Numbered Discourses: Sevens, Eights, Nines

ฉบับแปลอังกฤษ · Sutta Piṭaka — The Basket of Discourses · Volume 23 · 485 pages

Summarized by AI from the full volume (180 topics) — click to jump to where each topic begins.

Page 174–182 At Verañjā (AN 8.11) The brahmin Verañja accuses the Buddha of lacking respect, taste, and delicacy, and of teaching inaction, annihilation, disgust, extermination, mortification, and gutlessness; the Buddha accepts each label in a specialized sense while rejecting Verañja's intended meaning. Using the simile of a chick being first to hatch from an egg, the Buddha explains why he alone deserves to be called the eldest and foremost in the world through his awakening. He then recounts achieving the four absorptions an
Page 182–192 With Sīha (AN 8.12) The Jain general Sīha overcomes his teacher's repeated discouragement and finally visits the Buddha to ask about accusations that he teaches a doctrine of inaction. The Buddha shows that in a specialized sense he does teach inaction, action, annihilation, disgust, extermination, mortification, gutlessness, and ambition, depending on how each term is understood, since he opposes only bad conduct and defilements. Sīha goes for refuge but is advised to "act after careful consideration" rather than
Page 192–194 A Thoroughbred (AN 8.13) The Buddha draws a detailed parallel between the eight qualities of a prize royal warhorse and the eight qualities of a mendicant worthy of offerings. Just as a fine horse is well bred, eats carefully without mess, is clean in habits, gentle with other horses, transparent about its own faults, reliable under load, walks a straight path, and remains strong even to the point of death, so too an excellent mendicant keeps the precepts, eats without complaint, is disgusted by misconduct, lives peacea
Page 194–198 A Wild Colt (AN 8.14) The Buddha describes eight ways an untrained colt resists a trainer's commands - backing up and tangling the chariot, breaking the gear, shaking off the yoke, veering off track, rearing up, ignoring the bit entirely, freezing in place, or collapsing onto its legs. He then maps each of these onto eight corresponding ways a mendicant accused of an offense might evade responsibility: denying memory of the act, insulting the accuser, counter-accusing them, deflecting with irrelevant talk and hostili
Page 198–199 Stains (AN 8.15) A short list identifies eight things that tarnish their respective domains: failure to rehearse ruins the memory of hymns, neglect ruins a house, laziness ruins beauty, negligence ruins a guard's duty, misconduct ruins a woman's reputation, and stinginess ruins a would-be donor. Bad, unskillful qualities are said to stain a person both in this life and the next. But the Buddha declares that ignorance surpasses every one of these as the very worst stain of all, since it is the root condition that
Page 199–200 Going on a Mission (AN 8.16) The Buddha specifies the eight qualities that qualify a mendicant to be sent as an emissary or representative on the community's behalf. Such a person must be learned and able to educate others, must memorize and retain what they have learned, understand it and help others understand, discern accurately what is relevant to the topic at hand, and avoid provoking quarrels. They should not falter or lose composure even before a hostile assembly of skilled debaters, and should never conceal instruct
Page 200 Catching (AN 8.17-18) Two brief, mirror-image discourses describe the eight means by which women attract men, and men attract women: weeping, laughing, speech, appearance, gifts of wildflowers, scent, taste, and touch. Both versions conclude with the same stark warning, that of all these methods, those caught by touch are "well and truly caught," singling out physical intimacy as the most binding and dangerous of the eight snares regardless of which sex is doing the catching.
Page 200–207 With Pahārāda (AN 8.19) The titan lord Pahārāda tells the Buddha that titans love the ocean for eight wonders: its gradual slope with no sudden precipice, its stable shoreline that never overflows, its refusal to keep a corpse, the way great rivers lose their names upon entering it, its constancy despite rain and streams, its single salty taste, its treasury of gems, and the immense creatures living within it. The Buddha then shows that mendicants love the Dhamma and training for exactly the same eight reasons in a spi
Page 207–212 Sabbath (AN 8.20) On a sabbath night when the monastic code should be recited, the Buddha remains silent three times because he senses an impure, unethical monk is sitting among the gathered assembly. Moggallāna eventually reads the minds of the whole Sangha, identifies and physically ejects the offender who refuses to leave voluntarily, after which the Buddha declares that he will never again personally recite the code in an impure assembly and hands the duty over to the monks themselves. He then retells the ful
Page 212–215 With Ugga of Vesālī (AN 8.21) After the Buddha declares that the lay disciple Ugga of Vesālī possesses eight amazing qualities without specifying what they are, a mendicant visits Ugga and hears him modestly list eight things he believes might qualify: his heart's instant inspiration on first glimpsing the Buddha, his attainment of stream-entry and the five precepts, his equanimity in giving away his four young wives to other men at their own request without regret, his unstinting generosity to the ethical, his careful rever
Page 215–220 With Uggata of Elephant Village (AN 8.22) In a close companion to the Ugga sutta, the lay disciple Uggata of Elephant Village - who first saw the Buddha while drunk at a party and instantly sobered up in awe - independently lists his own eight incredible qualities to a visiting mendicant. These include giving away his young wives without regret, treating all mendicants with impartial generosity regardless of what visiting deities report about their spiritual attainments, and his confidence that should he die he will never return to this
Page 220–223 With Hatthaka (AN 8.23-24) The Buddha praises the householder Hatthaka of Āḷavī's seven virtues - faith, ethics, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, and wisdom - but when a messenger-monk reports this praise to him, Hatthaka anxiously checks that no laypeople overheard, revealing an eighth quality the Buddha then formally adds: genuine fewness of wishes, not wanting his own good qualities publicized. In a following episode Hatthaka visits with five hundred lay followers and explains to the Buddha that he draws suc
Page 223–227 With Mahānāma and With Jīvaka (AN 8.25-26) In near-identical dialogues, the Sakyan Mahānāma and the royal physician Jīvaka each ask the Buddha how a lay follower is defined, and receive the same graded answer. Simply going for refuge to the Buddha, teaching, and Sangha makes one a lay follower; keeping the five ethical precepts makes one an ethical lay follower; and cultivating faith, ethical conduct, generosity, seeking out mendicants, hearing and remembering the teaching, and practicing accordingly - but without encouraging others to d
Page 227–229 Powers (AN 8.27-28) A short proverb-like list names the characteristic "power" wielded by different kinds of beings - crying for babies, anger for women, weapons for bandits, authority for rulers, complaint for fools, reasoned argument for the astute, careful reflection for the learned, and patience for renunciates. In a companion dialogue, Sāriputta explains to the Buddha that an arahant's confident claim "my defilements have ended" rests on eight distinct grounds of insight, including having clearly seen imperman
Page 229–232 Lost Opportunities (AN 8.29) The Buddha catalogs eight unfortunate circumstances in which a being cannot practice the path even though a fully awakened Buddha has arisen in the world - being reborn in hell, as an animal, as a ghost, among the long-lived gods, in an uncivilized borderland without access to the teaching, or as a human with either deeply wrong views or an unteachable dull mind. Against these eight lost opportunities stands the single genuine opportunity: being born human, intelligent, and in a place where the
Page 232–240 Anuruddha and the Great Thoughts (AN 8.30) While Anuruddha meditates privately on seven "thoughts of a great man" - favoring fewness of wishes, contentment, seclusion, energy, mindfulness, and immersion over their opposites - the Buddha appears before him instantly through psychic power and adds an eighth thought: delighting in the cessation of mental proliferation rather than in elaboration. The Buddha explains why he taught each of the eight thoughts and describes how a mendicant grounded in them attains the four absorptions effortless
Page 240–241 Giving (AN 8.31-32) A pair of short discourses catalogs eight different motives that might lie behind an act of giving, ranging from debased motives - giving out of contempt for the recipient, out of fear, merely to reciprocate a past gift, or in hope of a future favor - to more wholesome ones, such as giving simply because it is good, out of fairness since the giver cooks while the recipient does not, for the sake of one's reputation, or as a genuine adornment and support for one's own mind. A short accompanying v
Page 241 Reasons to Give (AN 8.33) The Buddha distinguishes corrupted motives for giving - favoritism, hostility, stupidity, and cowardice - from more admirable ones, including honoring a family's traditional custom of generosity, hoping for a good rebirth, feeling one's own mind grow clear and joyful in the act of giving, and giving simply because it serves as an adornment and support for the mind. The teaching shows that the same outward act of generosity can spring from very different, and very unequal, inner motivations.
