Reading guide
A natural image, not a direct argument
Where SN 45.2–3 argued directly that good friends are “the whole of the spiritual life,” this discourse instead offers an image: dawn does not cause the sun to rise, but reliably precedes and signals it — a gentler, more indirect way of making a related point about what comes first.
The first of seven qualities, in the first of two rounds
Confirmed by reading this vagga's own remaining thirteen discourses directly: good friendship is the first of seven qualities (with ethics, enthusiasm, self-development, view, diligence, and rational application of mind following) this vagga runs through twice, each time with the identical dawn simile and a different closing formula.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, the dawn is the forerunner and harbinger of the sunrise. In the same way good friendship is the forerunner and harbinger of the noble eightfold path for a mendicant. A mendicant with good friends can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path. And how does a mendicant with good friends 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 with good friends develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.”
Self-check quiz
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