Reading guide
The Bodhisatta's second teacher
MN 26 names Uddaka Rāmaputta as the second sage under whom the Bodhisatta studied before his own awakening, after Āḷāra Kālāma. No teaching attributed to Uddaka survives in the Vedic corpus itself, but Sujato's own note traces striking parallels in the Jain Isibhāsiyāiṁ's own twenty-third chapter, attributed to a certain Rāmaputta likely the same figure — rare textual contact between the early Buddhist and Jain collections.
A boast, quoted and refused
Uddaka's own verse claims three things at once: knowledge mastery (vedagū), conquest of all (sabbajī), and the undug root of the “boil” dug out. The Buddha states plainly that Uddaka was none of these — he only said so.
The same verse, reclaimed
Rather than discard Uddaka's words, the Buddha corrects only their tense and repeats them unaltered otherwise as something a mendicant might rightly say — the boast becomes true, not by changing its wording, but by changing who has earned the right to speak it.
Three claims, defined against six fields
Knowledge mastery, conquest of all, and digging out the boil's root are each defined in turn: a knowledge master truly understands the six fields of contact's own origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape; a conqueror of all is freed by not grasping after understanding the same five; and the “boil” itself is named as this body, its root as craving, dug out only when craving is cut off at the root and made incapable of arising again.
More than one ending at once
This discourse's own untranslated closing colophon names Saḷavagga as the fifth vagga of this book's own second paṇṇāsaka, and a meta-uddāna names all five vaggas of that fifty (Avijjā, Migajāla, Gilāna, Channa, Saḷa) in turn — but a further line follows, naming a landmark this project has not yet met: “Paṭhamasatakaṁ,” the first hundred, left as untranslated as the rest and not claimed here as more than what the Pali root itself states.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, Uddaka son of Rāma used to say: ‘Hereupon, ever the knowledge master! Hereupon, ever the conqueror of all! Hereupon, ever the undug boil’s root was dug out by me!’ Even though Uddaka son of Rāma was no knowledge master, he said ‘I’m a knowledge master.’ Though he was no conqueror of all, he said ‘I’m conqueror of all.’ And though the boil’s root was not dug out, he said ‘I’ve dug out the boil’s root.’ A mendicant might rightly say here: ‘Hereupon, ever the knowledge master! Hereupon, ever the conqueror of all! Hereupon, ever the undug boil’s root is dug out!’
§2And how is someone a knowledge master? It’s when a mendicant truly understands the six fields of contact’s origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape. That’s how a mendicant is a knowledge master.
§3And how is a mendicant a conqueror of all? It’s when a mendicant comes to be freed by not grasping after truly understanding the six fields of contact’s origin, disappearance, gratification, drawback, and escape. That’s how a mendicant is a conqueror of all.
§4And how has a mendicant dug out the undug boil’s root? ‘Boil’ is a term for this body made up of the four principal states, produced by mother and father, built up from rice and porridge, liable to impermanence, to wearing away and erosion, to breaking up and destruction. ‘Boil’s root’ is a term for craving. It’s when a mendicant has given up craving, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant has dug out the undug boil’s root.
§5Uddaka son of Rāma used to say: ‘Hereupon, ever the knowledge master! Hereupon, ever the conqueror of all! Hereupon, ever the undug boil’s root is dug out!’ Even though Uddaka son of Rāma was no knowledge master, he said ‘I’m a knowledge master.’ Though he was no conqueror of all, he said ‘I’m conqueror of all.’ And though the boil’s root was not dug out, he said ‘I’ve dug out the boil’s root.’ A mendicant might rightly say here: ‘Hereupon, ever the knowledge master! Hereupon, ever the conqueror of all! Hereupon, ever the undug boil’s root is dug out!’”
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