Page 241–243 A Field (AN 8.34) Building an extended agricultural metaphor, the Buddha compares a poor, rocky, salty field lacking irrigation to an unethical recipient whose wrong view and wrong conduct make any gift given to them relatively unfruitful, while a well-prepared field with good furrows and water access represents an ethical recipient endowed with right view and the rest of the eightfold path, whose acceptance of a gift makes it richly productive. Verses following extend the theme, celebrating how excellence compou
Page 243–245 Rebirth by Giving (AN 8.35) The Buddha explains that a donor's specific aspiration held in mind while giving determines the particular rebirth that generosity produces. Someone who gives while wishing to be reborn among wealthy humans, or among any of the six classes of sensual-heaven gods up through those who control what others create, or even among the gods of the Divinity's host through devotion to the formless meditations, will be reborn accordingly if their wish is settled and cultivated - but only, the Buddha stress
Page 245–248 Grounds for Making Merit (AN 8.36) The Buddha describes a graded cosmology of merit-making based on giving, ethical conduct, and meditation. Small, moderate, or extraordinary practice of giving and ethics alone - without meditation - leads respectively to rebirth as a disadvantaged human, an advantaged human, or one of the sensual-realm gods, where in each heaven the ruling deity (the Four Great Kings, Sakka, Suyāma, Santusita, Sunimmita, or Vasavattī) surpasses the other gods there in ten specific respects, precisely because tha
Page 248–249 Gifts of a True Person (AN 8.37) The Buddha sketches the character of an ideal donor whose gifts are pure, of good quality, well-timed, appropriate to the occasion, thoughtfully chosen, and given regularly, offered with a confident heart and followed afterward by a feeling of uplift rather than regret. Accompanying verses reinforce that discerning people specifically praise this kind of open-handed, regret-free generosity as the path to a pleasant future rebirth.
Page 249–250 A True Person (AN 8.38) Using the image of a great rain cloud that nourishes every crop in its path, the Buddha describes how a genuinely good person born into a family becomes a source of benefit not only to themselves but to their parents, children, spouse, servants, friends, deceased ancestors, ruler, deities, and renunciates alike. Accompanying verses praise the layperson who honors elders and reveres homeless renunciates as being good for everyone around them and destined to enjoy a gracious world free from the st
Page 250–252 Overflowing Merit (AN 8.39) The Buddha identifies eight sources of continuously ripening merit: taking refuge in the Buddha, the teaching, and the Sangha, and keeping each of the five ethical precepts against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants. Abstaining from each kind of harm is described as itself an incalculable gift of safety and freedom from fear given to all other beings, which is why the Buddha calls these five observances great, primordial offerings that no sensible ascetic or brahmin wou
Page 252–254 The Results of Misconduct (AN 8.40) For each of eight unwholesome courses of action - killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, idle chatter, and drinking alcohol - the Buddha states that habitual practice leads to rebirth in hell, as an animal, or as a ghost. Even in the best-case scenario where a human rebirth still results, each unwholesome habit leaves its own specific mark on that life, such as a short lifespan from killing, poverty from stealing, marital rivalry from sexual misconduct, false
Page 254–260 The Sabbath With Eight Factors (AN 8.41-42) The Buddha lays out the lay uposatha observance in brief and then in full detail: for one day and night a disciple reflects on emulating the perfected ones by giving up killing, stealing, sexual activity, lying, and intoxicants, eating only during the day, avoiding entertainment and adornment, and sleeping on a low bed. He calculates that observing these eight factors for a single day outweighs ruling all sixteen great kingdoms of ancient India, since it can lead to rebirth among progressively l
Page 260–269 With Visākhā, Vāseṭṭha, and Bojjhā on the Sabbath (AN 8.43-45) The Buddha repeats the full eight-factor uposatha teaching from the preceding discourses to three different lay listeners in turn - the eminent laywoman Visākhā, the layman Vāseṭṭha, and the laywoman Bojjhā. In the version taught to Vāseṭṭha, he expresses the hope that his relatives, and indeed the whole world, might take up the practice, and the Buddha affirms that it would bring lasting welfare even to insentient beings like the great sal trees nearby, were they capable of understanding it.
Page 269–273 Anuruddha and the Agreeable Deities (AN 8.46) A group of shape-shifting "Agreeable" deities visit Anuruddha during meditation, changing color and performing music at his mental command, but he remains unmoved and they depart disappointed that he takes no pleasure in their display. When Anuruddha later asks the Buddha how such a rebirth among the Agreeable Gods is attained, the Buddha describes eight qualities of an exemplary wife - rising before and retiring after her husband, honoring those he honors, managing household duties deftly and f
Page 273 With Visākhā and Nakula's Mother on the Agreeable Gods (AN 8.47-48) The Buddha repeats the same eight qualities of an ideal wife described in the previous discourse - rising early, honoring her husband's elders and teachers, managing the household competently, protecting the family's wealth, and practicing faith, ethics, and generosity - first to Visākhā and then to the housewife Nakula's mother, presenting devoted domestic virtue combined with genuine Buddhist practice as the specific path to rebirth among the Agreeable Gods.
Page 273–274 Winning in This Life (AN 8.49-50) The Buddha distinguishes worldly success from spiritual success for a laywoman: being organized at work, managing servants fairly, loving her husband loyally, and safeguarding the family's earnings brings success "in this life," while cultivating faith, ethics, generosity, and wisdom brings success "in lives to come." Closing verses praise the woman who unites all eight qualities as virtuous, firmly principled, and destined for rebirth among the Agreeable Gods.
Page 274–287 With Gotamī (AN 8.51) This pivotal discourse recounts the founding of the nuns' order: the Buddha three times refuses his aunt Mahāpajāpati Gotamī's request that women be allowed to go forth, prompting her and other Sakyan women to walk barefoot and grief-stricken all the way to Vesālī. Ānanda intercedes by asking directly whether women are capable of realizing the four stages of awakening, and when the Buddha confirms they are, he agrees to ordain Gotamī on condition she accept eight special "principles of respect"
Page 287 An Adviser for Nuns (AN 8.52) In response to Ānanda's question, the Buddha specifies the eight qualifications a monk must possess before being authorized to formally advise and teach the community of nuns. These include strict ethical restraint, broad and precise learning in both monastic codes, eloquence, being trusted and liked by most of the nuns, a completely clean record regarding sexual conduct toward women who have gone forth, and at least twenty years' standing as an ordained monk.
Page 287–289 Brief Advice to Gotamī (AN 8.53) When Mahāpajāpati Gotamī asks for a concise teaching she can take into solitary retreat, the Buddha gives her a simple diagnostic test rather than a list of rules: whatever qualities lead toward passion, bondage, accumulation, more desires, discontent, sociability, laziness, or being burdensome are categorically not the genuine teaching or training, while their opposites - dispassion, freedom, letting go, fewer desires, contentment, seclusion, energy, and being unburdensome - can always be relie
Page 289–299 With Dīghajāṇu and With Ujjaya (AN 8.54-55) To laypeople preparing for ordinary household or business life, the Buddha teaches two complementary sets of four qualities. Initiative, protecting one's earnings, good friendship with virtuous people, and balanced spending secure welfare in this present life, illustrated by the image of a reservoir whose four drains - womanizing, drinking, gambling, and bad company - dry it out unless matched by four inlets of restraint and good company. Faith, ethics, generosity, and wisdom secure welfare in l
Page 299 Danger (AN 8.56) The Buddha offers a series of harsh synonyms for sensual pleasure - danger, suffering, disease, boil, dart, chain, bog, and womb - explaining that anyone gripped by sensual craving remains genuinely unfree from these things in both this life and in future lives. A mindful mendicant who has transcended this entangling "swamp," however, can only watch with a measure of sorrow as ordinary people remain caught in the ongoing cycle of rebirth and aging.
Page 299–301 Worthy of Offerings Dedicated to the Gods (AN 8.57-58) Two parallel discourses define the ideal mendicant deserving of the highest religious support. The first pairs strict ethical discipline and deep learning with mastery of the four absorptions, the divine eye, recollection of past lives, and the ending of defilements, while the second substitutes energetic wilderness living and mastery over fear and discontent for the psychic knowledges, together sketching two complementary profiles of the same fully accomplished practitioner.
Page 301–302 Eight Individuals (AN 8.59-60) Two nearly identical discourses identify the eight types of noble persons - the stream-enterer and the one practicing to realize that fruit, the once-returner and the one practicing for it, the non-returner and the one practicing for it, and the perfected one along with the one practicing for perfection - as together forming the "Sangha of the four pairs, eight individuals" uniquely worthy of religious offerings, each closing with slightly different celebratory verses.
Page 302–305 Desire (AN 8.61) The Buddha works through eight logical permutations describing a mendicant's reaction to gaining or not gaining material possessions, whether or not effort was made to obtain them. Grieving over failure or becoming intoxicated with complacency over success in any of these combinations marks someone who has "fallen from the true teaching," while meeting either outcome with equanimity - regardless of the effort involved - marks genuine spiritual stability.
Page 305–308 Good Enough (AN 8.62) With near-mathematical precision, the Buddha works through combinations of intelligence, memory, comprehension, practical application, and eloquence to classify mendicants as adequate for their own progress only, for teaching others only, for both, or for neither. Each missing quality is shown to produce a distinct and specific kind of spiritual limitation, whether in self-development or in the capacity to benefit a wider community.
