Day 89: Text, Translation, and Introduction to the Dīghajāṇu Sutta (AN 8.54)– Study Notes from BMV Monday Sutta Study with Bhante Dr. G. Chandima Skip to main content

Day 89: Text, Translation, and Introduction to the Dīghajāṇu Sutta (AN 8.54)– Study Notes from BMV Monday Sutta Study with Bhante Dr. G. Chandima

                     

You can find the text and translation of the Dīghajāṇu Sutta (AN 8.54) at the following link.

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A Holistic Buddhist Vision of Lay Life

Based on the Dīghajāṇu Sutta (AN 8.54) and Related Discourses

1. Wealth, Living, and Financial Responsibility

In the Dīghajāṇu Sutta, the Buddha outlines energetic striving, protection, noble friendship, and balanced finances as foundations for lay success. This harmonizes with:

  • Sigālovāda Sutta (DN 31): The Buddha calls it “the layperson’s code of discipline,” where he explains how wealth should be acquired lawfully, protected, shared with family and friends, and offered in generosity. He also warns against the six ways of squandering wealth—addiction to drink, frequenting the streets at improper times, addiction to shows and entertainment, gambling, bad company, and laziness.

  • Ādiya Sutta (AN 5.41): The Buddha highlights five reasons for having wealth: supporting oneself and family, assisting friends, protecting one’s possessions, offering to relatives and guests, and making offerings that generate merit.

These suttas together show that wealth is not rejected in Buddhism—it is a vital support for both personal security and social generosity.

2. Marriage, Family, and Household Responsibilities

The Dīghajāṇu Sutta assumes a household context, but other discourses give detailed advice:

  • Sigālovāda Sutta (DN 31): Spouses are described as “the western direction.” The husband should honor his wife with respect, fidelity, sharing authority, and providing gifts. The wife, in turn, supports the family responsibly, manages resources wisely, and maintains harmony with relatives. This reciprocity reflects mutual responsibility, not male dominance.

  • Raising children is also a duty: parents are “the eastern direction” who should restrain children from evil, encourage them in good, educate them, arrange suitable marriages, and hand over inheritance (DN 31). This makes the family a training ground for virtue, education, and social ethics.

  • Parābhava Sutta (Sn 1.6): Warns that infidelity, neglecting duties, and failing to support one’s partner lead to downfall.

3. Friendship, Community, and Social Development

The Dīghajāṇu Sutta emphasizes noble friendship (kalyāṇamittatā). Other discourses expand this idea:

  • Mangala Sutta (Kp 5): Calls good friendship one of the greatest blessings in life.

  • Upaddha Sutta (SN 45.2): The Buddha tells Ānanda that spiritual friendship is not “half” the holy life but the whole of it.

  • Sigālovāda Sutta (DN 31): Friends should be tested in adversity, loyalty, honesty, and generosity. True friends provide protection, share in difficulties, give good advice, and encourage one’s growth.

Through friendship, Buddhism situates lay life within networks of mutual support and collective moral growth.

4. Education and Personal Development

While the Dīghajāṇu Sutta emphasizes practical wisdom in balancing finances, other suttas affirm education and self-cultivation:

  • Mangala Sutta (Kp 5): Lists “well-mastered skills” and “cultivation of arts and sciences” as blessings, suggesting that education is part of a Buddhist life.

  • Sigālovāda Sutta (DN 31): Parents are tasked with training children in skills and good behavior.

  • Cūḷakammavibhaṅga Sutta (MN 135): Emphasizes how ethical and educational efforts lead to future well-being.

Thus, Buddhism affirms education as both worldly preparation and spiritual refinement.

5. Ethics and Responsible Living

The Dīghajāṇu Sutta lists ethics (sīla) as essential for future happiness. This is echoed across the canon:

  • Gihi Sutta (AN 5.179): The Buddha appreciates the lay people's practice of the five precepts. 

  • Sigālovāda Sutta (DN 31): Expands ethical living into a full social code, covering duties to parents, teachers, spouse, friends, ascetics, and society.

Thus, ethics is not abstract but rooted in social responsibilities.

6. Generosity and Social Welfare

The Buddha consistently praises generosity (dāna) as the foundation of both personal/spiritual growth and social harmony:

  • Dāna Sutta (AN 7.49): Generosity should be practiced with respect, timely, with a generous heart, and without harming oneself or others or selfish expectations.

  • Velāma Sutta (AN 9.20): Declares that generosity to those who live ethically and cultivate wisdom is especially fruitful.

Generosity creates trust, compassion, and social cohesion—all marks of a successful society.

7. Trust and Wisdom in Lay Life

The Dīghajāṇu Sutta includes trust about the triple gems (saddhā) and wisdom (paññā) as essentials.

  • Kalama Sutta (AN 3.65): Encourages critical reflection and personal verification, ensuring that faith is not blind but grounded in wisdom.

  • Mangala Sutta (Kp 5): Wisdom is praised as the highest blessing.

These show that lay life is not anti-intellectual or anti-spiritual—rather, it cultivates reflective faith leading toward deeper insight.

8. Correcting the Misconception: Buddhism and Worldly Happiness

The combined testimony of these discourses refutes the idea that Buddhism is “only about suffering.” The Buddha repeatedly taught that laypeople can and should pursue:

  • Wealth managed wisely 

  • Marriage and family duties 

  • Education and skill development

  • Social contribution and friendships 

  • Generosity and ethical integrity

Far from being life-denying, Buddhism promotes a balanced and joyful lay life as the foundation for deeper practice.

9. Lay Happiness as a Foundation for Nibbāna

Finally, the Buddha recognized that spiritual liberation is possible for laypeople only when their lives are stable, happy, and ethically lived.

Thus, the path to Nibbāna does not bypass lay life—it grows from it. A layperson who manages family, work, wealth, and society responsibly cultivates the joy, clarity, and freedom of heart that prepare the way to ultimate peace.

Conclusion

The Dīghajāṇu Sutta and its companion teachings form a comprehensive Buddhist ethic of lay life. They show that Buddhism is not world-rejecting but world-transforming: it provides guidance for marriage, parenting, wealth management, education, friendship, generosity, social harmony, and ethical growth. Together, they affirm that nibbāna is approachable not in opposition to lay happiness, but through it.


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