Reading guide
A full teaching, not just a complaint this time
Where SN 16.6 gave Kassapa's candid diagnosis of a specific incident, this discourse shows him delivering a complete, structured doctrinal teaching — the kind of Dhamma talk the Buddha originally asked for.
The waning and waxing moon as a precise symmetry
Every attribute the waning moon loses — beauty, roundness, luminosity, size — is mirrored exactly by what the waxing moon gains, giving the simile a structural completeness matching the decline-and-growth teaching it illustrates.
Five qualities recognizable from elsewhere in this collection
Faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom overlap substantially with the septet Dutiyavagga built an entire combinatorial sequence from in Dhātusaṃyutta, here applied specifically to the question of spiritual decline and growth.
Two new categories beyond the earlier septet
Kodhana and upanāhī, irritability and resentment (or their positive counterparts), and the presence or absence of mendicant advisers altogether, extend beyond the five core qualities into interpersonal temperament and institutional support.
The Buddha repeating, not merely approving
Rather than a brief "good, good" as in earlier discourses, the Buddha restates Kassapa's entire teaching — the moon simile, all eight declining types, all eight thriving types — confirming it not just as correct but as worth teaching again in his own words.
Key terms
The text
§1Near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove. Then Venerable Mahākassapa went up to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him, “Kassapa, advise the mendicants! Give them a Dhamma talk! Either you or I should advise the mendicants and give them a Dhamma talk.”
§2“Sir, the mendicants these days are hard to admonish, having qualities that make them hard to admonish. They’re impatient, and don’t take instruction respectfully. Sir, whoever has no faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect decline, not growth, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.
§3It’s like the moon in the waning fortnight. Whether by day or by night, its beauty, roundness, luminosity, and diameter and circumference only decline. In the same way, whoever has no faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect decline, not growth, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.
§4A faithless individual is in decline. An individual with no conscience is in decline. An imprudent individual is in decline. A lazy individual is in decline. A witless individual is in decline. An irritable individual is in decline. An acrimonious individual is in decline. When there are no mendicant advisers there is decline.
§5Sir, whoever has faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect growth, not decline, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.
§6It’s like the moon in the waxing fortnight. Whether by day or by night, its beauty, roundness, luminosity, and diameter and circumference only grow. In the same way, whoever has faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect growth, not decline, in skillful qualities, whether by day or by night.
§7A faithful individual doesn’t decline. An individual with a conscience doesn’t decline. A prudent individual doesn’t decline. An energetic individual doesn’t decline. A wise individual doesn’t decline. A loving individual doesn’t decline. A kind individual doesn’t decline. When there are mendicant advisers there is no decline.”
§8“Good, good, Kassapa! Whoever has no faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect decline, not growth …
§9When there are no mendicant advisers there is decline.
§10Whoever has faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom when it comes to skillful qualities can expect growth, not decline …
§11
§12When there are mendicant advisers there is no decline.”
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