Page 308–311 A Teaching in Brief (AN 8.63) A mendicant asks for a brief teaching to take into solitary practice, and though the Buddha initially rebuffs him for possibly seeking only an excuse to keep following him around, he relents and gives graduated instructions. The monk is told first to stabilize the mind against unskillful states, then to develop the heart's release through love, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity in succession through the jhāna factors, and finally to apply the same immersion to the four establishments of mind
Page 311–314 At Gayā Head (AN 8.64) The Buddha describes, in his own words, an eight-stage refinement of his visionary and clairvoyant powers before his awakening. He first perceived light without seeing forms, then saw forms without engaging deities in conversation, then conversed with deities without knowing their origin, and so on through learning their deeds, food, lifespan, and any past connection with himself, stating that he did not dare proclaim full awakening until his knowledge and vision regarding deities was completely
Page 314–315 Dimensions of Mastery (AN 8.65) The Buddha catalogs eight specialized meditative skills of "mastery" over visualized forms, progressing from perceiving limited or unlimited external forms while still retaining an internal perception of form, through perceiving forms externally with no internal form-perception at all, to mastering pure fields of blue, yellow, red, and white color, representing a systematic training in controlling perception as part of the broader path to liberation.
Page 315–316 Liberations (AN 8.66) The classic eightfold sequence of meditative liberations is presented, beginning with ordinary form-based perception and progressing through perceiving external forms without internal form-perception, focusing purely on beauty, and then through the four formless attainments of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception, culminating in the total cessation of perception and feeling as the eighth and final liberation.
Page 316–317 Ignoble and Noble Expressions (AN 8.67-68) A terse mirror-image pair of discourses defines dishonest and honest speech purely in terms of accuracy about one's own experience. Falsely claiming or falsely denying having seen, heard, thought, or known something constitutes "ignoble" expression, while truthfully affirming or denying the very same things constitutes "noble" expression, reducing right speech to a simple, testable correspondence between one's claim and one's actual experience.
Page 317–318 Assemblies (AN 8.69) The Buddha recalls having entered eight distinct kinds of assemblies - aristocrats, brahmins, householders, ascetics, and four classes of gods - and, through a kind of psychic camouflage, adapting his appearance and voice so completely to each audience that no one present could tell whether the teacher who addressed them and then vanished was a god or a human being, illustrating his singular ability to communicate skillfully across every realm of existence.
Page 318–324 Earthquakes (AN 8.70) At the Cāpāla Shrine the Buddha drops broad hints to Ānanda that he could extend his life for a full eon through psychic power, but Ānanda - his mind seemingly overtaken by Māra - fails three times to ask him to remain. When Māra then urges the Buddha to pass away now that his mission is complete, the Buddha agrees and deliberately relinquishes his life force, triggering a great earthquake. Ānanda's later question about the cause prompts the Buddha to explain the eight possible causes of earthqu
Page 324–327 Inspiring All Around (AN 8.71-72) Two parallel discourses describe a step-by-step checklist for spiritual completeness: a mendicant who has faith but lacks ethics, learning, eloquence, or meditative attainment remains "incomplete" and must fill each gap in turn until, having become faithful, ethical, learned, and an effective teacher who also masters either the four absorptions or the formless attainments together with the ending of defilements, they finally become fully "impressive all around" in every respect.
Page 327–333 Mindfulness of Death (AN 8.73-74) Several monks describe practicing mindfulness of death by reflecting on how much time they might have left - a day and night, a day, half a day, or even the time it takes to eat a single mouthful of food - and the Buddha judges those who contemplate only in relatively generous timeframes to still be "negligent," praising instead those who reflect that death could come within the span of a single breath. A companion teaching recommends both morning and evening self-examination for any unabandoned
Page 333–337 Accomplishments (AN 8.75-76) A brief statement and then a fully detailed exposition restate the eight worldly and spiritual accomplishments already taught in the Dīghajāṇu discourse - initiative, protecting one's earnings, good friendship, and balanced finances for success in this life, paired with faith, ethics, generosity, and wisdom for success in lives to come - presenting this eightfold set as the complete formula for a flourishing householder's life.
Page 337–343 Desires and Good Enough, Taught by Sāriputta (AN 8.77-78) Sāriputta independently teaches the community the same two analyses the Buddha gave earlier in this chapter: the eight permutations of grief or complacency surrounding the gaining or losing of material possessions, and the graded classification of mendicants as adequate for themselves, for others, for both, or for neither, based on their intelligence, memory, comprehension, and eloquence, demonstrating how a senior disciple faithfully transmits the Buddha's own teachings to the wider community.
Page 343 Decline (AN 8.79) A compact pair of lists names eight habits that erode a trainee's progress - relishing work, talk, sleep, and company, neglecting to guard the sense doors, and overeating, along with an appetite for social closeness and mental proliferation - contrasted directly with their disciplined opposites, which instead safeguard a trainee's spiritual growth.
Page 343–348 Grounds for Laziness and Arousing Energy (AN 8.80) With mirrored precision, the Buddha shows how the very same eight situations - having work to do, having just finished work, facing or having just completed a journey, eating too little or too much on almsround, or being slightly or recently ill - can either serve as an excuse to lie down and do nothing, or, reframed with urgency, become a spur to redouble spiritual effort before or immediately after the situation passes, making clear that it is the mind's interpretation of circumstance, not the
Page 348–349 Mindfulness and Situational Awareness (AN 8.81) The Buddha traces a causal chain in which mindfulness and situational awareness support conscience and prudence, which support sense restraint, which supports ethical conduct, which supports immersion, which supports true knowledge and vision, which supports disillusionment and dispassion, which finally supports the knowledge and vision of freedom. Using the image of a tree that cannot grow branches and foliage without healthy roots, he shows that undermining any single link in this chain collap
Page 349–350 With Puṇṇiya (AN 8.82) Asked why the Buddha sometimes feels inspired to teach and other times does not, he explains that inspiration depends entirely on the listener's active engagement. Faith alone is not enough - the disciple must also approach, pay homage, ask questions, listen attentively, remember what is heard, examine its meaning, and then actually practice accordingly, with the Buddha feeling most moved to teach only when all eight of these qualities are present together in the listener.
Page 350–351 Rooted (AN 8.83) The Buddha provides a ready-made answer for responding to rival ascetics who ask what grounds all phenomena, tracing a chain from desire as the root, through mental application, contact, feeling, immersion, mindfulness, and wisdom, to freedom as the final core or essence underlying everything - a compact metaphysical formula meant to be memorized and deployed confidently in interreligious debate.
Page 351–352 A Master Thief (AN 8.84) Using the unusual figure of a criminal mastermind as a simile, the Buddha lists eight reckless behaviors - attacking without provocation, taking everything without exception, killing women, raping girls, robbing monks, robbing the royal treasury, working too close to home, and being careless about hiding stolen goods - that guarantee an incompetent thief's swift capture and execution, contrasted with the eight opposite, more calculating behaviors that allow a shrewder criminal to survive much lo
Page 352–353 Terms for the Realized One (AN 8.85) The Buddha lists eight honorific titles applied to him - ascetic, brahmin, knowledge master, healer, unstained, immaculate, knower, and freed - each reflecting a specific dimension of his spiritual attainment, followed by triumphant verses in his own voice declaring himself victorious in battle, one who releases others from bondage, and fully tamed and quenched.
Page 353–357 With Nāgita (AN 8.86) Annoyed by a noisy crowd of devotees bringing offerings, the Buddha tells his attendant Nāgita that he wants no part of fame or popularity, since these bring only the "filthy, lazy pleasure of possessions, honor, and popularity" that crowds out the deeper pleasures of renunciation, seclusion, peace, and awakening. He explains his preference for solitary wilderness monks over those who giggle together, overeat and doze, or seek out village comforts, closing with the small but telling admission th
Page 357–359 Sangha Disciplinary Procedures (AN 8.87-90) A cluster of four short formal procedures describes the Sangha's structured relationship with the laity and with its own members. The community may collectively boycott ("turn the bowl upside down" on) a lay supporter who harms or slanders mendicants, while laypeople may likewise withdraw or restore their confidence in a monk who mistreats or divides them. The Sangha can also formally require a troublesome monk to seek reconciliation with wronged laypeople, and a monk previously convicted of agg
Page 359–360 Untitled Discourses With Various Laywomen on the Sabbath (AN 8.91-117) A long formulaic (peyyāla) passage indicates that the same eight-factor uposatha teaching given earlier to Visākhā, Vāseṭṭha, and Bojjhā is understood to have been repeated in full, essentially word for word, to some two dozen other named laywomen of the early community - among them Sirīmā, Sutanā, Uttarā, Khemā, Mallikā, Sāmāvatī, and Nakula's mother - one after another, with only the addressee's name changing each time. It functions as an editorial index confirming how widely this core lay pra
Page 360–361 Untitled Discourses on Greed (AN 8.118-120) Three short formulas each claim that gaining insight into greed requires developing eight things, successively naming the noble eightfold path, the eight dimensions of mastery over visualized forms, and the eight liberations already explained in earlier discourses of this chapter, effectively repurposing these established meditative frameworks specifically as remedies for the root defilement of greed.
