Reading guide
The vagga's own longest embedded temptation speech
Uniquely in this vagga, the comparison includes a full quoted temptation — rulers, ministers, friends, or relatives urging the mendicant, “why let these ocher robes torment you? ...return to a lesser life, enjoy wealth, and make merit!” — before the discourse confirms it is “quite impossible” for a mendicant to yield.
The vagga complete: an explicit instruction, confirmed
The Pāli root closes with “(Yadapi balakaraṇīyaṁ, tadapi vitthāretabbaṁ)” — “what was elaborated for ‘Hard Work’ should also be elaborated here” — the same instruction pattern met at the close of the preceding vagga, confirming all twelve discourses of this vagga carry the identical fourfold formula structure established at SN 45.149.
A colophon and uddāna, described honestly
The closing numbering (“Dvādasamaṁ,” “the twelfth”) confirms this vagga's own twelve-discourse count. “Balakaraṇīyavaggo chaṭṭho” (“the Hard Work chapter, the sixth”) is an internal numbering note whose exact scope this project does not confidently interpret, as with the similar note closing the preceding vagga. The uddāna itself is a plain list of this vagga's own twelve discourse-topics (Hard Work, Seed, Dragon, Tree, Pot, Spike; Sky, two Storms; Ship, Guest House, River), described here rather than rendered as invented verse.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, suppose that, although the Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east, a large crowd were to come along with a spade and basket, saying: ‘We’ll make this Ganges river slant, slope, and incline to the west!’ What do you think, mendicants? Would they succeed?” “No, sir. Why is that? The Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. It’s not easy to make it slant, slope, and incline to the west. That large crowd will eventually get weary and frustrated.” “In the same way, while a mendicant develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path, if rulers or their chief ministers, friends or colleagues, relatives or kin should invite them to accept wealth, saying: ‘Please, my friend, why let these ocher robes torment you? Why follow the practice of shaving your head and carrying an alms bowl? Come, return to a lesser life, enjoy wealth, and make merit!’ It is quite impossible for a mendicant who develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path to resign the training and return to a lesser life. Why is that? Because for a long time that mendicant’s mind has slanted, sloped, and inclined to seclusion. So it’s impossible for them to return to a lesser life. And how does a mendicant develop 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 develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.”
Self-check quiz
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