1.3.8

Lesson 1.3.8 Caṅkamasuttaṃ - Bound Together by Inclinations

The Caṅkamasuttaṃ presents a large number of senior Theras whom the Buddha had attributed etadagga titles, i.e., being foremost in certain disciplines and qualities. Observing them walking up and down with their group of disciples, he expressed a solemn statement that an inherent disposition connects beings and makes them meet. Those disposed towards virtue and intent on performing wholesome actions connect together and associate with those disposed towards virtue and intent on performing wholesome actions and respectively do those with the opposite intention. This provides the wholesome base for long-standing friendships and empathy generally experienced by meditators walking on the path together whenever they meet again even after many years (kalyāṇamitta). The introduction further describes such a historical intimate friendship over the many lives of the Budha’s two chief disciples, the Venerable Sāriputta and the Venerable Mahā Moggallāna.