Page 361 Untitled Discourses on Greed (AN 8.121-147) A compressed peyyāla series mechanically substitutes a sequence of near-synonymous verbs - complete understanding, complete ending, giving up, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, giving away, and letting go - into the same "eight things should be developed" formula applied to greed, generating dozens of nominally distinct but textually near-identical short discourses through this systematic variation.
Page 361–363 Untitled Discourses on Hate, Etc. — end of the Book of the Eights (AN 8.148-627) The same mechanical peyyāla pattern used for greed is now run through an entire catalogue of mental defilements - hatred, delusion, anger, acrimony, disdain, contempt, jealousy, stinginess, deceit, deviousness, obstinacy, aggression, conceit, arrogance, vanity, and negligence - crossed against the same nine verbs of understanding and abandonment, generating a vast number of formulaic short texts, numbered up to 8.627, that close the Book of the Eights by exhaustively applying the same core eight
Page 363–366 Awakening (AN 9.1) Gives the standard reply for when rival ascetics ask what supports the development of the awakening factors, naming five vital conditions - good spiritual friends, ethical restraint, access to inspiring Dhamma conversation, energetic effort, and wisdom into arising and passing away - and notes that each condition naturally produces the next. A mendicant grounded in these five is then told to develop four further practices: the perception of ugliness against greed, love against hatred, mindfulnes
Page 366 Supported (AN 9.2) Defines a mendicant "supported" in practice as one whose faith, conscience, prudence, energy, or wisdom actively drives the abandoning of unskillful qualities and the cultivation of skillful ones. Such a person also relies on four practical strategies after careful appraisal - using certain things, enduring certain things, avoiding certain things, and dispelling certain things - as the concrete, everyday expression of that inner support.
Page 366–371 With Meghiya (AN 9.3) The Buddha's attendant Meghiya insists on leaving to meditate alone in a beautiful mango grove despite being asked to wait, only to be assailed there by sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts instead of finding peace. When he reports this, the Buddha explains that an unripe heart's liberation needs five supports to mature - good friends, ethical discipline, inspiring conversation, energetic effort, and wisdom - and that once grounded in these, four further practices (perceiving ugliness, love, m
Page 371–376 With Nandaka (AN 9.4) After gently teasing Nandaka for tiring him out with an overlong Dhamma talk, the Buddha uses the image of a lame four-legged animal to describe a mendicant who has faith, ethics, and inner serenity but still lacks the "higher wisdom of discernment of principles," urging completion of all four qualities together. Nandaka then explains to the other monks the five benefits of teaching and discussing the Dhamma at the right time, including being esteemed by the Teacher and one's peers, feeling pers
Page 376–379 Powers (AN 9.5) Identifies four powers - discerning wisdom, energetic effort to abandon the bad and cultivate the good, blameless conduct, and the fourfold skill of inclusiveness (generosity, kind speech, helpfulness, and treating people as equals) - and shows how a noble disciple equipped with these can rationally dismantle five common fears, over livelihood, reputation, public speaking, death, and bad rebirth, by recognizing that only the witless, lazy, blameworthy, or exclusionary genuinely need to fear them
Page 379–383 Association (AN 9.6) Sāriputta gives practical criteria for choosing companions, robes, food, lodgings, villages, and countries: whatever situation causes unskillful qualities to grow and skillful qualities to decline should be abandoned - at once if one's basic requisites also suffer, or after reflection even if they do not - while whatever nurtures skillful growth should be pursued and clung to even at the cost of being driven away, making genuine spiritual benefit rather than comfort or convenience the deciding f
Page 383–386 With Sutavā and With Sajjha (AN 9.7-8) Two wanderers of other religions separately recall having heard the Buddha say that an arahant cannot transgress in five specific ways - killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, or hoarding goods as a layperson would. The Buddha confirms this but expands the list to nine, adding to Sutavā that an arahant also cannot act from favoritism, hostility, stupidity, or cowardice, and adding to Sajjha instead that an arahant cannot abandon the Buddha, the teaching, the Sangha, or the training.
Page 386 Individuals (AN 9.9) Names the nine types of spiritual persons recognized in the tradition - the perfected one and the trainee approaching perfection, the non-returner and the trainee approaching non-return, the once-returner and the trainee approaching once-return, the stream-enterer and the trainee approaching stream-entry, plus the ordinary unawakened person - establishing the basic map of spiritual progress used throughout the collection.
Page 386 Worthy of Offerings Dedicated to the Gods (AN 9.10) Extends the standard "field of merit" formula to nine individuals by adding, to the four pairs of noble persons already named, a ninth category - the ordinary but sincere "lamb of the flock," an unawakened disciple still worthy of respect and support because of their genuine commitment to the path.
Page 386 Sāriputta's Lion's Roar (AN 9.11) After a monk falsely accuses Sāriputta of striking him and leaving without apology, Sāriputta - summoned before the whole community - responds not with denial but with a magnificent chain of similes, comparing his own mind to the earth, water, fire, wind, a rag, and an outcaste child, all of which remain unmoved and undisgusted no matter what is thrown at, washed in, or burned by them, and to a docile bull and a leaking bowl of fat, illustrating boundless equanimity toward others and disgust onl
Page 386–396 With Residue (AN 9.12) After Sāriputta overhears rival wanderers claim that anyone who dies with any residue of defilement is doomed to a bad rebirth, the Buddha corrects this as an ignorant oversimplification. He lists nine distinct types of noble persons at different stages of practice - from five kinds of non-returner through the once-returner, the one-seeder, the family-to-family type, and the stream-enterer bound for at most seven more rebirths - who, despite dying with some residue of defilement remaining, are n
Page 396–399 With Koṭṭhita (AN 9.13) Through a rapid series of paired questions, Koṭṭhita gets Sāriputta to deny that the spiritual life is lived in order to transfer karmic results between lifetimes, to swap pleasant results for painful ones or vice versa, to change when or how intensely karma ripens, or to prevent or manufacture the experience of one's deeds. Sāriputta then reveals the actual goal - to know, see, attain, realize, and comprehend the Four Noble Truths, which remain unknown, unseen, and uncomprehended by the unawake
Page 399–400 With Samiddhi (AN 9.14) Through a tight catechism of successive questions, Sāriputta leads Samiddhi to trace the origin of thoughts back through name-and-form, the elements, contact, feeling, immersion, mindfulness, and wisdom, to freedom as their essential core, with freedom from death identified as the ultimate objective. Sāriputta praises Samiddhi's correct answers while cautioning him not to become conceited about having understood correctly.
Page 400–401 The Simile of the Boil (AN 9.15) Compares the human body to a chronic, oozing boil with nine "orifices" - the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and the two lower openings - that continuously discharge filth, using this graphic image to dissolve any illusion of the body's cleanliness or desirability and to spur genuine disenchantment with physical existence.
Page 401 Perceptions (AN 9.16) Lists nine contemplative perceptions - of ugliness, death, the repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, impermanence, suffering within impermanence, not-self within suffering, giving up, and fading away - presenting them together as a complete meditative curriculum whose cultivation leads directly toward freedom from death.
Page 401–402 Families (AN 9.17) Gives mendicants practical criteria for judging which lay households are worth visiting for alms and teaching, based on whether the family shows basic courtesy, gives generously in proportion to their means, gives with care, and shows genuine interest in listening to the Dhamma, versus families who are inhospitable, stingy, careless, and inattentive.
Page 402–403 The Sabbath with Nine Factors (AN 9.18) Extends the familiar eight-factor lay uposatha observance with a ninth factor - spreading a boundless heart of love in all directions to the whole world - showing that the day of ethical restraint is meant to culminate not merely in abstention from harm but in actively radiating goodwill toward all beings.
Page 403–405 A Deity (AN 9.19) Several deities recount to the Buddha, in escalating detail, how they were reborn in lower heavenly realms because as humans they failed to fully honor visiting renunciates - rising but not bowing, bowing but not offering a seat, and so on up through failing to actually practice what they heard - contrasted with deities who did everything correctly and were reborn in a superior realm, prompting the Buddha to urge the monks to meditate diligently now rather than feel similar regret later.
