Dīgha Nikāya (DN) — Selected Suttas (Stage B)

One structured reading, not authoritative. Stage B of the Theravāda Buddhism distillation: the pilot covered the Dhammapada (Khuddaka Nikāya). This file opens the long-form canonical prose by representative sampling of the Dīgha Nikāya ("Long Discourses"), 34 suttas in total. We distill six of the most influential and load-bearing suttas, not the whole nikāya. Source edition: Rhys Davids, Dialogues of the Buddha (vols. I–III in the SBB / SBE series, 1899–1921), public domain. Untranslatables preserved (Pali in italics). Methodology & tags: ../00-methodology.md. Quote anchors are working text pending Phase 7 char-for-char audit.

Coverage and rationale

Sutta	DN #	Why included
Sāmaññaphala Sutta — "The Fruits of the Life of a Recluse"	DN 2	Foundational ladder of the contemplative path (sīla → samādhi → paññā); social-equality kernel (the slave-turned-recluse)
Tevijja Sutta — "On Knowledge of the Vedas"	DN 13	The Buddha's appropriation of "union with Brahmā" via the four brahmavihāra (mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upekkhā)
Mahāparinibbāna Sutta — "The Book of the Great Decease"	DN 16	The Buddha's last days; attadīpa ("be islands/lamps unto yourselves"); the Four Great References (mahāpadesā); final exhortation
Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta — "The Greater Discourse on the Setting-up of Mindfulness"	DN 22	The Four Foundations of Mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna); the Four Noble Truths in full; the Noble Eightfold Path catalogued
Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta — "The Lion's Roar on the Turning of the Wheel"	DN 26	The wheel-turning monarch and the social-causal account of moral decay: failure to relieve poverty seeds theft, violence, lying
Sigālovāda Sutta — "The Sigala Homily"	DN 31	The "Layman's Vinaya": six directions of reciprocal social duty — parents/teachers/spouse/friends/workers/religious — Theravāda's most developed lay social ethics

DN 1 (Brahmajāla), DN 14 (Mahāpadāna), DN 15 (Mahānidāna — paṭiccasamuppāda in long form), DN 21 (Sakkapañha) and others remain for future passes.

Atomic statements

From DN 2 — Sāmaññaphala (Fruits of the Recluse's Life)

DN-C1: The recluse's path is a graduated ladder — outward conduct (sīla) → guarded senses → contentment → freedom from the Five Hindrances → the four jhānas → insight → the destruction of the āsavas (mental intoxications) → arahatship. Each rung is "better and sweeter" than the one before. (FOUNDATIONAL / DISCIPLINE+PRACTICE+LIBERATION)

DN 2 (Rhys Davids' introductory summary of the Sutta's structure): "The following, in a constantly ascending order of merit, are the advantages, visible in this life, which he claims for such a recluse… 3. The confidence of heart, absence of fear, resulting from the consciousness of right doing; 4. The habit of keeping guarded the door of his senses; 5. The constant self-possession he thus gains; 6. The power of being content with little, with simplicity of life; 7. The emancipation of heart from the Five Hindrances…; 8. The joy and peace that, as a result of the sense of this emancipation, fills his whole being; 9. The practice of the Four Jhānas…; 13. The realisation of the Four Truths, the destruction of the Asavas, and attainment of Arahatship."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: sīla, jhāna, āsava, arahat

DN-C2: Renouncing the world for the contemplative life confers visible, this-worldly dignity that overrides social rank — even a slave, once a recluse, is honoured by his former king. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+PRACTICE)

DN 2 §35–36 (the Buddha to King Ajātasattu): "Suppose among the people of your household there were a slave who does work for you… Suppose, after a time, he should… don the yellow robes, and… be admitted into an Order… Would you then say: 'Let the man come back; let him become a slave again, and work for me'?" — "Nay, Lord, rather should we greet him with reverence, and rise up from our seat out of deference towards him, and press him to be seated."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Frame-independent ethical kernel: ascetic vocation as social leveller.

