15.4-8 used, returning to the flat, one-way declaration SN 15.1 and 15.2 opened this vagga with.
Three landing positions, no privileged outcome
The stick's three possible landings — base, middle, tip — are given with no suggestion that any one is more likely or more significant than the others, mirroring the parable's point that no direction of transmigration is privileged over another.
Coming and going, not simply accumulating
Where the earlier parables all emphasized how much has accumulated over time, this discourse's language of going from this world to another and coming back again emphasizes ongoing movement, a continuing process rather than a settled total.
A brief discourse before this vagga's substantial close
Short and image-driven rather than argued or dialogued, this discourse functions as a final variation before SN 15.10 closes the vagga with its longest and most structurally elaborate discourse yet.
Key terms
daṇḍo uparivehāsaṁ khitto — “a stick tossed up in the air” — this discourse's central image, its title subject.
sakimpi mūlena … sakimpi majjhena … sakimpi antena — “sometimes on its base … sometimes the middle … sometimes the end” — the stick's three unpredictable landing positions.
asmā lokā paraṁ lokaṁ gacchanti — “they go from this world to the other world” — one direction of the transmigration the stick illustrates.
parasmā lokā imaṁ lokaṁ āgacchanti — “they come from the other world to this world” — the opposite direction, given equal weight in the parable.
navamaṁ — “the ninth” — the closing numbering tag, marking this discourse's place in the vagga.
The text
The discourse in full. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, this transmigration has no known beginning. No first point is found of sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving. Suppose a stick was tossed up in the air. Sometimes it’d fall on its bottom, sometimes the middle, and sometimes the end. It’s the same for sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving. Sometimes they go from this world to the other world, and sometimes they come from the other world to this world. Why is that? This transmigration has no known beginning. … This is quite enough for you to become disillusioned, dispassionate, and freed regarding all conditions.”
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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 kind of image does this discourse use, distinct from SN 15.4-8?
Correct: A. A structurally different kind of illustration than the preceding measurement-focused discourses.
Question 2 of 10
What three positions can the tossed stick land in, according to this discourse?
Correct: A. Three possible landings, with no privileged outcome among them.
Question 3 of 10
What does this discourse's parable illustrate about transmigration?
Correct: A. Unpredictability of direction, mirroring the stick's random landing.
Question 4 of 10
How does this discourse's structure compare to SN 15.4-8?
Correct: A. A return to declaration rather than dialogue.
Question 5 of 10
What does this reading guide say distinguishes this discourse's emphasis from the earlier parables' emphasis?
Correct: A. Coming and going, not simply accumulating a vast quantity.
Question 6 of 10
What role does this discourse play just before the vagga's close?
Correct: A. Short and focused, setting up SN 15.10's more substantial close.
Question 7 of 10
Are the stick's three landing positions given differing significance in this discourse?
Correct: A. An equal, unprivileged treatment of all three outcomes.
Question 8 of 10
Who is the sole speaker in this discourse?
Correct: A. No interlocutor or visitor appears; the Buddha teaches directly.
Question 9 of 10
Where does the Buddha deliver this teaching?
Correct: A. A return to Sāvatthī after SN 15.8's Rājagaha setting.
Question 10 of 10
What numbering tag closes this discourse?
Correct: A. The ninth discourse of this vagga, one before its close.