Page 405–409 About Velāma (AN 9.20) Responding to the householder Anāthapiṇḍika's modest gift-giving, the Buddha first explains that careless, thoughtless giving yields little benefit compared to careful, respectful giving, then reveals that in a past life he himself was the fabulously wealthy brahmin Velāma, who gave an almost incomprehensibly vast donation of gold, elephants, chariots, and food - yet because no one present was spiritually worthy to receive it, it was less fruitful than simply feeding a single stream-enterer. A s
Page 409 In Three Particulars (AN 9.21) Compares three regions of the Buddhist cosmos - the utopian northern land of Kuru, the heaven of the thirty-three gods, and ordinary human India (the Black Plum Tree Land) - noting that each surpasses the others in different respects: Kuru humans excel in selflessness and a fixed lifespan, the gods excel in longevity, beauty, and happiness, but ordinary humans uniquely excel in courage, mindfulness, and the crucial fact that only there is the spiritual life actually lived.
Page 409–413 A Wild Colt (AN 9.22) Uses graded horse-breeding similes - fast, then also beautiful, then also well-proportioned - to classify three tiers of spiritual attainment: an ordinary practitioner who understands the four noble truths but cannot answer questions or attract material support, one who can also answer confidently, and one who also receives requisites. The "excellent" tier represents a non-returner reborn spontaneously, and the "fine thoroughbred" tier represents a fully liberated arahant, showing that intellect
Page 413 Rooted in Craving (AN 9.23) Traces a psychological chain of causation showing how craving gives rise to searching, which gives rise to acquisition, evaluation, desire and lust, attachment, ownership, and stinginess, and finally to the anxious safeguarding of possessions, which in turn breeds violence, quarrels, accusations, backbiting, and lies - a compact analysis of how the simple impulse to grasp material things can escalate into full-blown social conflict.
Page 413–414 Abodes of Sentient Beings (AN 9.24) Maps the entire Buddhist cosmos of consciousness into nine categories of rebirth, ranging from ordinary beings diverse in both body and perception, through various classes of form-realm gods unified or diverse in body or perception, non-percipient beings who experience nothing at all, and the four formless dimensions of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
Page 414–415 Consolidated by Wisdom (AN 9.25) Lists nine specific self-knowledges that justify a mendicant's confident declaration of full awakening - knowing the mind is free of greed, hatred, and delusion, knowing it is no longer liable to become greedy, hateful, or deluded, and knowing it will not return to rebirth in the sensual, form, or formless realms - presenting liberation as something verifiable through precise, itemized introspection rather than vague feeling.
Page 415–419 The Simile of the Stone Post (AN 9.26) When Candikāputta misquotes Devadatta as teaching that a merely "solidified" mind justifies claiming awakening, Sāriputta insists the correct teaching requires a mind "well consolidated," and explains this using the same nine self-knowledges from the previous discourse. He adds the memorable image of a deeply buried stone post that no storm from any direction can shake, illustrating how a truly liberated mind remains untainted and imperturbable even when struck by the most compelling sights, sou
Page 419–423 Fears and Enmities (AN 9.27-28) Explains that a stream-enterer can confidently declare themselves free of future bad rebirth once they have quelled the five specific fears generated by killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxication - since abstaining from each removes both the acts' fear and the mental anguish they cause now and later - and once they possess unwavering confidence in the Buddha, the teaching, the Sangha, and their own unbroken ethical conduct, the classic "four factors of stream-entry," taught fi
Page 423 Grounds for Resentment (AN 9.29) Catalogs nine ways resentment arises by combining three time-frames (past, present, future) with two triggers - being wronged oneself or someone one loves being wronged, and someone disliked being helped - producing a systematic map of the situations in which the mind habitually generates ill will.
Page 423 Getting Rid of Resentment (AN 9.30) Mirrors the nine grounds for resentment from the previous discourse with nine corresponding antidotes, each built on the simple reflective phrase "but what can I possibly do?" - a pragmatic acceptance of harm already done, being done, or anticipated, which defuses the grip of resentment by acknowledging one's powerlessness over others' past, present, or future actions.
Page 423 Progressive Cessations (AN 9.31) Identifies exactly which perceptual or physiological factor drops away at each successive stage of the ninefold meditative attainment - sensual perception in the first absorption, verbal thought in the second, rapture in the third, breathing in the fourth, and successive layers of formless perception through to the final cessation of perception and feeling itself - offering a precise technical map of what ceases at each stage of deep meditation.
Page 423–424 Progressive Meditations (AN 9.32) Simply enumerates the nine standard meditative attainments in ascending order - the four absorptions, the four formless dimensions, and the cessation of perception and feeling - establishing the basic template elaborated upon throughout the rest of this chapter.
Page 424–429 The Nine Progressive Meditative Attainments (AN 9.33) For each of the nine meditative attainments in turn, the Buddha declares that anyone who has "thoroughly ended" the coarser experience characteristic of the previous stage - sensual pleasure, verbal thought, rapture, equanimous bliss, and so on - can rightly be called desireless and gone beyond in that respect, and states that anyone honest would recognize and approve of this claim once its meaning is properly explained, offering a rigorous, stage-by-stage definition of progressive liberation fr
Page 429–434 Extinguishment is Bliss (AN 9.34) When Udāyī questions how extinguishment can be called blissful "since nothing is felt," Sāriputta explains that this absence of feeling is precisely the point. Working through each of the nine meditative attainments, he shows that even the subtle perceptions and feelings accompanying each absorption and formless state are themselves a kind of affliction compared to what lies beyond them, so that the final cessation of perception and feeling represents bliss defined not by pleasant sensation but
Page 434–439 The Simile of the Cow (AN 9.35) Contrasts a reckless mountain cow, who dashes toward new pastures without securing her footing and ends up stranded, unable to advance or return, with a prudent cow who moves carefully step by step. A foolish meditator who tries to leap ahead to a higher absorption without first stabilizing the one they are in likewise gets stuck between stages, while a skillful meditator who fully consolidates each attainment before advancing not only masters all nine stages smoothly but also becomes capable of
Page 439–444 Depending on Absorption (AN 9.36) Shows how each of the nine meditative attainments, from the first absorption through the dimension of nothingness, can itself become a direct platform for insight, since a meditator can contemplate the very factors of that attainment - form, feeling, perception, choices, consciousness - as impermanent, suffering, and not-self, then turn the mind toward the peace of nirvana. Using the simile of an archer perfecting their aim through practice targets, the Buddha explains that this either fully end
Page 444–447 By Ānanda (AN 9.37) Ānanda marvels that the Buddha found an "opening amid confinement" whereby the sense faculties and their objects remain fully present yet are simply not experienced as sense-fields. When Udāyī asks whether such a person is percipient or not, Ānanda clarifies they are indeed percipient - just percipient of the formless dimensions instead - and recounts a teaching he once gave a nun about an immersion that neither leans forward nor is forced into place, whose fruit the Buddha had identified as ful
Page 447–450 Brahmin Cosmologists (AN 9.38) Asked to adjudicate between two rival teachers who each claim omniscient certainty about whether the cosmos is infinite or finite, the Buddha sidesteps the debate entirely. Using a simile of four impossibly fast runners who could never physically reach the end of the world within a hundred-year lifetime, he redefines the "world" that actually matters as the five kinds of sense experience, then shows that a meditator absorbed in any of the nine jhānic attainments, however exalted, is technically
Page 450–453 The War Between the Gods and the Titans (AN 9.39) Recounts a mythic seesaw war in which first the titans and then the gods repeatedly defeat each other and retreat to their respective secure fortresses, using this as an extended simile for a meditator entering successive absorptions, each of which offers Māra a temporary "secure location" he cannot penetrate, until the formless attainments represent a meditator who has permanently blinded Māra and passed entirely beyond his sight, culminating in total freedom through the cessation of perception
Page 453–456 The Simile of the Bull Elephant in the Forest (AN 9.40) Describes how a bull elephant, harassed by the herd trampling his grass, eating his fallen branches, muddying his bathing pool, and jostling him, withdraws to live alone and finally scratches his own itches in peace. Likewise, a mendicant crowded by monastics and laypeople withdraws to a secluded lodging, abandons the five hindrances, and progresses through all nine meditative attainments up to the ending of defilements, each stage described with the same homely image of "happily relieving their
Page 456–470 With the Householder Tapussa (AN 9.41) Prompted by the layman Tapussa's puzzlement that even very young monks seem to find renunciation blissful while it feels like an "abyss" to householders, the Buddha gives an unusually personal, extended account of his own pre-awakening struggle. Stage by stage through all nine meditative attainments he had to see the drawbacks of the coarser state and the benefits of the subtler one before his mind could confidently "leap forth" into it, and even within each absorption some residual affliction r
Page 470–477 Cramped, and the Similarity Series on Technical Terms (AN 9.42-51) In a tightly formulaic run of short catechisms between Udāyī and Ānanda, each of the nine meditative attainments is shown to satisfy a series of technical Dhamma terms - "opening amid confinement," "direct witness," "freed by wisdom," "freed both ways," "apparent in the present life," and several shades of "extinguishment" - only in a qualified sense, until the final cessation of perception and feeling, at which point each term applies in its full, definitive sense. The series effectively uses n
Page 477–478 The Safe Place Series on Technical Terms (AN 9.52-61) Continues the same catechism format from the preceding series, now applying a further list of near-synonymous terms - "a safe place," "freedom from death," "a place without fear," "tranquility," and "cessation," along with their "reaching" or "progressive" variants - to the same ladder of nine meditative attainments, again reserving the fully definitive sense of each term for the final cessation of perception and feeling together with the ending of defilements.
