Reading guide
From personal realization to responsibility for others
This project's own reading: every discourse in this vagga before this one concerned understanding achieved or claimed by oneself or by ascetics and brahmins generally; this discourse instead turns outward, instructing mendicants specifically to teach those in their own personal circle — a shift from realization to transmission.
Four named categories of closeness
This project's own reading of the discourse's own list: “mittā vā amaccā vā ñātī vā sālohitā vā” (“friends and colleagues, relatives and family”) names relationships of increasing formal bond — from chosen friendship through professional association to blood relation — covering the full range of personal closeness rather than a single category.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, those who you have sympathy for, and those worth listening to—friends and colleagues, relatives and family—should be encouraged, supported, and established by you in the true comprehension of the four noble truths.
§2What four? The noble truths of suffering, the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. Those who you have sympathy for, and those worth listening to—friends and colleagues, relatives and family—should be encouraged, supported, and established by you in the true comprehension of these four noble truths.
§3That’s why you should practice meditation …”
Self-check quiz
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