Reading guide
A worried Buddha, comforted by a deity
The narrative frame is unusually personal: the Buddha, alone in meditation after dismissing the Saṅgha, worries specifically about junior mendicants who might “change and fall apart” without his presence — illustrated with the images of a motherless calf and unwatered seedlings. The divinity Sahampati, sensing this thought, appears instantly to confirm the concern and formally request that the Buddha welcome the Saṅgha back, which the Buddha accepts in silence.
A stern teaching on why alms-mendicancy is taken up
Once the mendicants return timidly, summoned by the Buddha's psychic power, the teaching that follows is notably severe in tone. Relying on alms is named “the last of lifestyles” — something the world curses (“you beggar, walking bowl in hand!”) — taken up not to escape debt, fear, or a king's summons, but specifically because one is swamped by rebirth, old age, death, and the whole mass of suffering, hoping to end it.
A firebrand fit for neither village nor wilderness
The discourse's harshest image describes someone who has gone forth for the right stated reason but still covets sensual pleasures, harbors ill will, and lacks mindfulness: they are compared to a firebrand burning at both ends and smeared with dung in the middle, useless as timber anywhere. Such a person, the Buddha says starkly, has missed out on lay pleasures and failed to fulfill the ascetic goal — caught between two worlds, benefiting from neither.
Two remedies, then the standard closing argument
The discourse names specific remedies for this failure state: the three unskillful thoughts (sensual, malicious, cruel) cease without remainder in those established in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation or who develop signless immersion (animitta samādhi). It then names the two views — favoring existence, favoring nonexistence — before closing with the standard reflection on grasping's role in the twelve-link chain and the familiar three-times argument, elided in the source as this vagga's material has been throughout.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans, near Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Tree Monastery. Then the Buddha, having dismissed the mendicant Saṅgha for some reason, robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, entered Kapilavatthu for alms. He wandered for alms in Kapilavatthu. After the meal, on his return from almsround, he went to the Great Wood for the day’s meditation, plunged deep into it, and sat at the root of a young wood-apple tree to meditate.
§2Then as he was in private retreat this thought came to his mind, “I have purged the mendicant Saṅgha. But there are mendicants here who are junior, recently gone forth, newly come to this teaching and training. Not seeing me they may change and fall apart. If a young calf doesn’t see its mother it may change and fall apart. …
§3In the same way, there are mendicants here who are junior, recently gone forth, newly come to this teaching and training. Not seeing me they may change and fall apart. Why don’t I support the mendicant Saṅgha now as I did in the past?”
§4Then the divinity Sahampati knew the Buddha’s train of thought. As easily as a strong person would extend or contract their arm, he vanished from the realm of divinity and reappeared in front of the Buddha. He arranged his robe over one shoulder, raised his cupped palms toward the Buddha, and said: “That’s so true, Blessed One! That’s so true, Holy One! The Buddha has purged the mendicant Saṅgha. But there are mendicants who are junior, recently gone forth, newly come to this teaching and training. …
§5May the Buddha be happy with the mendicant Saṅgha! May the Buddha welcome the mendicant Saṅgha! May the Buddha support the mendicant Saṅgha now as he did in the past!”
§6“This is the last of lifestyles, mendicants, namely relying on alms. The world curses you: ‘You beggar, walking bowl in hand!’ Yet earnest gentlemen take it up for a good reason. Not to escape a summons by a king or a summons for a bandit, or because you were in debt or in fear, or in order to make a living. But because they’re swamped by rebirth, old age, and death; by sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress. They’re swamped by suffering, mired in suffering. And they think, ‘Hopefully I can make an end to this entire mass of suffering.’
§7That’s how this gentleman has gone forth. Yet they covet sensual pleasures; they’re infatuated, full of ill will and malicious intent. They are unmindful, lacking situational awareness and immersion, with straying mind and undisciplined faculties. Suppose there was a firebrand for lighting a funeral pyre, burning at both ends, and smeared with dung in the middle. It couldn’t be used as timber either in the village or the wilderness. I say that individual is just like this. They’ve missed out on the pleasures of the lay life, and haven’t fulfilled the goal of the ascetic life.
§8There are these three unskillful thoughts. Sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts. And where do these three unskillful thoughts cease without remainder? In those who meditate with their mind firmly established in the four kinds of mindfulness meditation; or who develop signless immersion. This is quite enough motivation to develop signless immersion. When signless immersion is developed and cultivated it is very fruitful and beneficial.
§9There are these two views. Views favoring existence and views favoring nonexistence. A learned noble disciple reflects on this: ‘Is there anything in the world that I could grasp without fault?’ They understand: ‘There’s nothing in the world that I could grasp without fault. For in grasping I would grasp only at form, feeling, perception, choices, or consciousness. That grasping of mine would be a condition for continued existence. Continued existence is a requirement for rebirth. Rebirth is a requirement for old age and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress to come to be. That is how this entire mass of suffering originates.’
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