The sixth book of the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the Collection of the Numbered Discourses of the Buddha, collects 649 suttas or discourses whose theme is almost always centered on groups of six topics. And I say that almost always, because there are not many topics in the texts of six elements, so many are forced as in the case of chapter 11 called triads because that is what they are, triads. And well, since three plus three equals six… two triads are included and we supposedly have a sextet ready to be included in the Book of Sixes. But we will also see that the six is made by adding one to five, or two to a group of four... In AN 6.29 he talks all the time about five things and ends up adding another to complete the six. Although this book also contains suttas to be read, except for the final matikas contained in the last few chapters, its content remains uninteresting. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Anguttara Nikaya bases its popularity on its traditionally terrible translations that force the reader to invent extrapolations to help them skip abstruse paragraphs, providing that indefinite mysterious halo of the abstract. In the anecdotal suttas section, we have AN 6.42 with Nāgita. In it, the Buddha rails against fame and its drawbacks, such as the difficulty of being able to shit or pee in peace, with five hundred followers who do not stop following you wherever you go. We can highlight AN 6.18 A fish merchant where the Buddha exposes professions where his cruelty is not even financially compensated. In AN 6.60 with Hatthisāriputta, the danger of teaching jhanas to people who are not going to use them to become enlightened is denounced. Finally, the group from AN 6.92 to AN 6.93 called Things that cannot be done where obvious things are stated such as that it is absurd for someone with the correct belief to think of taking someone who is not a Tataghata as a teacher. Interestingly, this book is devoid of bogus suttas. In summary, we continue in an arduous and exhaustive work of investigation and reconstruction in comparative linguistics to unravel some texts without much interest
The Book of Six - Aṅguttara Nikāya
Aṅguttara Nikāya