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SN 12.19PTS SN 2.232 min read

The Astute and the Foolish

Bālapaṇḍitasutta

Both the wise and the foolish have been reborn in this life due to their deeds conditioned by ignorance in past lives. But a fool continues to make the same mistakes and is reborn yet again, whereas a wise person does not.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 12.19Linked Discourses 12.19
  • 0.22. Āhāravagga2. Fuel

0.3BālapaṇḍitasuttaThe Astute and the Foolish

1.1PTS 2.24Sāvatthiyaṁ viharati.At Sāvatthī.1

1.2“Avijjānīvaraṇassa, bhikkhave, bālassa taṇhāya sampayuttassa evamayaṁ kāyo samudāgato.“Mendicants, for a fool shrouded by ignorance and coupled to craving, this body has been produced.21.3Iti ayañceva kāyo bahiddhā ca nāmarūpaṁ, itthetaṁ dvayaṁ, dvayaṁ paṭicca phasso saḷevāyatanāni, yehi phuṭṭho bālo sukhadukkhaṁ paṭisaṁvedayati etesaṁ vā aññatarena.So there is this duality: this body and external name and form. Contact depends on this duality. When contacted through one or other of the six sense fields, the fool experiences pleasure and pain.3

2.1Avijjānīvaraṇassa, bhikkhave, paṇḍitassa taṇhāya sampayuttassa evamayaṁ kāyo samudāgato.For an astute person shrouded by ignorance and coupled to craving, this body has been produced.42.2Iti ayañceva kāyo bahiddhā ca nāmarūpaṁ, itthetaṁ dvayaṁ, dvayaṁ paṭicca phasso saḷevāyatanāni, yehi phuṭṭho paṇḍito sukhadukkhaṁ paṭisaṁvedayati etesaṁ vā aññatarena.So there is this duality: this body and external name and form. Contact depends on this duality. When contacted through one or other of the six sense fields, the astute person experiences pleasure and pain.5

3.1Tatra, bhikkhave, ko viseso ko adhippayāso kiṁ nānākaraṇaṁ paṇḍitassa bālenā”ti?What, then, is the difference between the foolish and the astute?”6

3.2“Bhagavaṁmūlakā no, bhante, dhammā, bhagavaṁnettikā, bhagavaṁpaṭisaraṇā. Sādhu vata, bhante, bhagavantaṁyeva paṭibhātu etassa bhāsitassa attho. Bhagavato sutvā bhikkhū dhāressantī”ti.“Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. He is our guide and our refuge. Sir, may the Buddha himself please clarify the meaning of this. The mendicants will listen and remember it.”

4.1“Tena hi, bhikkhave, suṇātha, sādhukaṁ manasi karotha, bhāsissāmī”ti.“Well then, mendicants, listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.”

4.2“Evaṁ, bhante”ti kho te bhikkhū bhagavato paccassosuṁ.“Yes, sir,” they replied.4.3Bhagavā etadavoca:The Buddha said this:

5.1“Yāya ca, bhikkhave, avijjāya nivutassa bālassa yāya ca taṇhāya sampayuttassa ayaṁ kāyo samudāgato, sā ceva avijjā bālassa appahīnā sā ca taṇhā aparikkhīṇā.“For a fool shrouded by ignorance and coupled to craving, this body has been produced. But the fool has not given up that ignorance or finished that craving.5.2Taṁ kissa hetu?Why is that?5.3Na, bhikkhave, bālo acari brahmacariyaṁ sammā dukkhakkhayāya.The fool has not completed the spiritual journey for the complete ending of suffering.75.4Tasmā bālo kāyassa bhedā kāyūpago hoti,Therefore, when their body breaks up, the fool passes on to another body.85.5so kāyūpago samāno na parimuccati jātiyā jarāmaraṇena sokehi paridevehi dukkhehi domanassehi upāyāsehi.When they have passed on to another body, they’re not freed from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress.5.6‘Na parimuccati dukkhasmā’ti vadāmi.They’re not freed from suffering, I say.