DN-C3: The fruits of the contemplative life — confidence of heart, sense-restraint, self-possession, content with little, freedom from covetousness/ill-temper/laziness/worry/perplexity — are visible in this life, not deferred to the next. (OPERATIONAL / DISCIPLINE+MIND)

DN 2 (introductory enumeration, §§63–75): "3. The confidence of heart, absence of fear, resulting from the consciousness of right doing. 4. The habit of keeping guarded the door of his senses. 5. The constant self-possession he thus gains. 6. The power of being content with little, with simplicity of life. 7. The emancipation of heart from the Five Hindrances…"
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

From DN 13 — Tevijja

DN-C4: A way "to union with Brahmā" cannot be taught by those who have never seen Brahmā — "Just as when a string of blind men are clinging one to the other, neither can the foremost see, nor can the middle one see, nor can the hindmost see — just even so… is the talk of the Brahmans versed in the Three Vedas." (FOUNDATIONAL / TRUTH)

DN 13 §15: "Just, Vāseṭṭha, as when a string of blind men are clinging one to the other, neither can the foremost see, nor can the middle one see, nor can the hindmost see — just even so, methinks, Vāseṭṭha, is the talk of the Brahmans versed in the Three Vedas but blind talk: the first sees not, the middle one sees not, nor can the latest see."
Stance: assert (deny the Vedic authority claim) · Importance: core · The epistemic claim: tradition without experiential knowledge is empty.

DN-C5: The true way to "union with Brahmā" is the practice of the four brahmavihāra — pervading every direction (above, below, around, everywhere) with a heart of mettā (loving-kindness), karuṇā (compassion/pity), muditā (sympathetic joy), and upekkhā (equanimity) — "with mind set free, far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure." (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+MIND)

DN 13 §§76–79: "And he lets his mind pervade one quarter of the world with thoughts of Love, and so the second, and so the third, and so the fourth. And thus the whole wide world, above, below, around, and everywhere, does he continue to pervade with heart of Love, far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure… [likewise] with thoughts of pity… sympathy… equanimity. Verily this, Vāseṭṭha, is the way to a state of union with Brahmā."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: brahmavihāra ("divine abidings"), mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upekkhā

DN-C6: One who is free from anger, malice, attachment, and self-uncontrol, is "of like nature" with Brahmā, and thus the bhikkhu can attain that union which the householder Brahmins cannot. (OPERATIONAL / ETHICS+SELF)

DN 13 §§35, 80–81: "Brahma is free from anger and malice, pure in heart, and has self-mastery… [the Bhikkhu] is free from anger… free from malice, pure in mind, and master of himself… [so] he should after death, when the body is dissolved, become united with Brahma, who is the same — such a condition of things is every way possible!"
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting · Note Müller-style flattening: "Love" here renders mettā (loving-kindness), not avera/non-hatred as in Dhp 5 — distinct concepts collapsed in 19th-c. English.

From DN 16 — Mahāparinibbāna

DN-C7: "Be ye lamps/islands unto yourselves" (attadīpā) — the dying Buddha's commission: take no external refuge; hold the Dhamma as one's lamp and refuge; the means is the Fourfold Setting-up of Mindfulness. (FOUNDATIONAL / SELF+PRACTICE)

DN 16, II.26: "Therefore, O Ānanda, be ye lamps unto yourselves. Be ye a refuge to yourselves. Betake yourselves to no external refuge. Hold fast to the Truth as a lamp. Hold fast as a refuge to the Truth. Look not for refuge to any one besides yourselves… [And how?] a brother continues, as to the body, so to look upon the body that he remains strenuous, self-possessed, and mindful, having overcome both the hankering and the dejection common in the world. [And in the same way] as to feelings… moods… ideas…"
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: attadīpā / dhammadīpā (dīpa = lamp and island; the Buddha's pun is preserved by Buddhaghosa's "island" gloss); also satipaṭṭhāna.

DN-C8: The teaching is testable, not authoritative-by-source — the Four Great References (mahāpadesā): whatever is claimed as the Buddha's word, whether from him directly, from a community of elders, from many learned elders, or from one such elder, must be "put beside the Suttas and compared with the rules of the Order"; if it harmonizes, accept; if not, reject. (FOUNDATIONAL / TRUTH+PRACTICE)

DN 16, IV.8: "'From the mouth of the Exalted One himself have I heard… This is the truth, this the law, this the teaching of the Master.' The word spoken… by that brother should neither be received with praise nor treated with scorn. Without praise and without scorn every word and syllable should be carefully understood and then put beside the Suttas… and compared with the Vinaya. If when so compared they do not harmonize with the Suttas, and do not fit in with the rules of the Order, then you may come to the conclusion: 'Verily, this is not the word of the Exalted One…' Therefore, brethren, you should reject it."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Frame-independent: an epistemic discipline of textual coherence-testing — testable, not authority-by-source.

