Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 37.34

Growth

Vaḍḍhisutta — Balavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha addressing the mendicants
Form
A fivefold growth formula in prose, restated in a closing verse, followed by the vagga's and saṃyutta's own closing colophons
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
★★☆☆☆ — closes both this vagga and the entire saṃyutta at once

Why this discourse

This discourse closes Balavagga, and with it Mātugāmasaṃyutta itself: a female noble disciple (ariyasāvikā) who grows in faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom grows nobly, “taking on what is essential and excellent in this life.” Unlike every other discourse in Balavagga, this fivefold list — saddhā, sīla, suta, cāga, paññā — is not built from the rūpa/bhoga/ñāti/putta/sīla pentad that opened the vagga; it is the standard growth formula applied here specifically to a female disciple, closing the saṃyutta on a registered shift from worldly powers to spiritual cultivation. The discourse's own closing colophon confirms three nested endings at once: the vagga's own untranslated ordinal (“Balavaggo tatiyo,” the third), an untranslated uddāna listing all ten discourses, and finally — genuinely translated by Sujato himself — “Mātugāmasaṁyuttaṁ samattaṁ,” “The Linked Discourses on ladies are complete.”

Reading guide

A different pentad, for the vagga's own close

Faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom replace Balavagga's own recurring rūpa/bhoga/ñāti/putta/sīla list entirely — the only discourse in this vagga not built on that founding pentad.

Ethics reappears, now inside a spiritual list

Sīla (ethics) is the one term shared between this closing formula and the vagga's opening pentad — consistent with SN 37.30–31 and SN 37.33's own running elevation of ethical conduct above the other four worldly powers, now folded into a purely spiritual growth sequence.

A verse restates the prose, then three nested endings close the saṃyutta

The discourse's own closing verse repeats the fivefold growth list in condensed form before the text moves to the vagga's own untranslated ordinal (“Balavaggo tatiyo”) and uddāna, and finally to the saṃyutta's own genuinely Sujato-translated closing line — the same three-layer close (vagga ordinal, uddāna, saṃyutta colophon) this project has now traced at the end of every saṃyutta in Book IV so far.

Mātugāmasaṃyutta, complete

34 discourses across three vaggas: a black-side and bright-side mirror pair on personal character (Paṭhamapeyyālavagga, Dutiyapeyyālavagga), and a third vagga introducing an entirely new pentad of worldly powers before consistently elevating ethical conduct above the other four and closing on a purely spiritual growth formula — a saṃyutta requiring careful, non-judgmental handling throughout, read here on its own terms.

Key terms

saddhāya vaḍḍhati, sīlena vaḍḍhati, sutena vaḍḍhati, cāgena vaḍḍhati, paññāya vaḍḍhati — “grows in faith, grows in ethics, grows in learning, grows in generosity, grows in wisdom” — the discourse's own closing pentad, replacing Balavagga's worldly-powers list entirely
ariyasāvikā — “a female noble disciple” — this discourse's own subject, distinct from the recurring “mātugāmo” of the rest of this saṃyutta
Balavaggo tatiyo — “Balavagga, the third” — the vagga's own untranslated closing ordinal, confirming its position as Mātugāmasaṃyutta's third and final vagga
Mātugāmasaṁyuttaṁ samattaṁ — “The Linked Discourses on ladies are complete” — this saṃyutta's own genuinely Sujato-translated closing line, following the untranslated vagga ordinal and uddāna this reading guide describes rather than quotes
dasamaṁ — “tenth” — this discourse's own untranslated position marker within the vagga, distinct from its own vagga-level ordinal “Balavaggo tatiyo”

The text

The complete discourse, apart from the intervening untranslated vagga-level ordinal and uddāna (described rather than quoted above), together with this saṃyutta's own genuinely translated final line. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, a female noble disciple who grows in five ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life. What five? She grows in faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom. A female noble disciple who grows in these five ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life.

The accompanying verse

§2When she grows in faith and ethics, wisdom, and both generosity and learning—a virtuous laywoman such as she takes on what is essential for herself in this life.”

§3The Linked Discourses on ladies are complete.

· · ·

Self-check quiz

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

Question 1 of 5
What fivefold list closes this discourse, replacing Balavagga's own recurring pentad?
Correct: A. The standard growth-of-a-noble-disciple formula, distinct from the worldly-powers pentad opening this vagga.
Question 2 of 5
Which single term is shared between this closing formula and Balavagga's own opening pentad?
Correct: A. Continuing this vagga's own running elevation of ethical conduct above the other worldly powers.
Question 3 of 5
What does this discourse's own closing colophon confirm?
Correct: A. "Mātugāmasaṁyuttaṁ samattaṁ" — genuinely Sujato-translated, following the untranslated vagga-level material.
Question 4 of 5
How many discourses and vaggas make up Mātugāmasaṃyutta in total?
Correct: A. Confirmed by bilara-data and SuttaCentral's own menu API before this saṃyutta's opening discourse, and by this discourse's own uddāna.
Question 5 of 5
What subject term does this discourse use, distinct from the "mātugāmo" recurring elsewhere in this saṃyutta?
Correct: A. A shift in register from the saṃyutta's own recurring subject term to a specifically spiritual designation.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

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