Saṃyutta Nikāya
II. Nidāna Vagga
20. Opamma-Saṃutta
The Book of the Kindred Sayings
II. The Book Called the Nidāna-Vagga
Containing Kindred sayings on Cause
and Other Subjects
20. Kindred Sayings on Parables
Sutta 1
Kūṭa Suttaṃ
The Roof-Peak
Translated by Mrs. Rhys Davids
Assisted by F. L. Woodward
Originally Published by
The Pali Text Society
Public Domain
The Exalted One was once staying near Sāvatthi at the Jeta Grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.
[2][olds] There the Exalted One addressed the brethren: —
"Friends, brethren!"
"Yes, friend," responded the brethren.
[3][olds] "Just as in a peaked house,[1] brethren,
whatever rafters there are
all converge to the roof-peak,
resort equally to the roof-peak,
are fixed together in the roof-peak,
all go to junction there,
[4][olds] even so, whatever wrong states there are
all have their root in ignorance,
all may be referred to ignorance,
all are fixed together in ignorance,
all go to junction there.
[5][olds] Wherefore, brethren, ye must thus train yourselves: —
'We will live earnestly'[2]
— even thus."
[1] Kūṭāgāra, a hut or building with a peaked-roof or pinnacles, possibly gabled or with an upper storey. Cf. above, p. 71, PTS. Dictionary. For other parables on it see my Index to Similes in the Nikāyas, 
JPTS, 1906-7, pp. 58f., where this parable has been inadvertently omitted.
[2] All of the Suttas in this chapter except §8 are referred to Sāvatthī.
