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Aṅguttara Nikāya - The Numerical Discourses

4: The Book of the Fours

XIV. Persons — AN 4.140: Speaker

1“Mendicants, there are these four speakers. What four?

  1. There’s a speaker who runs out of meaningful things to say, but not of ways of phrasing things.
  2. There’s a speaker who runs out of ways of phrasing things, but not of meaningful things to say.
  3. There’s a speaker who runs out of both meaningful things to say, and ways of phrasing things.
  4. There’s a speaker who never runs out of meaningful things to say, or ways of phrasing things.

These are the four speakers. It is impossible, it cannot happen that someone accomplished in the four kinds of textual analysis will ever run out of meaningful things to say, or ways of phrasing things.”

1"Cattārome, bhikkhave, vādī. Katame cattāro?

Atthi, bhikkhave, vādī atthato pariyādānaṁ gacchati, no byañjanato;

atthi, bhikkhave, vādī byañjanato pariyādānaṁ gacchati, no atthato;

atthi, bhikkhave, vādī atthato ca byañjanato ca pariyādānaṁ gacchati;

atthi, bhikkhave, vādī nevatthato no byañjanato pariyādānaṁ gacchati.


Ime kho, bhikkhave, cattāro vādī. Aṭṭhānametaṁ, bhikkhave, anavakāso yaṁ catūhi paṭisambhidāhi samannāgato atthato vā byañjanato vā pariyādānaṁ gaccheyyā"ti.

Dasamaṁ.

Puggalavaggo catuttho.

2Saṁyojanaṁ paṭibhāno,
ugghaṭitaññu uṭṭhānaṁ;
Sāvajjo dve ca sīlāni,
nikaṭṭha dhamma vādī cāti.