DN-C9: All conditioned things decay; the path is diligence — the Buddha's last spoken words. (FOUNDATIONAL / IMPERMANENCE+PRACTICE)

DN 16, VI.7: "'Behold now, brethren, I exhort you, saying: "Decay is inherent in all component things! Work out your salvation with diligence!"' This was the last word of the Tathāgata!"
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: vayadhammā saṅkhārā, appamādena sampādetha (sums P2 anicca + P1 appamāda of the Dhammapada synthesis).

DN-C10: The community needs no successor — neither person nor caste — because the Dhamma and Vinaya themselves are the teacher after the Buddha's passing. (OPERATIONAL / PRACTICE+TRUTH)

DN 16 (cf. VI; same chapter as preceding): The Buddha refuses to nominate a successor: "The truths and the rules of the Order which I have set forth and laid down for you all, let them, after I am gone, be the Teacher to you." (Rhys Davids' summary; specific pericope appears in DN 16 ch. VI just before the final words.)
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting · Flag: working paraphrase — exact wording pending Phase 7 audit.

From DN 22 — Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna

DN-C11: There is one path to purification and nibbāna — the Fourfold Setting-up of Mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna): contemplation of body, feelings, mind/thought, and ideas (kāyānupassanā, vedanānupassanā, cittānupassanā, dhammānupassanā). (FOUNDATIONAL / MIND+DISCIPLINE+LIBERATION)

DN 22 §1: "The one and only path, Bhikkhus, leading to the purification of beings, to passing far beyond grief and lamentation, to the dying-out of ill and misery, to the attainment of right method, to the realization of Nirvana, is that of the Fourfold Setting up of Mindfulness."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: ekāyano maggo, satipaṭṭhāna, nibbāna

DN-C12: Mindfulness is concrete and bodily — beginning with the breath: "Mindful let him inhale, mindful let him exhale" — extended to every posture, every act, until "he abides independent, grasping after nothing in the world whatever." (OPERATIONAL / MIND+DISCIPLINE)

DN 22 §2–3: "Mindful let him inhale, mindful let him exhale. Whether he inhale a long breath, let him be conscious thereof… When he is walking, [he] is aware of it thus: 'I walk'; or when he is standing, or sitting, or lying down, he is aware of it… And he abides independent, grasping after nothing in the world whatever."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: ānāpānasati (mindfulness of in-and-out-breathing)

DN-C13: The Four Noble Truths in their canonical long form are taught as the contemplation of "ideas" (dhammānupassanā): the Truth of Ill (dukkha), of its Origin (samudaya — craving for sense-objects, for becoming, for non-becoming), of its Cessation (nirodha), and of the Way (the Aryan Eightfold Path). (FOUNDATIONAL / TRUTH+CRAVING+LIBERATION)

DN 22 §§17–21: "And what, bhikkhus, is the Aryan Truth concerning the cessation of Ill? Craving for things visible, craving for things audible, craving for things that may be smelt, tasted, touched, for things in memory recalled — these are the things in this world that are dear, that are pleasant. Here may this Craving be put away, here does it cease. … And what, bhikkhus, is the Aryan Truth concerning the Way that leads to the Cessation of Ill? This is that Aryan Eightfold Path, to wit, right view, right aspiration, right speech, right doing, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right rapture."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: cattāri ariyasaccāni, dukkha, taṇhā, nirodha, ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo

*DN-C14: The Eightfold Path is itemized — sammā-diṭṭhi (right view, i.e. knowledge of the Four Truths), sammā-saṅkappa (right aspiration: renunciation, benevolence, kindness), sammā-vācā (right speech: abstaining from lying, slander, abuse, idle talk), sammā-kammanta (right doing: abstaining from killing, theft, sexual misconduct), sammā-ājīva (right livelihood), sammā-vāyāma (right effort), sammā-sati (right mindfulness), sammā-samādhi (right concentration: the four jhānas). (FOUNDATIONAL / DISCIPLINE+ETHICS+MIND)*