Page 478–479 Impossible (AN 9.62) Names nine specific defilements - greed, hatred, delusion, anger, acrimony, disdain, contempt, jealousy, and stinginess - that absolutely must be abandoned before one can realize arahantship, framing full awakening as conditional on the complete uprooting of this entire cluster of afflictive mental states.
Page 479 Mindfulness Meditation as Antidote Series (AN 9.63-72) A formulaic chapter runs the four establishments of mindfulness meditation - on the body, feelings, mind, and principles - as the prescribed antidote against ten different obstacles in turn: the five ethical training weaknesses, the five hindrances, the five kinds of sensual stimulation, the five grasping aggregates, the five lower fetters, the five destinations of rebirth, the five kinds of stinginess, the five higher fetters, five kinds of hard-heartedness (doubt about the Teacher, teaching, S
Page 479 Right Effort as Antidote Series (AN 9.73-82) Repeats the same structural pattern as the mindfulness-meditation chapter, but now prescribes the four right efforts - preventing, abandoning, developing, and maintaining skillful versus unskillful qualities - as the antidote to the same full sequence of obstacles: training weaknesses, hindrances, sensual stimulation, grasping aggregates, fetters, destinations, stinginess, and shackles of the heart, reinforcing that multiple different sets of core practices can each serve as a complete path to o
Page 479–486 Bases of Psychic Power as Antidote Series (AN 9.83-92) Completes the triad of parallel chapters by prescribing the four bases of psychic power - immersion born of enthusiasm, energy, mental development, and inquiry, each paired with active effort - as a third alternative universal remedy against the same full run of training weaknesses, hindrances, sensual stimulation, grasping aggregates, fetters, destinations, stinginess, and shackles of the heart already treated via mindfulness meditation and right effort in the two preceding chapters.
Page 486–487 Untitled Discourses on Greed, Hate, Etc. — end of the Book of the Nines (AN 9.93-432) A vast closing peyyāla mechanically substitutes the nine perceptions and then the nine progressive meditative attainments into a formula for gaining insight into greed, then cycles the same two ninefold lists through nine synonymous verbs of understanding and abandonment, and finally reruns the entire pattern across an exhaustive catalogue of defilements - hatred, delusion, anger, acrimony, disdain, contempt, jealousy, stinginess, deceit, deviousness, obstinacy, aggression, conceit, arrogance, v
Page 1–3 Pleasing (AN 7.1-2) Two short mirror-image teachings list seven qualities that make a mendicant disliked or well-liked by their peers. The first pairs craving for possessions and status with a lack of conscience, corrupt wishes, and wrong view, while the second substitutes jealousy and stinginess for corrupt wishes, showing that community standing among fellow monastics tracks directly with basic ethical and attitudinal integrity rather than external achievement.
Page 3–4 Powers (AN 7.3-4) Introduces the classic seven spiritual powers - faith, energy, conscience, prudence, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom - first as a bare list with a closing verse comparing liberation to a lamp going out, then defined one by one in full detail, establishing this sevenfold set as a core organizing framework used repeatedly throughout the rest of the chapter.
Page 4–6 Wealth (AN 7.5-6) Presents seven inner "kinds of wealth" - faith, ethics, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, and wisdom - first as a summary with a closing verse, then defined individually, reframing genuine prosperity as a matter of spiritual accomplishment rather than material possession.
Page 6–7 With Ugga (AN 7.7) When a minister marvels at a rich man's hundred thousand gold coins, the Buddha concedes that this is indeed wealth but points out that fire, water, rulers, thieves, and unloved heirs can all seize a share of it, whereas the seven kinds of spiritual wealth - faith, ethics, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, and wisdom - can never be taken away, making their possessor truly rich and "invincible among gods and humans."
Page 7–9 Fetters, Giving Up, and Stinginess (AN 7.8-10) Three brief companion texts name the seven fetters that bind beings to repeated existence - attraction, aversion, wrong views, doubt, conceit, craving for continued existence, and ignorance, with a variant substituting jealousy and stinginess for the final two - and state that the entire purpose of the spiritual life is to cut out these fetters at the root so thoroughly that they can never arise again.
Page 9–10 Underlying Tendencies (AN 7.11-12) Parallels the fetters teaching by naming the seven deeper "underlying tendencies" - dormant dispositions toward sensual desire, aversion, views, doubt, conceit, craving for continued existence, and ignorance - that the spiritual life exists specifically to uproot completely, distinguishing latent tendency from active fetter as two ways of describing the same core defilements.
Page 10 A Family (AN 7.13) Gives mendicants a sevenfold checklist for judging whether a lay household is worth visiting, based on whether they show basic courtesy, share generously in proportion to what they have, and give with care rather than carelessness - a shorter variant of the similar teaching found later in the Nines chapter.
Page 10 Individuals (AN 7.14) Names seven distinct types of noble disciple who deserve religious support - the one freed both ways, the one freed by wisdom, the direct witness, the one attained to view, the one freed by faith, the follower of teachings, and the follower by faith - showing a more finely graded typology of awakening than the simple four-pairs-eight-individuals scheme.
Page 10–13 A Simile With Water (AN 7.15) Uses a vivid extended simile of people struggling in deep water - one who sinks and stays under, one who rises then sinks again, one who rises and treads water, one who rises and sees clearly, one who crosses over, one who finds a foothold, and one who has fully crossed to stand on solid ground - to depict seven degrees of spiritual progress, from someone with irredeemably dark qualities through unstable practitioners whose faith and energy wax and wane, up to the stream-enterer, once-returner,
Page 13–15 Observing Impermanence, Suffering, Not-self, and Extinguishment (AN 7.16-19) Applies the same sevenfold typology of progressively advanced non-returners and arahants - graded by whether their defilements end exactly at death, between lives, on landing, with or without extra effort, or by heading upstream to the highest pure abode - to four different objects of contemplation in turn: impermanence, suffering, not-self, and finally the happiness found in extinguishment itself, showing that whichever lens a meditator uses, sustained insight leads to the same hierarchy of lib
Page 15–16 Qualifications for Graduation (AN 7.20) Lists seven persistent inner enthusiasms - for training, for examining the teachings, for shedding desires, for retreat, for rousing energy, for mindfulness and alertness, and for theoretical penetration - that must never be lost if a mendicant is to be considered a genuine spiritual "graduate," anticipating the fuller narrative treatment of this same theme later in the chapter.
Page 16–21 At Sārandada and With Vassakāra (AN 7.21-22) The Buddha teaches the Licchavi clan seven political principles that guarantee a society's stability - meeting frequently in harmony, respecting established law and elders, protecting women from abduction, honoring ancestral shrines, and safeguarding holy visitors. Later, when King Ajātasattu's minister Vassakāra comes to sound out the Buddha before a planned invasion of the Vajjis, the Buddha confirms through Ānanda that the Vajjis still uphold all seven principles, prompting the minister to co
Page 21–25 Five Variant Lists of Non-Decline for Mendicants (AN 7.23-27) Adapts the same "seven principles that prevent decline" formula used for the Vajjis to the monastic Sangha itself, cycling through five different variant lists: meeting in harmony and respecting the training and elders; avoiding excessive work, talk, sleep, company, corrupt wishes, bad friends, and complacency; possessing faith, conscience, prudence, learning, energy, mindfulness, and wisdom; developing the seven awakening factors; and developing seven contemplative perceptions - establishing th
Page 25–26 Non-decline for a Mendicant Trainee (AN 7.28) Names seven habits that undermine a trainee's progress - relishing work, talk, sleep, and company, failing to guard the senses, overeating, and inserting oneself into Sangha business better left to responsible seniors - contrasted with their disciplined opposites that instead protect a trainee's development.
Page 26–29 Non-decline, Failures, and Downfalls for a Lay Follower (AN 7.29-31) Identifies seven behaviors that erode a layperson's spiritual standing - neglecting to see mendicants or hear teachings, failing to train in higher ethics, growing suspicious of monastics, listening with a fault-finding mind, and seeking religious donees outside the Buddhist community - contrasted with their protective opposites, restated with closing verses across three short companion discourses that use near-identical language to reinforce the same core warning.
Page 29–30 Respect for Diligence and Respect for Conscience (AN 7.32-33) In two closely paired episodes, a radiant deity visits the Buddha at night to report that a mendicant's decline is impossible so long as they maintain respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Sangha, the training, and immersion, combined in one telling with diligence and hospitality and in the other with conscience and prudence, and the Buddha confirms the deity's insight to the monks the next morning in verse.
