Reading guide
This vagga's own only genuine narrative
This project's own reading: unlike every other discourse in Vagga 3 — monologues, paired claims, or etymological explanations — this discourse alone stages an actual scene: senior mendicants seated together after almsround, a question arising among them, and one named elder settling it by appeal to direct personal testimony.
Mutual implication, stated in every combination
Confirmed by direct reading, Gavampati's own recollected teaching states the claim not once but four times, once for each truth taken as the starting point: whoever sees suffering also sees its origin, cessation, and the path; whoever sees the origin also sees suffering, cessation, and the path; and so for each of the remaining two — a complete, symmetric statement of mutual implication among all four.
Key terms
The text
§1At one time several mendicants were staying in the land of the Cetīs at Sahajāti. Now at that time, after the meal, on return from almsround, several senior mendicants sat together in the pavilion and this discussion came up among them: “Reverends, does someone who sees suffering also see the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering?”
§2When they said this, Venerable Gavampati said to those senior mendicants: “Reverends, I have heard and learned this in the presence of the Buddha: ‘Someone who sees suffering also sees the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. Someone who sees the origin of suffering also sees suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. Someone who sees the cessation of suffering also sees suffering, the origin of suffering, and the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering. Someone who sees the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering also sees suffering, the origin of suffering, and the cessation of suffering.’”
Self-check quiz
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