sn.49.23-34 Saṁyutta Nikāya (Linked Discourses)

Hard Work, Etc.

“Mendicants, all the hard work that gets done depends on the earth and is grounded on the earth.
In the same way, a mendicant develops and cultivates the four right efforts depending on and grounded on ethics.
How so?
It’s when a mendicant generates enthusiasm, tries, makes an effort, exerts the mind, and strives so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise. …
so that skillful qualities that have arisen remain, are not lost, but increase, mature, and are completed by development.
That’s how a mendicant develops and cultivates the four right efforts depending on and grounded on ethics.”
(To be expanded as in SN 45.149–160.)


Hard work, seeds, and dragons,
a tree, a pot, and a spike,
the sky, and two on clouds,
a ship, a guest house, and a river.