Reading guide
A complete worked example, closing on rainy thunderclouds
This file gives the entire question, answer, and closing statement for the last weather-type (rainy thunderclouds) in full English translation — the same complete-example approach already seen at SN 29.21–50 and SN 31.23–112, rather than SN 30.17–46's own bare stub.
Four weather-types, one worked thread standing for all
The opening question chains all four remaining weather-types into a single sentence, then works only the last one (rainy thunderclouds) through to its own complete ending — the other three are left entirely to inference from this one worked example and SN 32.3–12's own explicit ten-item list.
A scale matching Nāgasaṃyutta's own equivalent set
Ten gift-items times four remaining weather-types yields exactly forty discourses — the same scale as SN 29.21–50's own thirty-discourse block would reach if Nāgasaṃyutta's fourfold taxonomy were scaled up by one more birth-mode, though the two saṃyuttas' underlying taxonomies (four birth-modes vs. five weather-types) remain genuinely distinct.
Setting up this saṃyutta's own distinct final act
Unlike SN 29's and SN 31's own closing merged files, which each carry the vagga and saṃyutta colophons directly, this file's close hands off to five further individual discourses (SN 32.53–57) before this saṃyutta's own colophon finally appears — Valāhakasaṃyutta's own closing arc is not yet complete here.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. Seated to one side, that mendicant said to the Buddha: “Sir, what is the cause, what is the reason why someone, when their body breaks up, after death, is reborn in the company of the gods of warm thunderclouds … stormy thunderclouds … windy thunderclouds … rainy thunderclouds?” “Mendicant, it’s when someone does good things by way of body, speech, and mind. And they’ve heard: ‘The gods of rainy thunderclouds are long-lived, beautiful, and very happy.’ They think: ‘If only, when my body breaks up, after death, I would be reborn in the company of the gods of rainy thunderclouds!’ They give food … a lamp. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in the company of the gods of rainy thunderclouds. This is the cause, this is the reason why someone, when their body breaks up, after death, is reborn in the company of the gods of rainy thunderclouds.”
Self-check quiz
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