Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Saṃyutta Nikāya · Discourse 56.33

A Stick

Daṇḍasutta — Sīsapāvanavagga

Setting
Not given — continuing directly from SN 56.32's own setting
Speaker
The Buddha, addressing the mendicants directly
Form
A single vivid simile, its own application, then the standard closing instruction
Length
<1 minute to read
Northern parallel
No individual parallel confirmed by this project's own check
Significance
★★★★ — the third of ten discourses, a compact and vivid image of the randomness of unawakened rebirth

Why this discourse

Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse compares sentient beings — shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving, wandering and transmigrating — to a stick tossed into the air, which falls sometimes on its base and sometimes on its tip: sometimes going from this world to another, sometimes coming from another world to this one, with no discernible pattern, because the four noble truths have not been seen.

Reading guide

Randomness, not punishment or reward

This project's own reading: the stick's own landing is presented as genuinely unpredictable, neither base nor tip favored — an image this project reads as emphasizing the sheer randomness of unawakened rebirth rather than any orderly system of just deserts, the cause named instead as simply not having seen the four truths.

Key terms

daṇḍo uparivehāsaṁ khitto — “a stick tossed up in the air” — this discourse's own central image
sakimpi mūlena nipatati, sakimpi aggena nipatati — “sometimes it'd fall on its bottom and sometimes the top” — the stick's own unpredictable landing
avijjānīvaraṇā sattā taṇhāsaṁyojanā sandhāvantā saṁsarantā — “sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving” — this discourse's own description of the beings the simile illustrates
sakimpi asmā lokā paraṁ lokaṁ gacchanti, sakimpi parasmā lokā imaṁ lokaṁ āgacchanti — “sometimes they go from this world to the other world, and sometimes they come from the other world to this world” — the unpredictable movement matching the stick's own unpredictable landing
adiṭṭhattā, bhikkhave, catunnaṁ ariyasaccānaṁ — “because they haven't seen the four noble truths” — this discourse's own named cause

The text

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

§1“Mendicants, suppose a stick was tossed up in the air. Sometimes it’d fall on its bottom and sometimes the top. It’s the same for sentient beings roaming and transmigrating, shrouded by ignorance and fettered by craving. Sometimes they go from this world to the other world, and sometimes they come from the other world to this world. Why is that? It’s because they haven’t seen the four noble truths. What four? The noble truths of suffering, its origin, its cessation, and the path.

§2That’s why you should practice meditation …”

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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 tossed stick's own unpredictable landing illustrate?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — the discourse's own explicit comparison.
Question 2 of 3
What does this project's own reading emphasize about the stick's own landing?
Correct: A. This project's own reading of the image's own emphasis on unpredictability.
Question 3 of 3
What cause does this discourse name for such unpredictable wandering?
Correct: A. Confirmed by direct reading — the discourse's own explicitly stated cause.
Answered 0 of 3 · Correct 0

Further reading

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