Sloping East, Etc. (SN50.1-12)

Linked Discourses 50.1–12

1. Abbreviated Texts on the Ganges

Sloping East, Etc.

“Mendicants, there are these five powers.¹

What five?

The powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom.

These are the five powers.

The Ganges River slants, slopes, and inclines to the east.

In the same way, a mendicant who develops and cultivates the five powers slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.

And how does a mendicant who develops the five powers slant, slope, and incline to extinguishment?

It’s when a mendicant develops the powers of faith,

energy,

mindfulness,

immersion,

and wisdom, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go.

That’s how a mendicant who develops and cultivates the five powers slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.”

Six on slanting to the east,

and six on slanting to the ocean;

these two sixes make twelve,

and that’s how this chapter is recited.