Reading guide
A request framed around solitary practice
The mendicant's request is specific: teach me in brief, so that, having heard it, I can go live alone, withdrawn, diligent, keen, and resolute. This framing — brevity in service of solitary application, rather than brevity for its own sake — recurs throughout this genre of discourse and signals that what follows is meant to be a complete, self-sufficient meditation instruction rather than merely a summary.
A formula built on a single technical term
The Buddha's brief teaching turns entirely on one word: anusaya, “underlying tendency” (the same term for the latent dispositions toward greed, aversion, and views that persist beneath the surface of ordinary awareness). You are “reckoned by” — identified with, categorized under — whatever you have this latent tendency toward, and not reckoned by whatever you have no such tendency toward.
The mendicant tested on his own understanding, immediately
Unusually, the Buddha does not simply confirm understanding after the mendicant departs and returns — he asks the mendicant to demonstrate comprehension on the spot: “but how do you see the detailed meaning of my brief statement?” The mendicant answers by applying the formula to each of the five aggregates in turn, and the Buddha repeats the mendicant's own answer back verbatim as confirmation — a structure that gives the listener's own articulation equal standing with the Buddha's original statement.
A narrative arc compressed into one short discourse
The discourse closes by narrating what happened next: the mendicant bowed, departed, and “soon” realized the supreme goal of the spiritual life, closing with the same four-part arahant declaration used throughout this book. Few discourses in this vagga carry a listener from initial request through confirmed understanding to full liberation within a single, self-contained narrative arc this compact.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him, “Sir, may the Buddha please teach me Dhamma in brief. When I’ve heard it, I’ll live alone, withdrawn, diligent, keen, and resolute.” “Mendicant, you’re reckoned by what you have an underlying tendency for. You’re not reckoned by what you have no underlying tendency for.” “Understood, Blessed One! Understood, Holy One!”
§2“But how do you see the detailed meaning of my brief statement?” “If you have an underlying tendency for form, you’re reckoned by that.
§3If you have no underlying tendency for form, you’re not reckoned by that.
§4That’s how I understand the detailed meaning of the Buddha’s brief statement.”
§5“Good, good, mendicant! It’s good that you understand the detailed meaning of what I’ve said in brief like this. If you have an underlying tendency for form, you’re reckoned by that.
§6And then that mendicant approved and agreed with what the Buddha said. He got up from his seat, bowed, and respectfully circled the Buddha, keeping him on his right, before leaving.
§7Then that mendicant, living alone, withdrawn, diligent, keen, and resolute, soon realized the supreme end of the spiritual path in this very life. He lived having achieved with his own insight the goal for which gentlemen rightly go forth from the lay life to homelessness. He understood: “Rebirth is ended; the spiritual journey has been completed; what had to be done has been done; there is nothing further for this place.” And that mendicant became one of the perfected.
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