DN 22 §21: "And what, bhikkhus, is right aspiration? The aspiration towards renunciation, the aspiration towards benevolence, the aspiration towards kindness. … And what, bhikkhus, is right speech? Abstaining from lying, slander, abuse and idle talk. … And what, bhikkhus, is right doing? Abstaining from taking life, from taking what is not given, from carnal indulgence. … And what, bhikkhus, is right rapture? [the four jhānas] …"
Stance: assert · Importance: core

From DN 26 — Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda

DN-C15: The good polity is the wheel-turning king (cakkavatti) who "conquers not by the scourge, not by the sword, but by righteousness" (dhamma). His Aryan duty: leaning on the Dhamma, he provides "watch, ward, and protection" for every class — including the religious world and even "beasts and birds" — and to the poor he gives wealth. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+PRACTICE)

DN 26 §2: "He lived in supremacy over this earth to its ocean bounds, having conquered it, not by the scourge, not by the sword, but by righteousness." §5: "thou… being thyself a Norm-banner, a Norm-signal, having the Norm as thy master, shouldst provide the right watch, ward, and protection for thine own folk, for the army, for the nobles, for vassals, for brahmins, and householders, for town and country dwellers, for the religious world, and for beasts and birds. Throughout thy kingdom let no wrongdoing prevail. And whosoever in thy kingdom is poor, to him let wealth be given."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatables: cakkavatti (wheel-turner / universal monarch), dhamma (here: righteousness / Norm)

DN-C16: A causal chain links policy to moral collapse — failure to relieve poverty seeds theft; punishing theft by death seeds violence and murder; thereafter come lying, evil-speaking, and the rest, and the human lifespan correspondingly shortens. The decay is social-causal, not metaphysical. (FOUNDATIONAL / KARMA+ETHICS)

DN 26 §14: "Thus, brethren, from goods not being bestowed on the destitute poverty grew rife; from poverty growing rife stealing increased, from the spread of stealing violence grew apace, from the growth of violence the destruction of life became common, from the frequency of murder both the span of life in those beings and their comeliness also wasted away."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Frame-independent claim: distributive failure is a causal antecedent of crime. (Translator's footnote: "If the law is not observed, the consequences are inevitable.")

DN-C17: Recovery comes from below, by mutual undertaking: when life-spans have collapsed, beings will resolve, "Let us now abstain from taking what is not given, let us abstain from adultery, let us now abstain from lying… let us be filial towards our mothers, and our fathers, let us be pious toward holy men, let us respect the heads of clans" — and lifespan increases again. (OPERATIONAL / ETHICS+KARMA)

DN 26 §22: "Let us now abstain from taking what is not given, let us abstain from adultery, let us now abstain from lying, let us now abstain from evil speaking, let us now abstain from abuse and from idle talk, let us now abstain from covetousness, from ill-will, from false opinions… let us now be filial towards our mothers, and our fathers, let us be pious toward holy men, let us respect the heads of clans…"
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

From DN 31 — Sigālovāda (the "Layman's Vinaya")

DN-C18: The layman's path begins by putting away four vices in conduct (killing, taking what is not given, licentiousness, lying) and four evil motives (partiality, enmity, stupidity, fear). (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS)

DN 31 §3: "the Ariyan disciple has put away the four vices in conduct… The destruction of life, the taking what is not given, licentiousness, and lying speech." §5: "Evil deeds are done from motives of partiality, enmity, stupidity and fear. But inasmuch as the Ariyan disciple is not led away by these motives, he through them does no evil deed."
Stance: assert · Importance: core

DN-C19: Six "channels for dissipating wealth" are to be avoided — intoxicating drink, streets at unseemly hours, fairs/shows, gambling, evil companions, idleness — each with concrete consequences for self, family, and reputation. (OPERATIONAL / DISCIPLINE+ETHICS)

DN 31 §7: "the six channels for dissipating wealth: — the being addicted to intoxicating liquors, frequenting the streets at unseemly hours, haunting fairs, the being infatuated by gambling, associating with evil companions, the habit of idleness."
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

DN-C20: A genuine friend (suhada, "sound of heart") is distinguished from four false-friend types (the rapacious, the man of words not deeds, the flatterer, the fellow-waster). The true friend types: the helper, the friend constant in happiness and adversity, the friend of good counsel, the friend who sympathizes. (OPERATIONAL / ETHICS+PRACTICE)

