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Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 37.29

In That Respect

Aṅgasutta — Balavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha addressing the mendicants
Form
A cumulative build-up through the same fivefold list, each step marked incomplete or complete
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
A rough counterpart may exist in the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama (T99), though this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a longer discourse built from a repeating add-one-more pattern

Why this discourse

This discourse returns to the same fivefold list — attractiveness, wealth, relatives, children, ethical behavior — and treats it cumulatively rather than as a single all-or-nothing set: a lady with attractiveness alone is “incomplete in that respect”; with attractiveness and wealth, “complete in that respect”; add relatives, incomplete again until she has all three, and so on through all five in fixed order. The pattern repeats four times, building the full pentad one term at a time rather than presenting it as a fixed unit the way SN 37.25–28 did.

Reading guide

Building the pentad one term at a time

Each step names a lady with N powers as incomplete “in that respect” until the next power in the fixed order (attractiveness, wealth, relatives, children, ethical behavior) is added, at which point she is complete in that respect — a structure this saṃyutta has not used before this discourse.

A fixed order, not a free combination

The five powers are always added in the same sequence here, never out of order and never skipping a term — this discourse is not claiming any four of five would do; it is walking through the specific sequence attractiveness → wealth → relatives → children → ethical behavior.

What "in that respect" leaves open

The discourse never states what a lady missing several powers lacks overall, only that she is incomplete “in that respect” (tenaṅgena) relative to each specific addition — a narrower, more qualified claim than SN 37.25–27's own outright outcome statements.

Key terms

aparipūro... tenaṅgena — “incomplete in that respect” — the discourse's own repeated qualifier, marking each intermediate stage before the next power is added
paripūro... tenaṅgena — “complete in that respect” — the matching positive qualifier, closing each of the four cumulative steps
bhikkhave — “mendicants” — the Buddha's own address term, opening this discourse and every other discourse in this vagga
mātugāmo — “a lady” — this saṃyutta's own recurring subject term, already glossed at SN 37.25
pañcamaṁ — “fifth” — this discourse's own untranslated closing ordinal

The text

The complete discourse. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, there are these five powers of a lady. What five? Attractiveness, wealth, relatives, children, and ethical behavior. A lady who has the power of attractiveness but not the power of wealth is incomplete in that respect. But when she has the power of attractiveness and the power of wealth she’s complete in that respect. A lady who has the powers of attractiveness and wealth, but not the power of relatives is incomplete in that respect. But when she has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, and relatives she’s complete in that respect. A lady who has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, and relatives, but not the power of children is incomplete in that respect. But when she has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, relatives, and children she’s complete in that respect. A lady who has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, relatives, and children, but not the power of ethical behavior is incomplete in that respect. But when she has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, relatives, children, and ethical behavior she’s complete in that respect. These are the five powers of a lady.”

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Self-check quiz

3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 3
How does this discourse treat the fivefold list, compared to SN 37.25-28?
Correct: A. A repeating add-one-more structure not used elsewhere in this vagga so far.
Question 2 of 3
In what order are the five powers added?
Correct: A. A fixed sequence repeated identically through all four cumulative steps.
Question 3 of 3
What does "in that respect" (tenaṅgena) qualify?
Correct: A. A more qualified structure than SN 37.25–27's own outright outcome statements.
Answered 0 of 3 · Correct 0

Further reading

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