Slanting East, Etc.

“Mendicants, the Ganges River slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. In the same way, a mendicant developing and cultivating the five faculties slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.

How so? It’s when a mendicant develops the faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. That’s how a mendicant developing and cultivating the five faculties slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.”

Six on slanting to the east,
and six on slanting to the ocean;
these two sixes make twelve,
and that’s how this chapter is recited.