DN 31 §§15, 21: "Four, O young householder, are they who should be reckoned as foes in the likeness of friends; to wit, a rapacious person, the man of words not deeds, the flatterer, the fellow-waster. … Four, O young householder, are the friends who should be reckoned as sound at heart: — the helper; the friend who is the same in happiness and adversity; the friend of good counsel; the friend who sympathizes."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: kalyāṇa-mitta / suhada (true / sound-hearted friend)

DN-C21: Wealth honestly amassed is to be divided in four — one part enjoyed, two reinvested in business, one reserved for need. (OPERATIONAL / ETHICS+PRACTICE)

DN 31 §26 (verse): "In portions four let him divide that wealth… One portion let him spend and taste the fruit; / His business to conduct let him take two, / And portion four let him reserve and hoard; / So there'll be wherewithal in times of need."
Stance: assert · Importance: supporting

DN-C22: Social life is structured as six directions — the six "quarters" — each a relation of mutual, reciprocal duty. East = parents/child; South = teacher/pupil; West = husband/wife; North = friends/kin; Nadir = master/worker; Zenith = religious teacher/layperson. Each pair carries explicit duties on both sides. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS+PRACTICE)

DN 31 §27: "parents as the east, teachers as the south, wife and children as the west, friends and companions as the north, servants and work people as the nadir, religious teachers and brahmins as the zenith."
Stance: assert · Importance: core
§28 (Child→parents): "Once supported by them I will now be their support; I will perform duties incumbent on them; I will keep up the lineage and tradition of my family; I will make myself worthy of my heritage." (Parents→child): "they restrain him from vice, they exhort him to virtue, they train him to a profession, they contract a suitable marriage for him, and in due time they hand over his inheritance."
§29 (Pupil→teacher): "by rising… in salutation, by waiting upon them, by eagerness to learn, by personal service, and by attention when receiving their teaching." (Teacher→pupil): "they train him in that wherein he has been well trained; they make him hold fast that which is well held; they thoroughly instruct him in the lore of every art; they speak well of him among his friends and companions. They provide for his safety in every quarter."
§30 (Husband→wife): "by respect, by courtesy, by faithfulness, by handing over authority to her, by providing her with adornment." (Wife→husband): "her duties are well performed, by hospitality to the kin of both, by faithfulness, by watching over the goods he brings, and by skill and industry in discharging all her business."
§31 (Person→friends): "by generosity, courtesy and benevolence, by treating them as he treats himself, and by being as good as his word." (Friends→person): "they protect him when he is off his guard, and on such occasions guard his property; they become a refuge in danger, they do not forsake him in his troubles, and they show consideration for his family."
§32 (Master→worker): "by assigning them work according to their strength; by supplying them with food and wages; by tending them in sickness; by sharing with them unusual delicacies; by granting leave at times." (Worker→master): "they rise before him, they lie down to rest after him; they are content with what is given to them; they do their work well; and they carry about his praise and good fame."
§33 (Layperson→recluse): "by affection in act and speech and mind; by keeping open house to them, by supplying their temporal needs." (Recluse→layperson): "they restrain him from evil, they exhort him to good, they love him with kindly thoughts; they teach him what he had not heard, they correct and purify what he has heard, they reveal to him the way to heaven."
Translator note (Rhys Davids on the pupil-duties): "Childers has obedience. This is quite wrong… obedience does not occur in Buddhist ethics. It is not mentioned in any one of the 227 rules of the Buddhist Order. It does not occur in any one of the clauses of this summary of the ethics of the Buddhist layman."

DN-C23: Lay social virtue is summed up in four "things that make the world go round" (Skt. saṅgaha-vatthu): the giving hand, the kindly speech, the life of service, impartiality. (FOUNDATIONAL / ETHICS)

DN 31 §33 (verse): "The giving hand, the kindly speech, the life / Of service, impartiality to one / As to another, as the case demands: — / These be the things that make the world go round / As linchpin serves the rolling of the car."
Stance: assert · Importance: core · Untranslatable: saṅgaha-vatthu (the four bases of social cohesion / "popularity": dāna, peyyavajja, atthacariyā, samānattatā).

