Reading guide
Four formulas, one simile, confirmed complete
The same simile (the Buddha as best of all beings) is stated four separate times, each closing with one of the four formulas already met across the two Gaṅgāpeyyāla vaggas: the base “seclusion, fading away, cessation, letting go” formula, then “removal of greed, hate, delusion,” then “freedom from death,” then the self-referential extinguishment formula — in that order, confirmed by direct reading.
This vagga's own template discourse
Every simile that follows in this vagga (nine more discourses) implicitly repeats this identical fourfold structure, but the source text abbreviates them — sometimes to a single formula, sometimes to a bare opening line — confirmed by an explicit elaboration instruction found at this vagga's own final discourse.
Key terms
The text
Part 1 — the base formulaAt Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, the Realized One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, is said to be the best of all sentient beings—be they footless, with two feet, four feet, or many feet; with form or formless; with perception or without perception or with neither perception nor non-perception. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them. A mendicant who is diligent can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path. And how does a mendicant who is diligent develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path? It’s when a mendicant develops right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. That’s how a mendicant who is diligent develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.
Part 2 — culminating in the removal of greed, hate, and delusionMendicants, the Realized One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, is said to be the best of all sentient beings—be they footless, with two feet, four feet, or many feet; with form or formless; with perception or without perception or with neither perception nor non-perception. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them. A mendicant who is diligent can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path. And how does a mendicant who is diligent develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path? It’s when a mendicant develops right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion, which culminate in the removal of greed, hate, and delusion. That’s how a mendicant who is diligent develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.
Part 3 — whose objective, destination, and culmination is freedom from deathMendicants, the Realized One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, is said to be the best of all sentient beings—be they footless, with two feet, four feet, or many feet; with form or formless; with perception or without perception or with neither perception nor non-perception. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them. A mendicant who is diligent can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path. And how does a mendicant who is diligent develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path? It’s when a mendicant develops right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion, whose objective, destination, and culmination is freedom from death. That’s how a mendicant who is diligent develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.
Part 4 — which slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishmentMendicants, the Realized One, the perfected one, the fully awakened Buddha, is said to be the best of all sentient beings—be they footless, with two feet, four feet, or many feet; with form or formless; with perception or without perception or with neither perception nor non-perception. In the same way, all skillful qualities are rooted in diligence and meet at diligence, and diligence is said to be the best of them. A mendicant who is diligent can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path. And how does a mendicant who is diligent develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path? It’s when a mendicant develops right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion, which slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment. That’s how a mendicant who is diligent develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.”
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