Reading guide
A report that implies envy without stating it
The mendicants' account of Ajātasattu's patronage is given without explicit comment, but the Buddha's immediate response — don't envy this — makes clear that the report itself was liable to provoke exactly that reaction in anyone who heard it.
A specific, named, historically remembered patron
Ajātasattu, the crown prince who would later become king and who the wider tradition remembers as complicit in Devadatta's later plots, grounds this discourse in concrete, rememberable historical detail rather than any generic wealthy donor.
Quantified extravagance as its own kind of evidence
Five hundred carts and five hundred servings of food, specified exactly and repeated twice daily, presents a scale of patronage precise enough that its excess doesn't need further comment to register.
Decline named as the actual outcome of apparent success
Rather than treat this patronage as evidence of Devadatta's flourishing, the Buddha inverts the expected reading entirely: hāniyeva … pāṭikaṅkhā, “decline is to be expected,” not growth, for as long as the patronage continues.
A simile of aggravation, not mere continuation
The lanced boil doesn't simply fail to help the wild dog; it actively makes the dog wilder, an image specifying that this kind of excessive attention doesn't just fail to counteract Devadatta's condition but actively worsens it.
Key terms
The text
§1Near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground. Now at that time Prince Ajātasattu was going with five hundred carts at daybreak and dusk to attend on Devadatta, presenting him with an offering of five hundred servings of food. Then several mendicants went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him, “Sir, Prince Ajātasattu is going with five hundred carts at daybreak and dusk to attend on Devadatta, presenting him with an offering of five hundred servings of food.” “Mendicants, don’t envy Devadatta’s possessions, honor, and popularity. As long as Prince Ajātasattu goes with five hundred carts at daybreak and dusk to attend on Devadatta, presenting him with an offering of five hundred servings of food, Devadatta can expect decline, not growth, in skillful qualities.
§2If they were to lance a boil on a wild dog’s nose, it would get even wilder. In the same way, as long as Prince Ajātasattu goes with five hundred carts at daybreak and dusk to attend on Devadatta, presenting him with an offering of five hundred servings of food, Devadatta can expect decline, not growth, in skillful qualities. So grim are possessions, honor, and popularity. …”
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