Abbreviated Texts on the Ganges

Linked Discourses 48.71–82

8. Abbreviated Texts on the Ganges

Slanting East, Etc.

“Mendicants, the Ganges River slants, slopes, and inclines to the east.

In the same way, a mendicant developing and cultivating the five faculties slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.

How so?

It’s when a mendicant develops the faculties 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 developing and cultivating the five faculties 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.