Reading guide
Ordinary vocabulary, technically redefined
Following the pattern already met at SN 46.5 and 46.21 (“how are the awakening factors defined?”), this discourse instead takes a common colloquial term and redefines it technically — confirming, by direct comparison with its own companion discourse (SN 46.45), that this vagga applies the same definitional device to ordinary social vocabulary, not just to the saṃyutta's own specialized terms.
Key terms
The text
§1Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha … and asked him, “Sir, they speak of ‘a witless idiot’. How is a witless idiot defined?” “Mendicant, they’re called a witless idiot because they haven’t developed and cultivated the seven awakening factors. What seven? The awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity. They’re called a witless idiot because they haven’t developed and cultivated these seven awakening factors.”
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