Iti 78Converging Elements
Pāli / Sanskrit:Dhātusosaṁsandanasutta
Like attracts like. It’s in accordance with their properties—either low or admirable—that beings come together and associate with one another.
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– So It Was Said 78
The Book of the Threes Chapter Three Converging Elements
This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
“Mendicants, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element: Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.
In the past …
In the future …
At present, too, sentient beings join together and converge because of an element. Those who have inferior convictions join together and converge with those who have inferior convictions. Those who have good convictions join together and converge with those who have good convictions.”
The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
The “…” is an abbreviation carried over from the Pāli original itself, called peyyāla. The early canon was memorized and recited, so passages repeated verbatim from a preceding discourse were commonly contracted to an elision mark rather than written out in full. Venerable Thích Minh Châu's translation preserves this convention. Some texts therefore look short — but that is the canonical form, not missing content or a truncated translation. The elided passages can be read in full in the preceding discourses of the same chapter.
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