Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Asked by a deity what causes a person’s downfall, the Buddha answers with twelve specific causes, moving from the most general — hatred of the teaching — through bad company, laziness, and neglect of parents, to concrete failures of household and family life: squandered wealth, infidelity, poor judgment in whom to trust, and reaching for status beyond one’s means.
A question asked at night
The frame is brief but specific: late at night, “a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove,” approaches the Buddha, bows, and asks in verse: “we ask Gotama about a man’s downfall…what leads to downfall?” The Buddha’s first answer is a general orientation rather than a specific cause: “it’s easy to understand success, understanding downfall is just as easy. One who loves the teaching succeeds, but a hater of the teaching meets their downfall.”
A fixed, repeating structure
From here the discourse settles into a pattern it repeats without variation eleven more times: the deity confirms understanding of the downfall just named, asks for the next one by number, and the Buddha supplies it, always closing with the same refrain — “and that leads to his downfall.” The steady counting itself becomes part of the teaching, numbering the causes off one at a time: keeping bad company and preferring the counsel of the bad over the good (2nd); loving sleep, company, and idleness while “marked by anger” (3rd); failing to support aging parents despite being able to (4th); deceiving ascetics, brahmins, and other supplicants with lies (5th).
Wealth mishandled
Several of the later downfalls turn specifically on wealth and its misuse. The 6th is eating “delicacies alone” despite having “plenty of wealth…gold coin and food” — a failure of generosity rather than of means. The 7th is family pride, “vain of birth, wealth, and clan,” looking down on one’s own relatives. The 8th names the classic triad directly: “in womanizing, drinking, and gambling, a man wastes all that he has earned.”
Household and family failures
The 9th downfall is infidelity, “not content with his own partners” and pursuing both prostitutes and others’ partners. The 10th is a specific, pointed case: “a man well past his prime marries a girl with budding breasts,” and “cannot sleep for jealousy” — the downfall located not in the age gap by itself but in the corrosive jealousy that follows from it. The 11th turns from personal conduct to judgment in leadership: placing “a woman or a man who’s a drunkard and a wastrel” in a position of authority — explicitly naming either gender as capable of holding, and misusing, that trust.
The twelfth downfall, and the deity’s close
The final specific downfall names ambition unmatched by means: “a man of little wealth and strong craving, born into an aristocratic family, sets his sights on kingship.” The discourse then closes not with a thirteenth question but with a summary verse, shifting from the deity’s voice to a general description: “seeing these downfalls in the world, an astute and noble person, accomplished in vision, will enjoy a world of grace.” The list, in other words, is offered as something to be recognized and avoided, not merely catalogued.
Key terms
The text
A deity’s question, asked at night
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then, late at night, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, went up to the Buddha, bowed, and stood to one side. Standing to one side, that deity addressed the Buddha in verse:
Verse 1“We ask Gotama
about a man’s downfall.
We have come to ask you, sir:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 2“It’s easy to understand success,
understanding downfall is just as easy.
One who loves the teaching succeeds,
but a hater of the teaching meets their downfall.”
Twelve downfalls, one at a time
Verse 3“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the first downfall.
Tell us the second, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 4“The bad are dear to him,
he has no love for the good.
He believes the teaching of the bad;
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 5“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the second downfall.
Tell us the third, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 6“Fond of sleep, fond of company,
a man who does no work;
he’s lazy, marked by anger,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 7“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the third downfall.
Tell us the fourth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 8“Though able, he does not look after
his mother and father
when elderly, past their prime,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 9“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the fourth downfall.
Tell us the fifth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 10“He deceives with lies
ascetics and brahmins
and other supplicants,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 11“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the fifth downfall.
Tell us the sixth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 12“A man with plenty of wealth,
including gold coin and food,
eats delicacies alone,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 13“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the sixth downfall.
Tell us the seventh, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 14“Vain of birth, wealth,
and clan, a man
looks down on his own family,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 15“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the seventh downfall.
Tell us the eighth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 16“In womanizing, drinking,
and gambling, a man
wastes all that he has earned,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 17“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the eighth downfall.
Tell us the ninth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 18“Not content with his own partners,
he debauches himself with prostitutes,
and with others’ partners,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 19“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the ninth downfall.
Tell us the tenth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 20“A man well past his prime
marries a girl with budding breasts;
he cannot sleep for jealousy,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 21“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the tenth downfall.
Tell us the eleventh, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 22“He places in authority
a woman or a man
who’s a drunkard and a wastrel,
and that leads to his downfall.”
Verse 23“We understand what you’re saying,
this is the eleventh downfall.
Tell us the twelfth, Blessed One:
what leads to downfall?”
Verse 24“A man of little wealth and strong craving,
born into an aristocratic family,
sets his sights on kingship,
and that leads to his downfall.
The close
Verse 25Seeing these downfalls in the world,
an astute and noble person,
accomplished in vision,
will enjoy a world of grace.”
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