Page 30–33 Easy to Admonish (AN 7.34-35) A deity's report that respect for the Teacher, teaching, Sangha, training, and immersion combined with being easy to admonish and having good friends prevents decline is followed, in the companion discourse, by Sāriputta unpacking its "detailed meaning" - showing that each item must be practiced personally, praised in others, and actively encouraged in those who lack it, which the Buddha then confirms is exactly what he meant.
Page 33–34 A Friend (AN 7.36-37) Two companion discourses describe the qualities of a true friend worth keeping close - giving what is hard to give, enduring hardship for you, sharing and keeping secrets, and standing by you in trouble or loss - with the second adding that such a friend should be kept even if they try to drive you away, since being liked, respected, willing to admonish and be admonished, able to discuss deep matters, and unwilling to encourage wrongdoing marks them as genuinely benevolent.
Page 34–35 Textual Analysis (AN 7.38-39) Identifies seven qualities of mental clarity - recognizing mental sluggishness, internally constricted or externally scattered states of mind, and tracking the arising, persistence, and passing of feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, plus skill in discerning suitable from unsuitable and inferior from superior qualities - that lead to mastery of the four kinds of textual analysis, with the companion discourse noting that Sāriputta himself embodies exactly these seven qualities.
Page 35–36 Mastery of the Mind (AN 7.40-41) Lists seven dimensions of meditative skill - being skilled at entering, remaining in, and emerging from immersion, skilled at maintaining a positive disposition toward it, skilled in its proper territory, and skilled in directing a purified mind - as what allows a practitioner to truly master their own mind rather than be at its mercy, again noting in the companion text that Sāriputta exemplifies this mastery.
Page 36–41 Graduation (AN 7.42-43) In two parallel episodes, Sāriputta and then Ānanda separately overhear wanderers of other religions claim that simply living the spiritual life for twelve years earns the title "graduate mendicant," and each brings the question to the Buddha, who firmly rejects mere years-served as the criterion. Instead he specifies seven genuine qualifications - either persistent enthusiasm for training, study, renunciation, retreat, energy, mindfulness, and theoretical penetration, or simply being faithful,
Page 41–42 Planes of Consciousness (AN 7.44) Catalogs seven realms of rebirth defined by the relationship between body and perception, ranging from ordinary beings diverse in both, through various form-realm gods unified or diverse in body or perception, up to beings reborn in the first three formless dimensions of infinite space, infinite consciousness, and nothingness.
Page 42 Prerequisites for Immersion (AN 7.45) Defines "noble right immersion with its vital conditions" as the unification of mind supported by the first seven factors of the eightfold path - right view, purpose, speech, action, livelihood, effort, and mindfulness - showing that concentration is never taught as an isolated technique but as the natural culmination of the whole ethical and cognitive path.
Page 42–47 Fires (AN 7.46-47) After a bare list naming seven fires - greed, hate, delusion, plus the "fires" of religious donees, householders, and worthy recipients, alongside an ordinary wood fire - a fuller narrative shows the brahmin Uggatasarīra preparing a massive animal sacrifice. The Buddha reframes fire-worship entirely, warning that even planning such slaughter raises three unskillful "knives" of body, speech, and mind, and urges him instead to shun the fires of greed, hate, and delusion and properly honor three wo
Page 47–55 Perceptions (AN 7.48-49) Names seven perceptions - ugliness, death, the repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, impermanence, suffering in impermanence, and not-self in suffering - first as a summary list and then explained one by one with vivid similes, such as a feather shriveling in fire to describe how the mind recoils from sexual desire once the perception of ugliness is well developed, each accompanied by a diagnostic test for whether the perception has actually taken root.
Page 55–58 Sex (AN 7.50) When a brahmin asks whether the Buddha truly claims to be celibate, the Buddha lays out seven progressively subtler "yokes" of sexuality that could compromise chastity even without actual intercourse - enjoying being touched by a woman, giggling and flirting with her, gazing into her eyes, eavesdropping on her voice through a wall, recalling past flirtations, envying a householder's sensual pleasures, or practicing celibacy merely to be reborn as a god - declaring that he did not proclaim his aw
Page 58–61 Yoking and Unyoking (AN 7.51) Analyzes sexual attraction as a matter of self-focus, explaining that a woman who takes pleasure in her own femininity is thereby drawn to focus on and desire masculinity in others, and vice versa for men, creating a mutual "yoking" between the sexes, whereas someone who no longer takes pleasure in focusing on their own gendered traits no longer feels pulled toward the opposite pole, achieving "unyoking" - a psychological rather than physical account of what binds beings into desire.
Page 61–64 A Very Fruitful Gift (AN 7.52) When Sāriputta asks why one identical gift can be far more fruitful than another, the Buddha explains that it depends entirely on the giver's underlying motive. Giving as a self-interested "investment" expecting personal benefit in a future life yields only a temporary heavenly rebirth that must eventually be spent, whereas giving purely because "this is an adornment and requisite for the mind," with no ulterior expectation, can lead all the way to rebirth as a non-returner who never comes back
Page 64–69 Nanda's Mother (AN 7.53) The laywoman Nanda's Mother recites Buddhist verses so beautifully at dawn that the great god Vessavaṇa stops to listen and, in gratitude, arranges for Sāriputta and Moggallāna's traveling Sangha to arrive at her home the next day so she can dedicate the merit of feeding them to him. She then reveals to Sāriputta a remarkable string of further achievements - remaining unshaken when her only son was unjustly executed, when her deceased husband appeared to her as a spirit, and throughout a lifetim
Page 69–71 The Undeclared Points (AN 7.54) Explains why an awakened disciple feels no anxiety about the classic unanswerable metaphysical questions - whether an enlightened being exists, doesn't exist, both, or neither after death - locating the problem not in the questions themselves but in the underlying grip of views, craving, conceit, proliferation, and regret. Because a learned disciple has traced these mental processes to their origin and cessation, they simply decline to speculate on the undeclared points at all, remaining unshake
Page 71–75 Places People Are Reborn (7.55) The Buddha teaches seven stages of non-return rebirth, describing practitioners who have given up self-view and craving but have not fully eradicated the underlying tendencies of conceit, desire for continued existence, and ignorance, illustrated by the simile of a spark struck from a heated iron pot that is extinguished at different points depending on how far it travels. Some sparks die instantly, some after floating, some on landing, some ignite grass but burn out for lack of fuel, and one tr
Page 75–80 Tissa the Divinity (7.56) Two radiant deities visit the Buddha at night to announce that certain nuns have died and attained final freedom, prompting Mahāmoggallāna to investigate which gods actually know whether a liberated person will be reborn again. He travels by psychic power to question the god Tissa, a recently deceased monk, who explains that only gods dissatisfied with heavenly life and inclined toward liberation understand this, while contented gods do not. Tissa describes how the gods recognize several types o
Page 80–84 General Sīha (7.57) The military commander Sīha asks the Buddha whether generosity produces any fruit visible in this very life, and the Buddha responds with a series of questions establishing that generous donors naturally receive more sympathy, are approached and taught the Dhamma first, and gain a good reputation compared to stingy, abusive people. Sīha affirms he already knows these present-life benefits of giving from his own experience as a well-known donor to the Saṅgha. The one claim he cannot verify direct
Page 84–85 Nothing to Hide (7.58) The Buddha declares he has nothing to conceal in four areas: pure bodily, verbal, and mental conduct, and pure livelihood, meaning there is no misconduct he fears being exposed. He also claims three grounds on which he is beyond reproach: his teaching is well explained with no legitimate fault to find, the path he describes for ending suffering genuinely works, and many hundreds of his disciples have already achieved full liberation through practicing it. Because he sees no valid grounds for cri
Page 85–86 With Kimbila (7.59) Venerable Kimbila asks the Buddha why the true teaching fails to endure long after a Buddha's final passing, and why in other cases it lasts a long time. The Buddha explains that decline happens when monastics and lay followers lose respect and reverence for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, the training, immersion, diligence, and hospitality, while the teaching endures when these seven objects of respect are maintained. The sutta is a compact diagnosis of institutional and spiritual declin
Page 86–87 Seven Qualities (7.60) A brief sutta stating that a mendicant equipped with seven qualities, faith, ethical conduct, learning, seclusion, energy, mindfulness, and wisdom, will soon achieve the highest goal of the spiritual life and realize it for themselves. It functions as a compact checklist of the essential character traits said to lead swiftly to awakening.
