Reading guide
The four right efforts, defined in full
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse opens by defining its own saṃyutta's governing subject in full: the four right efforts (sammappadhāna) — preventing unarisen bad qualities, abandoning arisen bad qualities, developing unarisen good qualities, and maintaining, not losing, but increasing, maturing, and completing arisen good qualities — before turning to the river simile.
A formula met twice before, now for a third quality set
Confirmed by direct comparison, this vagga's own river simile — the Ganges river's own natural “slanting, sloping, inclining” toward the east, mirrored in a mendicant's own inclination toward extinguishment — is identical in structure to SN 45.91-102 (there for the eightfold path) and SN 48.71-82 (there for the five faculties), reused here for the four right efforts.
A fuller opening than SN 48.71-82's own compressed version
This project's own observation: unlike SN 48.71-82, which quoted only a single compressed paragraph before its own uddāna, this opening file gives both the full definition of the four right efforts AND the full river simile before its own cross-reference instruction (“tell in full as in SN 45.92–102”) for the remaining eleven discourses — a fuller treatment than this project has seen for this exact formula's own opening discourse before.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. There the Buddha said: “Mendicants, there are these four right efforts. What four? It’s when a mendicant generates enthusiasm, tries, makes an effort, exerts the mind, and strives so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen are given up. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities arise. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities that have arisen remain, are not lost, but increase, mature, and are completed by development. These are the four right efforts.
§2The Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. In the same way, a mendicant who develops and cultivates the four right efforts slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment. And how does a mendicant who develops the four right efforts slant, slope, and incline to extinguishment? They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen are given up. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities arise. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities that have arisen remain, are not lost, but increase, mature, and are completed by development. That’s how a mendicant who develops and cultivates the four right efforts slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.”
Cross-reference(Tell in full as in <a href='https://suttacentral.net/sn45.92'>SN 45.92</a>–102.)
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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