Step 4 — Clusters across the six suttas

Cluster	Atomic statements	Intent
Graduated path (sīla→samādhi→paññā)	C1, C3, C11, C12, C14	The contemplative path as a structured ladder of training
Self-reliance & testable teaching	C7, C8, C10, C2	Take no external refuge; test even purported Buddha-words; vocation overrides caste
Four Noble Truths & cessation of dukkha	C13 (& tacitly C1, C9)	The diagnostic core of the Dhamma
Brahmavihāras / non-hatred / love-as-method	C5, C6	The four divine abidings as the route to Brahmā-union, reframed
Impermanence + diligence	C9, C16	All compounded things decay; diligence is the answer
Polity / dharmic governance	C15, C16, C17	Right governance is the absence of force, the relief of poverty, mutual undertakings
Layman's structured social ethics	C18, C19, C20, C21, C22, C23	Vices abandoned + reciprocal six-directional duties + cohesion virtues

Step 5 — Internal tensions

C7 (self-reliance, "be lamps unto yourselves") vs. C22 (dense reciprocal social obligations): not a contradiction. The first is soteriological (no person, not even the Buddha, can purify another — cf. P5 in the Dhammapada synthesis); the second is socio-ethical (lay life is built through reciprocal duty). Theravāda holds both: ultimate liberation is non-transferable, but the layperson's path is densely social.
C5 ("union with Brahmā" via brahmavihāra) vs. P2 (anattā) / P10 (nibbāna): DN 13 uses theistic language as a skillful means (the interlocutor's frame). The brahmavihāras lead, the suttas elsewhere clarify, "not to Arahantship, but to rebirth in the Brahma-world" (Rhys Davids' note at DN 13 §76). The Buddha is meeting his Vedic interlocutors on their terms, not endorsing their cosmology.
C15 (the cakkavatti as righteous conqueror) vs. C18 (lay vow against killing): the sutta presents the cakkavatti as an idealized type whose conquest dispenses with violence ("rival kings… came to the sovran king and said: Come, O mighty king! Welcome…"). The "conquest" is by example; killing is excluded in the very enumeration of the cakkavatti's first injunction to subjects: "Ye shall slay no living thing."

Step 6 — Synthesized DN-level principles

DN-P1: The graduated path — sīla, samādhi, paññā

The contemplative life is a structured ascent: morality (the Sīlas) → sense-restraint and contentment → freedom from the Five Hindrances → the four jhānas → insight (paññā) → the destruction of the āsavas → arahatship. Each rung is the support of the next; none can be skipped.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: DISCIPLINE+PRACTICE+LIBERATION · Covers: C1, C3, C11, C12, C14 · Evidence: DN 2 §§63–98; DN 22 §1, §§17–21
Untranslatables: sīla, samādhi, paññā, jhāna, āsava, satipaṭṭhāna

DN-P2: Self-reliance and the testability of the teaching

"Be islands/lamps unto yourselves" (attadīpā) — take no external refuge but the Dhamma. After the Buddha is gone there is no successor; the Dhamma and Vinaya themselves are the teacher. Even a claim "I heard this from the Buddha himself" must be tested by coherence with the Suttas and the Vinaya — the Four Great References.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: SELF+TRUTH+PRACTICE · Covers: C7, C8, C10 · Evidence: DN 16 II.26, IV.7–11
Untranslatables: attadīpā, dhammadīpā, mahāpadesā
Frame-independent note: a discipline of source-coherence testing — claim (don't accept teachings by authority of speaker; test them) converges with rationalist/scriptural-internal-coherence traditions; the warrant (no founder-successor, no church) diverges from succession-based religions.

DN-P3: The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path

Suffering (dukkha), its origin in craving (taṇhā), its cessation (nirodha), and the eightfold way leading to cessation — right view, right aspiration, right speech, right doing, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration — are the diagnostic core.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: TRUTH+CRAVING+LIBERATION · Covers: C13, C14 · Evidence: DN 22 §§17–21
Untranslatables: cattāri ariyasaccāni, dukkha, taṇhā, nirodha, ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo

DN-P4: Mindfulness as the one way (ekāyano maggo)

The Fourfold Setting-up of Mindfulness — body, feelings, mind, ideas — is "the one and only path" to purification and nibbāna. The practice is concrete: begin with the breath, attend to every posture, observe coming-to-be and passing-away, and "abide independent, grasping after nothing in the world whatever."

