Reading guide
An unnamed frustration
The discourse doesn’t specify what business Visākhā — one of the most prominent laywomen patrons in the canon, known elsewhere for her generosity and for building the very monastery, the Eastern Monastery’s stilt longhouse, where this scene takes place — had with King Pasenadi. All the text says is that “the king’s settlement did not meet her expectations.” Whatever it was, the Buddha’s question when she arrives in the middle of the day is simple and direct: “where are you coming from in the middle of the day?” — and her answer just repeats the narrator’s own description of the situation back to him.
Control and authority, named plainly
The saying doesn’t address the specifics of Visākhā’s dealings with the king at all — it names the general structure of any situation like it. Being subject to someone else’s decision (paravasa) is painful regardless of the particular outcome; having authority over one’s own affairs (issariya) is what’s pleasant. And the verse goes further than a simple contrast between control and subjection: it adds that anything jointly held or shared between two parties — like Visākhā’s unresolved business, presumably involving property or an agreement with the king — is stressful for both sides, because such “yokes” are hard to escape from once entered.
Not a verdict on the king or the dispute
It would be easy to read this as taking Visākhā’s side against Pasenadi, but the verse doesn’t frame it that way. Both parties to something shared are named as stressed by it — “sādhāraṇe vihaññanti,” those with something shared are troubled — not just the party who came away dissatisfied. The teaching isn’t about who was right in this particular dealing with the king; it’s about the nature of joint or contested control itself, regardless of which side of it a person is on.
A pattern, not a solution
As with several of the shorter sayings in this chapter, the verse offers no advice about what Visākhā should do next about the king’s decision. It names the shape of her frustration — being under another’s control — and generalizes it into something anyone entangled in a shared arrangement will recognize, rather than resolving the specific dispute that prompted it.
Key terms
The text
§1.1–1.4So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in the stilt longhouse of Migāra’s mother in the Eastern Monastery. Now at that time Visākhā was caught up in some business with King Pasenadi. But the king’s settlement did not meet her expectations.
§2.1–2.5Then, in the middle of the day, she went to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down. The Buddha said to her: “So, Visākhā, where are you coming from in the middle of the day?” “Sir, I am caught up in some business with King Pasenadi. But the king’s settlement did not meet my expectations.”
§3.1Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§4.1–4.4“All under another’s control is suffering, all under one’s own authority is pleasing; what’s shared is stressful for both parties, for yokes are hard to escape.”
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