Sāvatthī, in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery
Present
The Buddha and Venerable Sāriputta, seated nearby
Form
Pure observation — no dialogue — followed by a four-line verse
Length
Under 1 minute to read
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief and plain, best read alongside its companion piece, Ud 4.6
Why this heartfelt saying
In a scene that closely echoes the discourse just before it, the Buddha watches Sāriputta sit cross-legged nearby, embodying fewness of wishes, contentment, seclusion, and energy — and turns the sight into four lines about a sage who, calm and ever mindful, knows no sorrow.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Watching Sāriputta meditate, visibly of few wishes, content, secluded, aloof, and energetic, the Buddha speaks a short verse declaring that the diligent sage who trains this way, calm and ever mindful, has no sorrows.
A near-repeat of the discourse before it
This discourse is, in its narrative frame, almost a twin of the one preceding it. Sāriputta is “sitting not far from the Buddha, cross-legged, with his body straight” — the identical posture given for Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja in Ud 4.6 — and is described as “of few wishes, content, secluded, aloof, energetic, dedicated to the higher mind.” This is the same core cluster of qualities named for Piṇḍola, minus the specific list of ascetic observances (wilderness-dwelling, almsfood-only eating, rag robes, three robes) that discourse singled out. As before, “the Buddha saw him meditating there” — and that observation alone, with no dialogue, occasions the verse.
The verse: a sage without sorrow
“A sage of higher consciousness, diligent, training in the ways of sagacity: there are no sorrows for the unaffected, calm and ever mindful.” The verse’s structure moves from practice to result: diligence and training in “the ways of sagacity” (monapatha) lead to a state the verse calls “unaffected” (tādin, sometimes rendered “imperturbable” or “such”) — a term used elsewhere in the canon for one whose equanimity no longer depends on circumstance. From that state, the verse says simply, sorrows do not arise.
Why place Sāriputta here twice
Sāriputta appears in four of this vagga’s ten discourses — struck by a spirit in Ud 4.4, observed meditating here, and again in Ud 4.10, where the Buddha observes him specifically reviewing his own peacefulness. Across these appearances he functions almost as this vagga’s recurring exemplar: not a figure who needs correction, like Meghiya, but one whose settled practice the Buddha simply notices and names.
Reading this discourse and Ud 4.6 together
Set side by side, Ud 4.6 and Ud 4.7 form a deliberate pair: two elders, described in near-identical postures and largely overlapping language, each drawing a distinct verse from the Buddha. Piṇḍola’s verse (Ud 4.6) generalizes into “the instruction of the Buddhas” as a fivefold external discipline; Sāriputta’s verse here turns instead toward the internal result of that same kind of training — a mind with nothing left to grieve over.
Key terms
monapatha — “the ways of sagacity,” the training the verse says this sage practices; related to muni, sage, one of the Buddha’s own epithets.
tādin — “unaffected” or “imperturbable,” a term for one whose equanimity no longer shifts with circumstance; here it is the reason no sorrows arise.
appamajjato — “diligent” or heedful, describing the sage of the verse’s first line.
upasanta — “calm” or stilled, paired in the verse’s final line with being “ever mindful.”
appiccho santuṭṭho pavivitto asaṁsaṭṭho āraddhavīriyo — “of few wishes, content, secluded, aloof, energetic”: the exact cluster of qualities shared with Piṇḍola Bhāradvāja’s portrait in the preceding discourse, Ud 4.6.
The text
The discourse in full: the Buddha’s silent observation of Sāriputta and the four-line verse it occasions. There is no dialogue in this short text. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time Venerable Sāriputta was sitting not far from the Buddha, cross-legged, with his body straight. He was of few wishes, content, secluded, aloof, energetic, dedicated to the higher mind.
§2The Buddha saw him meditating there.
§3Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§4“A sage of higher consciousness, diligent, training in the ways of sagacity: there are no sorrows for the unaffected, calm and ever mindful.”
· · ·
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
Where does this discourse take place?
Correct: C. The same setting as the discourse before it, Ud 4.6.
Question 2 of 10
Who does the Buddha observe in this discourse?
Correct: A. Sāriputta appears in four discourses across this vagga.
Question 3 of 10
How is Sāriputta described sitting?
Correct: C. This shared posture description links Ud 4.6 and Ud 4.7 as a matched pair.
Question 4 of 10
What qualities does the text attribute to Sāriputta here?
Correct: B. This is nearly the same list given for Piṇḍola in Ud 4.6, minus his specific ascetic observances.
Question 5 of 10
Does the Buddha speak directly to Sāriputta in this discourse?
Correct: B. As with several discourses in this vagga, pure observation occasions the verse.
Question 6 of 10
What does the closing verse call the sage’s training?
Correct: A. “Training in the ways of sagacity” — monapatha — is the verse’s own phrase.
Question 7 of 10
According to the verse, what happens to “the unaffected... calm and ever mindful”?
Correct: B. This is the verse’s central claim, following directly from diligence and training.
Question 8 of 10
How many discourses in this vagga (Ud 4.1–4.10) feature Sāriputta?
Correct: B. He is struck by a spirit in Ud 4.4, observed here, and observed again reviewing his own peacefulness in Ud 4.10.
Question 9 of 10
How does this discourse’s verse differ in emphasis from Ud 4.6’s verse about Piṇḍola?
Correct: A. Read together, the two verses move from outward discipline to its inward fruit.
Question 10 of 10
What term does the verse use for the sage’s settled, unshakeable equanimity?
Correct: A. Tādin describes one whose calm no longer depends on circumstance.
