Reading guide
A setting that marks a specific moment in time
Every discourse in this saṃyutta before this one gives either Sāvatthī or no location at all as a bare setting; this discourse instead specifies Rājagaha's Vulture's Peak and a precise temporal marker, shortly after Devadatta had left, anchoring the teaching to an actual moment in the narrative surrounding him.
Fruiting that destroys the plant that bears it
Banana, bamboo, and reed are traditionally understood to die once they fruit or flower; naming three such plants in succession builds a cumulative image of a natural process where producing the very thing meant to propagate life instead ends it.
A mule's pregnancy as the image's most striking turn
Mules, as hybrid offspring, are traditionally held to be infertile; a mule becoming pregnant would represent an unnatural conception fatal to the mother, giving the list's final image the sharpest edge of self-destruction through what should be creative, not destructive.
A closing verse actually translated, not elided
Where this saṃyutta usually leaves its closing verses and uddānas untranslated in the source, this discourse's verse is rendered in full — naming honor's destructive power directly and applying kāpurisa, “a reprobate” or base person, explicitly to the kind of person the whole set of images has been describing.
Ruin named as the discourse's own word for the outcome
attavadhāya … parābhavāya, “for his own ruin and downfall,” frames the entire discourse's outcome before a single simile is given, so that each subsequent image only illustrates a conclusion already stated directly.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, on the Vulture’s Peak Mountain, not long after Devadatta had left. There the Buddha spoke to the mendicants about Devadatta: “Possessions, honor, and popularity came to Devadatta for his own ruin and downfall.
§2It’s like a banana plant …
§3or a bamboo …
§4or a reed, all of which bear fruit to their own ruin and downfall …
§5It’s like a mule, which becomes pregnant to its own ruin and downfall. In the same way, possessions, honor, and popularity came to Devadatta for his own ruin and downfall. So grim are possessions, honor, and popularity. That’s how you should train.”
§6 · Verse“The banana plant is destroyed by its own fruit, as are the bamboo and the reed. Honor destroys a reprobate, as pregnancy destroys a mule.”
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