Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 37.30

They Send Her Away

Nāsentisutta — Balavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha addressing the mendicants
Form
Four negative cases (missing ethical behavior) paired with four positive cases (missing one other power but keeping ethical behavior)
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
★★☆☆☆ — an eight-case matrix built from a single decisive variable

Why this discourse

This discourse singles out one of the five powers — ethical behavior (sīlabala) — as decisive regardless of the other four: a lady lacking ethical behavior is sent away by her family even if she holds attractiveness, wealth, relatives, and children, one at a time or all together; a lady holding ethical behavior is kept by her family even if she lacks any one of the other four. Eight cases in total — four escalating combinations missing ethical behavior, four single-power cases built on ethical behavior alone — all resolving to the same rule: ethical behavior decides the outcome; the other four powers do not.

Reading guide

Four combinations, one missing term, one verdict

Attractiveness alone, attractiveness with wealth, with wealth and relatives, with wealth, relatives, and children — each escalating combination still lacks ethical behavior, and each is sent away regardless of how many of the other four powers accumulate.

Ethical behavior alone, four times over

The second half of the discourse holds ethical behavior fixed and removes one other power at a time — attractiveness, then wealth, then relatives, then children — and each time the family keeps her regardless of which single power is missing.

The same claim already made once, restated as a matrix

This discourse's underlying claim — that ethical behavior alone determines family acceptance — is not new to this vagga; SN 37.14 and SN 37.24 already closed Paṭhamapeyyālavagga and Dutiyapeyyālavagga on the same five ethical precepts. What is new here is the explicit eight-case demonstration ruling out every combination of the other four powers as a substitute.

Key terms

sīlabalena... na ca... nāsenteva naṁ, kule na vāsenti — “lacking the power of ethical behavior... the family sends her away, they do not accommodate her” — the discourse's own negative refrain, repeated across four escalating combinations
sīlabalena ca... na ca... vāsenteva naṁ, kule na nāsenti — “holding the power of ethical behavior... the family accommodates her, they do not send her away” — the matching positive refrain, repeated across four single-power omissions
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
chaṭṭhaṁ — “sixth” — 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. If a lady has the power of attractiveness but not that of ethical behavior, the family will send her away, they won’t accommodate her. If a lady has the powers of attractiveness and wealth but not that of ethical behavior, the family will send her away, they won’t accommodate her. If a lady has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, and relatives, but not that of ethical behavior, the family will send her away, they won’t accommodate her. If a lady has the powers of attractiveness, wealth, relatives, and children, but not that of ethical behavior, the family will send her away, they won’t accommodate her. If a lady has the power of ethical behavior but not that of attractiveness, the family will accommodate her, they won’t send her away. If a lady has the power of ethical behavior but not that of wealth, the family will accommodate her, they won’t send her away. If a lady has the power of ethical behavior but not that of relatives, the family will accommodate her, they won’t send her away. If a lady has the power of ethical behavior but not that of children, the family will accommodate her, they won’t send her away. 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
Which single power does this discourse treat as decisive for family acceptance?
Correct: A. Present, the family keeps her regardless of what else is missing; absent, they send her away regardless of what else is present.
Question 2 of 3
What happens to a lady with attractiveness, wealth, and relatives, but lacking ethical behavior?
Correct: A. One of the four escalating combinations the discourse explicitly rules out as a substitute for ethical behavior.
Question 3 of 3
Is this discourse's underlying claim entirely new to Mātugāmasaṃyutta?
Correct: A. The claim recurs; the eight-case ruling-out of every alternative combination is what this discourse newly demonstrates.
Answered 0 of 3 · Correct 0

Further reading

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