Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 55.12

The Brahmins

Brāhmaṇasutta — Rājakārāmavagga

Setting
Sāvatthī, the Royal Monastery
Speaker
The Buddha, addressing the mendicants directly
Form
A described rival practice, explicitly judged, then the Buddha's own reinterpretation of the same name
Length
1–2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
No individual parallel confirmed by this project's own check
Significance
★★★★ — a rare direct, named critique of a rival ascetic practice, reclaiming its own name for the four factors instead

Why this discourse

Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse describes a brahmanical practice called “get up and go” — walking east from dawn, refusing to avoid any pit, cliff, or hazard, awaiting death wherever one happens to fall, in hope of a heavenly rebirth — which the Buddha explicitly calls “a foolish procedure, a stupid procedure,” before reclaiming the same name for his own teaching: the four factors of stream-entry.

Reading guide

A described rival practice, unusually specific

Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse describes the brahmanical practice in concrete physical detail — facing east, walking without swerving around any obstacle, dying wherever one falls — a specificity this project has not seen matched elsewhere in this saṃyutta for a rival teaching.

A direct verdict, without hedging

Confirmed by direct reading, the Buddha's own judgment is stated without qualification: this practice “doesn't lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, or extinguishment” — a full sevenfold list of benefits explicitly denied to it.

The same name, reclaimed for the four factors

Confirmed by direct reading, rather than simply rejecting the brahmanical “get up and go,” the Buddha reclaims the same name for his own teaching — the four factors of stream-entry — and attributes to it the identical sevenfold list of benefits just denied to the rival version, this time stated affirmatively.

Key terms

uṭṭhānakāla — “get up and go” — the shared name of both the rejected brahmanical practice and the Buddha's own reclaimed version
puratthimaṁ disaṁ pakkameyyātha — “facing east you should walk” — the brahmanical practice's own concrete instruction
bāladhammo esa, bhikkhave, momūhadhammo — “this practice…is a foolish procedure, a stupid procedure” — the Buddha's own direct, unhedged verdict
nibbidāya virāgāya nirodhāya upasamāya abhiññāya sambodhāya nibbānāya saṁvattati — “leads solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment” — the sevenfold benefit list, denied to the rival practice and affirmed for the Buddha's own
aveccappasāda — “experiential confidence” — the Buddha's own reclaimed version's actual content, the same four factors met throughout this saṃyutta

The text

Every genuinely translated fragment given in the consulted English source. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, the brahmins advocate a practice called ‘get up and go’. They encourage their disciples: ‘Please, good people, rising early you should face east and walk. Do not avoid a pit, a cliff, a stump, thorny ground, a swamp, or a sewer. You should await death in the place that you fall. And when your body breaks up, after death, you’ll be reborn in a good place, a heaven realm.’

§2But this practice of the brahmins is a foolish procedure, a stupid procedure. It doesn’t lead to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, or extinguishment. But in the training of the Noble One I advocate a ‘get up and go’ practice which does lead solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment.

§3And what is that ‘get up and go’ practice? It’s when a noble disciple has experiential confidence in the Buddha … the teaching … the Saṅgha … And they have the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones … leading to immersion. This is that ‘get up and go’ practice which does lead solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment.”

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Self-check quiz

3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 3
What does the brahmanical "get up and go" practice involve, as described in this discourse?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — an unusually concrete, physical description of a rival ascetic practice.
Question 2 of 3
How does the Buddha judge this brahmanical practice?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — a rare, unqualified negative verdict.
Question 3 of 3
What does the Buddha do with the name "get up and go" itself?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — a deliberate reclamation, not merely a rejection.
Answered 0 of 3 · Correct 0

Further reading

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