6.1PTS 2.25Yāya ca, bhikkhave, avijjāya nivutassa paṇḍitassa yāya ca taṇhāya sampayuttassa ayaṁ kāyo samudāgato, sā ceva avijjā paṇḍitassa pahīnā, sā ca taṇhā parikkhīṇā.For an astute person shrouded by ignorance and coupled to craving, this body has been produced. But the astute person has given up that ignorance and finished that craving.6.2Taṁ kissa hetu?Why is that?6.3Acari, bhikkhave, paṇḍito brahmacariyaṁ sammā dukkhakkhayāya.The astute person has completed the spiritual journey for the complete ending of suffering.6.4Tasmā paṇḍito kāyassa bhedā na kāyūpago hoti.Therefore, when their body breaks up, the astute person does not pass on to another body.6.5So akāyūpago samāno parimuccati jātiyā jarāmaraṇena sokehi paridevehi dukkhehi domanassehi upāyāsehi.Not passing on to another body, they’re freed from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress.6.6‘Parimuccati dukkhasmā’ti vadāmi.They’re freed from suffering, I say.6.7Ayaṁ kho, bhikkhave, viseso, ayaṁ adhippayāso, idaṁ nānākaraṇaṁ paṇḍitassa bālena yadidaṁ brahmacariyavāso”ti.This is the difference here between the foolish and the astute, that is, leading the spiritual life.”

6.8Navamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. Ignorance is a cognitive defilement, craving an emotional defilement. Their pairing here shows that they work together, rather than being in a strict linear relationship as in the standard set of twelve links. Dependent origination is textually stated as a line, and pictorially as a circle. However in many ways, the best image is a spiral: twisting around like a coiling snake or like DNA, never exactly repeating yet never really new.

    ↩ sn12.19:1.1

  2. The phrase “shrouded by ignorance” describes beings roaming through transmigration (SN 15.1, AN 3.76, Iti 14). Nīvaraṇa ultimately stems from Vṛtra, the serpent who, by coiling around the mountain, both “shrouded” it in darkness, and “hindered” or blocked it.

    The reading here is sampayutta (“coupled”) rather than saṁyojana (“fettered”) found elsewhere.

    ↩ sn12.19:1.2

  3. In the standard sequence, this corresponds to the emergence of consciousness with name and form in a new life.

    For the unique phrase “this body and external name and form” (ayañceva kāyo bahiddhā ca nāmarūpaṁ), compare the stock phrase “this conscious body and all external stimuli” (saviññāṇake kāye bahiddhā ca sabbanimittesu, eg. SN 18.21:1.3). “Name and form” are that which is known, the labels and concepts as well as physical sense stimuli, all of which is felt as “external” to the knowing consciousness, the “lord of the city” seated in the central square (SN 35.245:9.7). For the body in the process of rebirth, compare Rig Veda 10.56.

    The idiom etesaṁ vā aññatarena (“one or other”) takes the instrumental, so it applies to the six senses, not pleasure and pain.

    ↩ sn12.19:1.3

  4. Paṇḍita is normally used for a learned scholar, rather than a contemplative “sage”. Pali has many more terms for “a wise person” than does English, and it is not easy to distinguish the senses. “Astute” is meant to convey the sense of one who is observant and of sound judgment.

    ↩ sn12.19:2.1

  5. These factors are all resultant, not kammically active.

    ↩ sn12.19:2.2

  6. While the opposition between the fool (or “child”, bāla) and the astute (or “learned”, paṇḍita) is consistent in Buddhism, not so in the pre-Buddhist literature. There the pair rarely appear, and when they do it is to subvert expectations. Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.5.1 says a brahmin should stop being a paṇḍita and become a bāla, and when they are no longer either of those, they become a sage (muni); and when they stop being a sage, they become a brahmin.

    ↩ sn12.19:3.1

  7. The “fool” in Buddhism is not one who lacks intelligence, but one who, lacking moral sense, lives heedlessly.

    ↩ sn12.19:5.3

  8. This corresponds with the generation of “continued existence” and future rebirth in the standard sequence. Thus the process evolves over at least three lives: the past life, where you made kamma driven by ignorance and craving; this life, where you experience the results and can choose to act differently; and the next life where you will experience the results of choices in this life. It can be more than three, as kamma takes effect over many lifetimes. The different factors are all observable in every life, but it is only when the process is seen evolving over time that their full nature is understood.

    ↩ sn12.19:5.4