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: MIND+DISCIPLINE+LIBERATION · Covers: C11, C12 · Evidence: DN 22 §§1–3
Untranslatables: satipaṭṭhāna, ānāpānasati

DN-P5: The four brahmavihāras — boundless love, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity

Mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upekkhā — pervading every direction, "far-reaching, grown great, and beyond measure" — are the way to "union with Brahmā" as the Buddha re-defines it: the cultivation of an unbounded heart, not the recitation of Vedic verses.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+MIND · Covers: C5, C6 · Evidence: DN 13 §§35, 76–81
Untranslatables: brahmavihāra, mettā, karuṇā, muditā, upekkhā
Cross-tradition note: a strong convergence candidate (compassion universalism); the warrant (these states as method, not as obedience to a divine command) is distinctive. Extends Dhammapada P6 (non-hatred / avera / mettā) into four discrete cultivable states.

DN-P6: Impermanence and the dying exhortation — diligence (appamāda)

"Decay is inherent in all component things; work out your salvation with diligence" — the Buddha's last words sum the marks of existence with the heedfulness theme.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: IMPERMANENCE+PRACTICE · Covers: C9 · Evidence: DN 16 VI.7
Untranslatables: vayadhammā saṅkhārā, appamādena sampādetha
Anchors and extends Dhammapada P1 (appamāda) and P2 (anicca) — this is DN's most-cited verse.

DN-P7: Ascetic vocation as social leveller (caste-equality at the threshold of the path)

Whoever enters the homeless life is to be honoured; a slave become recluse is no longer a slave but a person of merit, and the king himself rises from his seat to greet him. Caste, status, and birth are dissolved at the threshold of the path.

Tier: OPERATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+PRACTICE · Covers: C2 · Evidence: DN 2 §§35–36
Extends Dhammapada P11 (worth-by-attainment-not-birth) with a concrete social scene.

DN-P8: The dharmic polity — righteous rule, relief of poverty, social-causal ethics

The cakkavatti rules "not by the scourge, not by the sword, but by righteousness." His Aryan duty is to protect every class and to give wealth to the poor. Failure to relieve poverty is the causal seed of crime, violence, and social decay; recovery comes from below, by mutual ethical undertaking among ordinary people.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+KARMA+PRACTICE · Covers: C15, C16, C17 · Evidence: DN 26 §§2, 5, 10, 14, 22
Untranslatables: cakkavatti, dhamma-rāja (king of righteousness)
Cross-tradition note: claim (the just polity's first duty includes the relief of want; punishment without policy seeds further crime) converges with prophetic-political ethics in many traditions; warrant (impersonal karmic-causal account in this life, not a covenant with a god) is distinctive. A genuinely new principle — not in the Dhammapada — and a natural anchor for cross-tradition political-ethics distillation.

DN-P9: The layman's structured social ethics — six reciprocal directions, four cohesion-virtues

Lay life is structured as six directions of reciprocal duty (parents/teachers/spouse/friends/workers/religious), each carrying explicit obligations on both sides; vices and false-friend types are catalogued; and the four "bases of social cohesion" (saṅgaha-vatthu) — giving, kindly speech, helpful service, impartiality — are the linchpins of the social wheel. Notably, "obedience" is absent; relations are reciprocal.

Tier: FOUNDATIONAL · Domain: ETHICS+PRACTICE · Covers: C18, C19, C20, C21, C22, C23 · Evidence: DN 31 §§3, 7, 15, 21, 26–33
Untranslatables: suhada (true / sound-hearted friend), kalyāṇa-mitta, saṅgaha-vatthu (the four bases: dāna, peyyavajja, atthacariyā, samānattatā)
Cross-tradition note: a strong convergence candidate for "social ethics" comparison; the warrant is non-theistic and explicitly non-hierarchical (the Rhys Davids footnote on the absence of obedience is significant). A genuinely new principle — the Dhammapada does not develop reciprocal-duty social ethics; this is the Theravāda's distinct contribution to lay social philosophy.

