So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Rājagaha in the Bamboo Grove, the squirrels’ feeding ground.

Then the wanderer Vacchagotta went up to the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to the Buddha,

“For a long time I have had discussions with the worthy Gotama. Please teach me in brief what is skillful and what is unskillful.” “Vaccha, I can teach you what is skillful and what is unskillful in brief or in detail. Still, let me do so in brief. Listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, worthy sir,” Vaccha replied. The Buddha said this:

“Greed is unskillful, contentment is skillful. Hate is unskillful, love is skillful. Delusion is unskillful, understanding is skillful. So there are these three unskillful things and three that are skillful.