Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 37.4

Three Qualities

Tīhidhammehisutta — Paṭhamapeyyālavagga

Setting
Not restated in this discourse
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the assembled mendicants
Form
A threefold list, each item assigned to a specific time of day
Length
Under 1 minute 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
★★☆☆☆ — brief, structured around an unusual temporal framing

Why this discourse

This discourse describes a woman living at home with her heart occupied by three particular stains across a single day: stinginess in the morning, jealousy in the afternoon, and sexual desire in the evening. The text links this pattern, when it holds, to unfavorable rebirth — a place of loss, the underworld, hell. Unlike SN 37.5–13's own fixed five-item template, this discourse's own three qualities are notable for being mapped onto a temporal sequence rather than simply listed.

Reading guide

A structure built on time of day, not a simple list

Rather than naming three qualities as co-present traits, the discourse assigns each to a specific part of the day — morning, afternoon, evening — a structural choice this project has not met applied to moral qualities elsewhere in this saṃyutta.

Three specific stains, one per period

Stinginess (macchera), jealousy (issā), and sexual desire (kāmarāga) are the three named “stains” (mala) — the discourse's own choice not to spread these across a full day but to compress them into three sequential windows.

A domestic setting named explicitly

“Lives at home” (gharaṁ ajjhāvasati) frames this discourse's own subject specifically within household life, distinct from the more general framing of the fivefold discourses that follow.

The shortest fully independent discourse in this vagga so far

At three qualities rather than five, and without the fixed “faithless, shameless, imprudent... witless” frame that will anchor SN 37.5 through SN 37.13, this discourse stands as its own distinct, self-contained unit rather than the opening member of a template series.

Key terms

macchera — stinginess — the first of the three named stains, assigned to the morning
issā — jealousy — the second stain, assigned to the afternoon
kāmarāga — sexual desire — the third stain, assigned to the evening
mala — “stain” — the discourse's own term for each of the three qualities, framing them as a defilement rather than a neutral trait
gharaṁ ajjhāvasati — “lives at home” — the discourse's own explicit domestic setting for this pattern

The text

The complete discourse: the three stains, each assigned to its own time of day. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1“Mendicants, when ladies have three qualities, when their body breaks up, after death, they are mostly reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. What three? A female lives at home with a heart full of the stain of stinginess in the morning, jealousy in the afternoon, and sexual desire in the evening. When ladies possess these three qualities, when their body breaks up, after death, they are mostly reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell.”

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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 three qualities does this discourse map onto specific times of day?
Correct: A. A sequential structure this project has not met applied to moral qualities elsewhere in this saṃyutta.
Question 2 of 5
How does this discourse's own structure differ from SN 37.5-13's fivefold template?
Correct: A. A self-contained unit rather than the opening member of the template series that follows.
Question 3 of 5
What term does the discourse use to describe each of the three qualities?
Correct: A. Explicitly framing the three qualities as defilements rather than neutral traits.
Question 4 of 5
What setting does this discourse specify for the pattern it describes?
Correct: A. Distinct from the more general framing of the fivefold discourses that follow.
Question 5 of 5
What outcome does this discourse link to the pattern it describes, when it holds?
Correct: A. The same rebirth-consequence framing this vagga's own fivefold discourses will use as well.
Answered 0 of 5 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousSN 37.3 · Particular Suffering