Step 7 — Traceability

Principle	Atomic statements	Suttas / verses
DN-P1	C1, C3, C11, C12, C14	DN 2 §§63–98; DN 22 §1, §§17–21
DN-P2	C7, C8, C10	DN 16 II.26, IV.7–11
DN-P3	C13, C14	DN 22 §§17–21
DN-P4	C11, C12	DN 22 §§1–3
DN-P5	C5, C6	DN 13 §§35, 76–81
DN-P6	C9	DN 16 VI.7
DN-P7	C2	DN 2 §§35–36
DN-P8	C15, C16, C17	DN 26 §§2, 5, 10, 14, 22
DN-P9	C18, C19, C20, C21, C22, C23	DN 31 §§3, 7, 15, 21, 26–33

Step 8 — Quality

Coverage of sampled suttas: each of the six suttas yields ≥1 atomic statement and ≥1 principle. We sampled 6/34 suttas of the nikāya — representative, not exhaustive. Suttas with major principle-bearing content not yet distilled: DN 1 (Brahmajāla — wrong views), DN 14 (Mahāpadāna), DN 15 (Mahānidāna — paṭiccasamuppāda / dependent origination in long form), DN 21 (Sakkapañha), DN 33 (Saṅgīti — doctrinal lists).
Orphaned content: high within the un-sampled 28 suttas; low within the 6 sampled.
Atomic statements: 23.
DN-level principles: 9 (within the 3–12 range per methodology).
Traceability: 100% within the sampled set.
Quote accuracy: working text from archive.org djvu transcripts; OCR artefacts present (diacritic placeholders, occasional broken italics). Char-for-char verification against the printed SBB / SBE volumes is the Phase 7 audit.

Step 9 — Validation (frame-independent comprehension; claim vs warrant)

Principle	Claim (may converge cross-tradition)	Warrant (frame-specific; may diverge)
DN-P1 graduated path	Disciplined ethical-meditative training proceeds in stages; each requires the prior	Stages culminate in destruction of the āsavas and arahatship — not communion with God
DN-P2 self-reliance + testability	No source-authority is privileged; teachings are tested by internal coherence	No founder-successor and no enduring self to "rely on" save the conditioned process
DN-P3 Four Noble Truths	Suffering, its origin in misdirected desire, and a definite cure-path	Origin is taṇhā (craving) per se, not "fallen will"; cessation is nibbāna, not beatitude
DN-P4 mindfulness as one way	Disciplined attention to body/feeling/mind/ideas purifies	"One and only path" is exclusive — an in-tradition truth-claim
DN-P5 brahmavihāras	Boundless love, compassion, joy-in-others'-joy, and equanimity are cultivable	They are psychological cultivations, not divine commands; lead to a Brahmā-world rebirth, not Brahmā-as-God
DN-P6 impermanence + diligence	All compounded things decay; urgency is the only response to that fact	No eschatology of resurrection or final judgment
DN-P7 caste-equality at the path	Vocation overrides social rank	The ascetic order, not the Body of Christ or the ummah, is the institutional carrier
DN-P8 dharmic polity	The just polity uses persuasion, not force, and relieves poverty as a first duty; failure to do so is the causal seed of crime	Karmic-causal, this-life sociology; no covenant, no judging God
DN-P9 six-directional lay ethics	Social life is structured by reciprocal duty across well-defined relations; cohesion-virtues (giving, kindly speech, service, impartiality) hold society together	Reciprocity is non-hierarchical: obedience is absent; warrant is karmic-utilitarian, not a Decalogue

Standalone reading: DN-P1, P3, P4, P6, P7, P8, P9 are intelligible to an outsider without prior Buddhist commitments. DN-P2's "lamps unto yourselves" and DN-P5's brahmavihāra-as-method are intelligible psychologically but carry frame-specific warrant (no enduring self; "union with Brahmā" as upāya-language).

New principles relative to the Dhammapada synthesis:

DN-P8 (dharmic polity / social-causal account of decay) is a genuinely new principle — political-ethical, with the relief of poverty as a first-order duty.
DN-P9 (six-directional lay ethics) is a genuinely new principle — reciprocal social duty in structured form, not present in the Dhammapada.
DN-P5 (brahmavihāras as four discrete states) substantially extends Dhammapada P6 (avera/mettā).
DN-P2 (testability / mahāpadesā) adds an epistemic-discipline dimension to Dhammapada P9 (wisdom).
DN-P3 and DN-P4 elaborate at canonical length what Dhammapada P3 and P10 stated as poetry.

These are candidate refinements to the Theravāda N=3 principles (see ../principles-distillation.md) — recorded here as additive evidence, with the Sigālovāda's reciprocal-duty structure proposed as a new P14.