Skip to content
Tidipa

3. Ekaka and Duka (Ones and Pairs)

· 19 min read

The Ones and the thirty-three Pairs of Sāriputta's recitation, from name and form to knowledge and liberation. The Saṅgītisutta (8D/10), translated from the Dīgha Nikāya.

Original text: 8D/10.1–10.2 Ekaka and Duka 782–817 in the World Tipitaka Edition

Summary

Section titled “Summary”

The first two lists of Sāriputta’s recitation. The one Dhamma is stated twice, as the edition prints it: all beings are sustained by food, and by mental constructions. The thirty-three pairs set terms of the teaching side by side (name and form, ignorance and craving for existence, calm and insight, knowledge and liberation) and opposed qualities against each other (shamelessness and shame, lack of awareness and awareness, failure and accomplishment in virtue and view), each list framed by the refrain that all should recite it in harmony.

Diagram

Section titled “Diagram”
flowchart TB
    subgraph ones["Ones 782"]
        O1["Sustained by food"]
        O2["Sustained by mental constructions"]
    end
    subgraph pairs["Pairs 784–816"]
        P1["Terms of the teaching: name and form, ignorance and craving"]
        P2["The two views: existence and non-existence"]
        P3["Opposed qualities: shame, docility, awareness, moderation"]
        P4["Skills: offences, attainments, components, sense bases, the possible"]
        P5["Powers: consideration and development, awareness and focus"]
        P6["Calm and insight, exertion and non-distraction"]
        P7["Virtue and view: failure, accomplishment, purity"]
        P8["Urgency and exertion, dissatisfaction and tirelessness"]
        P9["Knowledge and liberation, destruction and non-arising"]
    end
    ones --> pairs

Text

Section titled “Text”

(303.)

782. Āvuso, there is one Dhamma well proclaimed by the Bhagavā, the arahant (liberated one), the perfectly awakened one, who knows and sees. Therein all should recite in harmony, not quarrel, so that this optimal life may endure long and last for a long time, which would be for the welfare and happiness of many people, out of compassion for the world, for the good, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans. What one Dhamma? All beings are sustained by food. All beings are sustained by saṅkhārā (mental constructions). Āvuso, this is the one Dhamma well proclaimed by the Bhagavā, the liberated one, the perfectly awakened one, who knows and sees. Therein all should recite in harmony, not quarrel, so that this optimal life may endure long and last for a long time, which would be for the welfare and happiness of many people, out of compassion for the world, for the good, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans.

(304.)

783. Āvuso, there are two Dhammas well proclaimed by the Bhagavā, the liberated one, the perfectly awakened one, who knows and sees. Therein all should recite in harmony, not quarrel, so that this optimal life may endure long and last for a long time, which would be for the welfare and happiness of many people, out of compassion for the world, for the good, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans. What two?

784. Nāma (name) and rūpa (form). (1)

785. Avijjā (ignorance) and bhavataṇhā (craving for existence). (2)

786. Bhavadiṭṭhi (view of existence, eternalism) and vibhavadiṭṭhi (view of non-existence, annihilationism). (3)

787. Shamelessness and lack of moral dread. (4)

788. Shame and moral dread. (5)

789. Intractability and bad friendship. (6)

790. Docility and good friendship. (7)

791. Skill in offences and skill in rising from offences. (8)

792. Skill in attainments and skill in rising from attainments. (9)

793. Skill in components and skill in attention. (10)

794. Skill in āyatanā (sense bases) and skill in paṭiccasamuppāda (dependent origination). (11)

795. Skill in what is possible and skill in what is impossible. (12)

796. Honesty and scrupulousness. (13)

797. Patience and gentleness. (14)

798. Friendliness and hospitality. (15)

799. Not harming and purity. (16)

800. Lack of awareness and lack of clear comprehension. (17)

801. Sati (awareness) and sampajañña (clear comprehension). (18)

802. Lack of guard over the doors of the faculties and immoderation in food. (19)

803. Guard over the doors of the faculties and moderation in food. (20)

804. The power of careful consideration and the power of development. (21)

805. The power of awareness and the power of samādhi (focus). (22)

806. Samatha (calm) and vipassanā (insight). (23)

807. The sign of calm and the sign of exertion. (24)

808. Exertion and non-distraction. (25)

809. Failure in virtue and failure in view. (26)

810. Accomplishment in virtue and accomplishment in view. (27)

811. Purity of virtue and purity of view. (28)

812. Purity of view, moreover, and the exertion of one with such a view. (29)

813. A sense of urgency about things that should arouse urgency, and the proper exertion of one who is stirred. (30)

814. Dissatisfaction with wholesome characteristics and tirelessness in exertion. (31)

815. Vijjā (knowledge) and vimutti (liberation). (32)

816. Knowledge of destruction and knowledge of non-arising. (33)

817. Āvuso, these are the two Dhammas well proclaimed by the Bhagavā, the liberated one, the perfectly awakened one, who knows and sees. Therein all should recite in harmony, not quarrel, so that this optimal life may endure long and last for a long time, which would be for the welfare and happiness of many people, out of compassion for the world, for the good, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans.

Commentary

Section titled “Commentary”
  • The Ones and the Pairs are the first two of the sutta’s ten lists; their sources and dating are discussed on the sutta’s index page.
  • Each pair is a bare noun phrase with the edition’s item number in parentheses, a Pāḷi term in backticks only where the glossary fixes its word: saṅkhārā mental constructions, sati awareness, samādhi focus, āyatanā sense bases.
  • Name and form, and ignorance and craving for existence (784–785), are links of dependent origination: https://buddhavacana.github.io/sutta/deporig/; the components (793): https://buddhavacana.github.io/sutta/components/; the sense bases (794): https://buddhavacana.github.io/sutta/senses/
  • dhātu “component” (793) is the glossary’s word; sampajañña “clear comprehension” and vijjā “knowledge” follow the DPD.
  • The refrain of 782, 783 and 817 is the twin of 780 and of every later list section; the one Dhamma is stated twice, as the edition prints it.

Go to previous page (2. Bhinnanigaṇṭhavatthu (The Breakup of the Jains)) / Go to parent page (Saṅgītisutta) / Go to next page (4. Tika (Threes))

Backlinks