Reading guide
A claim about historical rarity, not personal capacity
This discourse is not making a claim about any individual's own ability to develop the awakening factors, but about their own availability in the world at all — without a Buddha's own prior discovery and teaching, the text claims, this precise sevenfold path to awakening simply does not arise for anyone to develop, however diligent.
The first of a deliberately paired discourse
This discourse and its own companion (SN 46.10) make parallel but distinct claims: here, dependency on a Buddha's own appearance; there, dependency on “the Holy One's training” — together closing this vagga's own uddāna as “the arisen ones, two more,” confirmed to be counted as one deliberate closing pair.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, these seven awakening factors don’t arise to be developed and cultivated except when a Realized One, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha has appeared. What seven? The awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity. These seven awakening factors don’t arise to be developed and cultivated except when a Realized One, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha has appeared.”
Self-check quiz
3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.