Reading guide
The same river, a different closing formula
Confirmed by direct comparison with this project's own SN 48.71-82, the opening image is identical word for word — the Ganges river slanting, sloping, and inclining to the east — but the closing formula describing how the five faculties are developed differs genuinely: “rāgavinayapariyosānaṁ dosavinayapariyosānaṁ mohavinayapariyosānaṁ” (“culminating in the removal of greed, hate, and delusion”), not the earlier vagga's own “vivekanissitaṁ...vossaggapariṇāmiṁ.”
Twelve discourses again, confirmed by the identical uddāna
This vagga's own closing uddāna — “cha pācīnato ninnā, cha ninnā ca samuddato; dvete cha dvādasa honti” — is character-for-character identical to SN 48.71-82's own, confirming the same twelvefold structure (six on slanting east, six on slanting to the ocean) even while the substantive content of the faculties' own development differs.
Vagga 13, confirmed by this file's own colophon
This discourse's own closing colophon, “Gaṅgāpeyyālavaggo terasamo” (“the Ganges Abbreviated-Texts chapter, the thirteenth”), confirms this vagga's own position without ambiguity, matching this project's own running count.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, the Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. In the same way, a mendicant developing and cultivating the five faculties slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment. How so? It’s when a mendicant develops the faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom, which culminate in the removal of greed, hate, and delusion. That’s how a mendicant developing and cultivating the five faculties slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.”
UddānaSix on slanting to the east, and six on slanting to the ocean; these two sixes make twelve, and that’s how this chapter is recited.
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