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Numbered Discourses · AN 4.140

  • Numbered Discourses 4.140Aṅguttara Nikāya 4.140
  • 14. Individuals14. Puggalavagga

SpeakerVādīsutta

“Mendicants, there are these four speakers.“Cattārome, bhikkhave, vādī. What four?Katame cattāro?

  1. There’s a speaker who runs out of meaningful things to say, but not of ways of phrasing things.Atthi, bhikkhave, vādī atthato pariyādānaṁ gacchati, no byañjanato;
  2. There’s a speaker who runs out of ways of phrasing things, but not of meaningful things to say.atthi, bhikkhave, vādī byañjanato pariyādānaṁ gacchati, no atthato;
  3. There’s a speaker who runs out of both meaningful things to say, and ways of phrasing things.atthi, bhikkhave, vādī atthato ca byañjanato ca pariyādānaṁ gacchati;
  4. There’s a speaker who never runs out of meaningful things to say, or ways of phrasing things.atthi, bhikkhave, vādī nevatthato no byañjanato pariyādānaṁ gacchati.

These are the four speakers.Ime kho, bhikkhave, cattāro vādī. 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.”Aṭṭhānametaṁ, bhikkhave, anavakāso yaṁ catūhi paṭisambhidāhi samannāgato atthato vā byañjanato vā pariyādānaṁ gaccheyyā”ti.

Similar passages elsewhere

Found by meaning, not by citation: the passages in other texts whose wording sits closest to a passage here.

  1. AN 4.139 Dhamma Speakers 0.55near 0.1Numbered Discourses 4.139 14. Individuals Dhamma Speakers “Mendicants, there are these four Dhamma speakers. What four? One Dhamma speaker speaks little and off topic. And their assembly can’t tell what’s on topic and wh…
  2. AN 4.132 Eloquence 0.52near 0.1Numbered Discourses 4.132 14. Individuals Eloquence “Mendicants, these four individuals are found in the world. What four? One whose elocution is on topic, but not fluent. One whose elocution is fluent, but not on topic.…