Setuccha — The Book of the Ones · Chapter Eleven · Poem 2 of 10
Setting
No narrative setting; a general teaching on obstacles to concentration
Speaker
An unnamed voice describing, in the plural, those who fail to reach immersion
Form
One four-line verse, naming three obstacles
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching text for this poem in other Buddhist literatures.
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — plain vocabulary, three named obstacles
Why this text
This verse names three things that keep people from reaching samādhi: being deceived by conceit, defiled among conditions, and ‘oppressed by gain and loss’. No narrative or simile carries the point — the verse simply lists what stands in the way.
Reading guide
Three obstacles to immersion
Māna (‘conceit’), saṅkilesa (‘defilement’) among saṅkhāra (‘conditions, formations’), and lābhālābha (‘gain and loss’) are named in sequence, each contributing to the same failure: samādhiṁ nādhigacchanti, ‘they don't reach immersion’. The verse doesn't rank the three or explain how they interact — it simply lists them as a set of obstacles.
Gain and loss, from a well-known set of eight
Lābhālābha, ‘gain and loss’, is one pair from the traditional eight worldly conditions (lokadhamma): gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain — four pairs the wider canon commonly names together as what an unshakeable mind remains equally unmoved by. This verse names only the first pair, without invoking the full set.
Key terms
māna — “conceit” — the first obstacle this verse names.
saṅkhāra — “conditions, formations” — the domain in which defilement is said to arise.
lābhālābha — “gain and loss” — one pair from the traditional eight worldly conditions.
lokadhamma — “worldly conditions” — the traditional set of eight: gain/loss, fame/disrepute, praise/blame, pleasure/pain.
samādhi — “immersion, concentration” — what this verse says these three obstacles prevent.
The text
The text in full: one verse, with no separate attribution line in this chapter. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1Deceived by conceit, defiled among conditions, oppressed by gain and loss, they don’t reach immersion.
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What three obstacles does this verse name?
Correct: A. The verse's own three-part list.
Question 2 of 10
What does the verse say these three obstacles prevent?
Correct: A. Samādhiṁ nādhigacchanti, the verse's closing declaration.
Question 3 of 10
What does 'lābhālābha' mean?
Correct: C. One pair from the traditional eight worldly conditions.
Question 4 of 10
How many pairs make up the traditional eight worldly conditions (lokadhamma)?
Correct: C. Gain/loss, fame/disrepute, praise/blame, pleasure/pain.
Question 5 of 10
Does this verse name all four pairs of the eight worldly conditions?
Correct: D. Only lābhālābha is named here, not the full traditional set.
Question 6 of 10
What does 'māna' mean?
Correct: A. The first obstacle this verse names.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'saṅkhāra' mean in this context?
Correct: D. The domain in which defilement is said to arise.
Question 8 of 10
Does this verse explain how its three named obstacles interact with each other?
Correct: B. A plain list, not an analysis.
Question 9 of 10
What does 'samādhi' mean?
Correct: D. What the three obstacles are said to prevent.
Question 10 of 10
Where does this poem fall in Chapter Eleven?
Correct: B. Immediately after Belaṭṭhānika's verse.
