Reading guide
A brief, chilling announcement
Ānanda is on an ordinary alms round in Rājagaha when Devadatta approaches him directly and says: “From this day forth, Reverend Ānanda, I shall perform the sabbath and legal proceedings of the Saṅgha apart from the Buddha and the Saṅgha of mendicants.” That is the entirety of what Devadatta says in this sutta. There is no stated grievance, no argument about doctrine or discipline, no exchange of views — simply a flat declaration of intent, delivered to a fellow mendicant on the road.
What this text does not tell us
It is worth being direct about the limits of this particular sutta: it does not narrate why Devadatta wanted to separate, what specific proposals or disagreements led to this point, what happened afterward, or how the schism was eventually resolved. The wider, much better-known account of Devadatta’s ambitions, his proposed ascetic rules, and the events surrounding this rift comes from the Vinaya’s Cullavagga and other sources outside the Udāna — not from this brief scene. What this sutta preserves is something narrower and, in its way, starker: the exact moment the intention was spoken aloud to another person, and how the Buddha responded to hearing about it.
Ānanda as witness, not commentator
Ānanda’s report to the Buddha is almost as terse as Devadatta’s announcement: he simply relays what happened and adds his own reading of its significance — “Today, sir, Devadatta will split the Saṅgha. He will perform the sabbath and legal proceedings of the Saṅgha.” The performing of the sabbath and legal proceedings “apart from” the rest of the community is, notably, the precise technical marker of a formal schism (saṅghabheda) in the tradition — not merely disagreement, but a rival administrative structure.
The verse: an asymmetry of moral effort
The Buddha’s response doesn’t mention Devadatta by name, argue with the plan, or attempt to intervene within the text as given. He speaks a single observation with a tight, mirrored structure: “It’s easy for the good to do good, but for the bad, doing good is hard. For the bad, it’s easy to do bad, but for the noble ones, doing bad is hard.” Read against the scene that prompts it, the verse doesn’t explain Devadatta’s motives — it simply names a pattern the tradition takes to be true of character generally: what comes easily to a person, in either direction, tracks who they already are.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha, in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground. Now at that time Venerable Ānanda robed up in the morning and, taking his bowl and robe, entered Rājagaha for alms.
§2Devadatta saw him wandering for alms, so he went up to him and said, “From this day forth, Reverend Ānanda, I shall perform the sabbath and legal proceedings of the Saṅgha apart from the Buddha and the Saṅgha of mendicants.”
§3–4Then Ānanda wandered for alms in Rājagaha. After the meal, on his return from almsround, he went to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what had just happened, adding: “Today, sir, Devadatta will split the Saṅgha. He will perform the sabbath and legal proceedings of the Saṅgha.”
§5Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§6“It’s easy for the good to do good,
but for the bad, doing good is hard.
For the bad, it’s easy to do bad,
but for the noble ones, doing bad is hard.”
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