Little though he recites the sacred texts, but puts the teaching into practice, forsaking lust, hatred and delusion, with right understanding and emancipated mind, clinging to nothing here or hereafter — he indeed partakes of the blessings of the holy life.

The closing verse of the chapter of pairs. The cowherd of verse 19 has been replaced by a practitioner who recites little and acts much. The Buddha specifies what the acting consists of — the forsaking of lust, hatred, delusion, the right understanding, the unclinging. The verse is also a doorway from the Yamakavagga into the Appamadavagga that follows. From paired-opposites, the teaching turns to a single quality — heedfulness — that, the Buddha will argue, holds everything else in place.