Reading guide
A direct cross-reference, not independent content
Confirmed by direct reading, the source itself instructs readers to “tell in full for each of the different rivers as in SN 45.91–102” — this project's own already-completed Gaṅgāpeyyālavagga from the Maggasaṃyutta — rather than rewriting the full river-by-river content again. The five great rivers (Gaṅgā, Yamunā, Aciravatī, Sarabhū, Mahī), sloping first east and then to the ocean, with two collective statements closing each direction, are confirmed by the closing uddāna's own explicit count (“six sloping east, six sloping to the ocean, these two sixes make twelve”) to structure this entire twelve-discourse vagga identically to its own earlier counterpart.
A single formula, not the later three-set structure
Unlike SN 45's own SECOND Gaṅgā vagga (Dutiyagaṅgāpeyyālavagga), which cycled through three distinct closing formulas across three full repetitions of the twelve-discourse pattern, this vagga uses only the single self-referential “slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment” formula throughout — confirmed by direct reading to match the simpler, single-formula structure of SN 45's own FIRST Gaṅgā vagga rather than its own more elaborate second installment.
A colophon and uddāna, confirming this vagga's own position
The Pāli root closes with “Gaṅgāpeyyālavaggo navamo” (“the Gaṅgāpeyyāla chapter, the ninth”), matching this project's own count without discrepancy — and an editorial cross-reference note (“to be elaborated in full, following the Searches text”) left untranslated in the consulted English source and described here rather than rendered as invented translation.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, the Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. In the same way, a mendicant who develops and cultivates the seven awakening factors slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment. And how does a mendicant who develops the seven awakening factors slant, slope, and incline to extinguishment? It’s when a mendicant develops the awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. That’s how a mendicant who develops and cultivates the seven awakening factors slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.” (Tell in full for each of the different rivers as in SN 45.91–102.)
Self-check quiz
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