Reading guide
The same pillar, a different threat
This project's own direct comparison against SN 56.39: there, the immovable pillar illustrated settled understanding needing no external confirmation; here, the identical image (this time an eight-foot-buried, sixteen-foot stone post rather than an iron or Indra's pillar) illustrates specifically the impossibility of a rival debater legitimately shaking such understanding through argument.
A ten-title uddāna, confirmed against this project's own SN 56.31-40
Confirmed by direct reading, this vagga's own closing uddāna (“The rosewood forest, acacia, the stick; clothes and with a hundred spears; living creatures, two similes of the sun; Indra's pillar and one looking for a debate”) lists exactly ten titles, matching this project's own SN 56.31 through SN 56.40 precisely — including SN 56.31 itself, this project's own earlier absorbed pre-existing page.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, take any mendicant who truly understands: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’. An ascetic or brahmin might come from the east, west, north, or south wanting to debate, seeking a debate, thinking: ‘I’ll refute their doctrine!’ It’s simply impossible for them to legitimately make that mendicant shake or rock or tremble. Suppose there was a stone post, sixteen feet long. Eight feet were buried underground, and eight above ground. Even if violent storms were to blow up out of the east, the west, the north, and the south, they couldn’t make it shake or rock or tremble. Why is that? It’s because that stone post is firmly embedded, with deep foundations. In the same way, take any mendicant who truly understands: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering’. An ascetic or brahmin might come from the east, west, north, or south wanting to debate, seeking a debate, thinking: ‘I’ll refute their doctrine!’ It’s simply impossible for them to legitimately make that mendicant shake or rock or tremble. Why is that? It’s because they have clearly 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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