Page 87–90 Nodding Off (7.61) The Buddha appears by psychic power before Mahāmoggallāna, who is dozing during meditation, and offers a graduated series of practical remedies for drowsiness, from changing the meditation object and reciting memorized teachings to physically stimulating the body, looking at the stars, cultivating a mind of radiant light, walking meditation, and finally lying down mindfully with intent to rise promptly. He adds broader advice against approaching lay families with vanity or getting drawn into arg
Page 90–92 Don't Fear Good Deeds (7.62) The Buddha recounts his own past life as a great being who developed loving-kindness for seven years and, as a result, enjoyed vast cosmic rebirths as a Great Divinity, as Sakka lord of gods thirty-six times, and as a wheel-turning monarch with seven treasures ruling by principle without violence. He uses this autobiographical account, capped by verses, to encourage the mendicants not to fear performing good deeds, since good deeds is simply another name for happiness and their fruit is experien
Page 92–96 Kinds of Wives (7.63) Visiting the noisy household of Anāthapiṇḍika, the Buddha learns the commotion is caused by his new daughter-in-law Sujātā's disrespect for her elders and husband, and calls her before him to teach that a man may have seven kinds of wife: killer, thief, tyrant, mother, sister, comrade, and bondservant, ranked from most harmful to most virtuous. In verse he characterizes each type, the first three leading to a bad rebirth and the last four leading to a good rebirth. Asked which type she is, Sujāt
Page 96–100 Irritable (7.64) The Buddha describes seven ways that anger works against an angry person's own interests, effectively doing an enemy's work for them: it makes them ugly despite grooming, ruins their sleep, causes them to misjudge what benefits them, leads to loss of wealth, destroys their reputation, drives away friends and family, and ultimately leads to a bad rebirth. Extensive closing verses vividly depict anger's destructive power, including enraged people killing even their own parents or themselves, and u
Page 100–101 Conscience and Prudence (7.65) Using the simile of a tree that cannot grow shoots, bark, and heartwood without branches and foliage, the Buddha explains a causal chain in which moral conscience and prudence are the foundation for sense restraint, which supports ethical conduct, which supports immersion, which supports true knowledge and vision, which supports disillusionment and dispassion, which finally supports the knowledge and vision of freedom. Lacking the first link undermines the whole sequence, while cultivating it en
Page 101–107 The Seven Suns (7.66) In a dramatic cosmological teaching, the Buddha describes the shrinking of the world through the successive appearance of up to seven suns, each stage burning away rivers, lakes, oceans, and finally the earth and Mount Sineru itself in a blaze reaching to the heavens, to demonstrate viscerally that all conditioned things are impermanent, unstable, and unreliable. He then tells of the ancient teacher Sunetta, who despite teaching countless disciples the path to rebirth among the gods, and himself
Page 107–113 The Simile of the Citadel (7.67) The Buddha compares the seven defensive features of a well-fortified frontier citadel, a deep foundation pillar, moat, patrol path, weapon stores, garrison, vigilant gatekeeper, and high plastered wall, plus its stored provisions, to the seven good qualities of a noble disciple, faith, conscience, prudence, learning, energy, mindfulness, and wisdom, and their easy access to the four absorptions. Just as such a citadel cannot be overrun by enemies, a disciple equipped this way cannot be overrun b
Page 113–118 One Who Knows the Teachings (7.68) The Buddha describes seven qualities that make a mendicant worthy of offerings and the supreme field of merit: knowing the teachings, knowing their meaning, having self-knowledge of one's own faith and abilities, knowing moderation, knowing the right time for different activities, knowing how to conduct oneself in different assemblies, and knowing how to assess individuals. The final quality is explained through a chain of paired comparisons ranking practitioners from merely liking to see noble
Page 118–121 The Shady Orchid Tree (7.69) The Buddha uses the yearly cycle of the gods' celestial Shady Orchid Tree, its leaves browning, falling, foliage regrowing, budding, and finally bursting into full blossom that delights the gods of the thirty-three, as an extended simile for a disciple's spiritual progress, from deciding to renounce lay life, through ordination and each of the four absorptions, up to the final realization of liberation. When a mendicant attains full freedom, the news is proclaimed joyously upward through the ran
Page 121–126 Honor (7.70) While in retreat, Sāriputta reflects on what a mendicant should honor, respect, and rely on to abandon the unskillful and develop the skillful, identifying the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, the training, immersion, diligence, and hospitality, then reports this to the Buddha, using the simile of a goldsmith verifying a pure gold ingot to explain why he wanted outside confirmation. The Buddha approves, and Sāriputta explains how respect for each of these seven builds hierarchically on the one
Page 126–129 Committed to Development (7.71) The Buddha teaches that merely wishing for liberation is not enough; without actually developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven awakening factors, and the noble eightfold path, the mind will not be freed, just as a hen cannot hatch her eggs by wishing alone without properly incubating them. Conversely, one who does develop these factors attains freedom even without particularly wish
Page 129–137 The Simile of the Great Mass of Fire (7.72) Encountering a blazing fire while traveling, the Buddha poses stark comparisons to the mendicants: is it better to embrace a burning mass of fire or an attractive woman, to have one's legs bound with a burning rope or accept the veneration of the well-to-do, to be stabbed with a hot sword or accept reverence, to be wrapped in red-hot iron or wear robes given in faith, or to have molten copper forced down one's throat or eat almsfood given in faith. In each case he declares it would genuinely be
Page 137–138 About Sunetta (7.73) Retelling the story of the ancient teacher Sunetta and six other legendary founder-teachers, each of whom led hundreds of disciples toward heavenly rebirth, the Buddha notes that followers who lacked confidence in these teachers were reborn in hell while the faithful were reborn in heaven. He then asks: if maliciously abusing any one of these seven revered teachers and their followers would generate great demerit, how much worse is it to maliciously abuse a single individual who has actually att
Page 138–142 About Araka (7.74) The Buddha recounts how the ancient teacher Araka taught his disciples that human life is short and fleeting through a series of vivid similes: a dewdrop evaporating in sunlight, bubbles in rain, a line drawn in water, a fast mountain river that never turns back, a gob of spit easily expelled, a scrap of meat vanishing in a hot cauldron, and a cow walking toward slaughter. Remarkably, Araka taught this urgency even though people in his era lived 60,000 years with almost no illness, whereas the B
Page 142–144 Being an Expert in the Monastic Law, Four Variations (7.75-7.78) Four short, near-identical suttas each describe a mendicant with seven qualities who counts as an expert in the monastic law: in every version they know what is and is not an offense and what counts as a light or serious offense, but each version adds a different fifth quality, careful ethical restraint over minor faults, thorough mastery of both monastic codes, unwavering firmness in training, or recollection of past lives combined with clairvoyant knowledge of how beings pass on according to t
Page 144–145 Shining as an Expert in the Monastic Law, Four Variations (7.79-7.82) This second set of four parallel short suttas repeats the exact pattern of the preceding four, but describes a mendicant who actively shines as an expert in the monastic law rather than merely qualifying as one, again varying the fifth defining quality across the four versions, careful ethical conduct, mastery of both codes, firmness in training, or recollection of past lives with clairvoyant knowledge, each combined with mastery of the four absorptions and full liberation. The near-duplication
Page 145–146 The Teacher's Instructions (7.83) Venerable Upāli asks the Buddha for a brief teaching he can take into solitary retreat, and the Buddha gives him a simple but powerful criterion for judging any teaching: whatever leads solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment should be recognized as the genuine teaching, training, and instruction of the Teacher, while anything that does not should categorically be rejected as not being the real Dhamma. This short sutta offers a practical to
Page 146 The Settling of Disciplinary Issues (7.84) A brief listing of the seven traditional procedures the monastic community uses to resolve disputes and disciplinary matters: resolution through a face-to-face hearing, resolution by recalling precedent, resolution based on determining past insanity, acting according to what has been admitted, majority decision, imposing further penalty, and covering over as if with grass, a form of amnesty for complex mutual wrongdoing. The sutta is essentially a procedural reference list for how the Saṅgha adm
Page 146–147 Eight Synonyms for the Liberated Practitioner (7.85-7.92) A tightly formulaic series of eight very short suttas, each explaining why a person deserves a particular honorific title, mendicant, ascetic, brahmin, scholar, bathed initiate, knowledge master, noble one, and perfected one, because they have respectively broken, quelled, barred out, scoured off, bathed off, come to know, or become impeccably remote from the same underlying seven defilements: substantialist view, doubt, misapprehension of precepts and observances, greed, hatred, delusion, and c
Page 147 Bad Qualities and Good Qualities (7.93-7.94) A matched pair of very short suttas listing seven negative qualities, being faithless, shameless, imprudent, unlearned, lazy, unmindful, and witless, and their seven positive counterparts, being faithful, conscientious, prudent, learned, energetic, mindful, and wise. Together they provide a simple, memorable checklist contrasting the character traits that hinder versus support spiritual progress.
Page 147–148 Observing Impermanence in the Eye (7.95) The Buddha explains that seven kinds of individuals, distinguished by how completely they have realized the impermanence of the eye through constant, uninterrupted mindful observation, are all worthy recipients of offerings and the supreme field of merit for the world, ranging from the fully liberated arahant down through various levels of non-returner who will be freed at different stages after death, between one life and the next, upon landing, without extra effort, with extra effort, or by he
Page 148–149 Observing Suffering, Not-Self, and More in the Eye, Etc. (7.96-614, peyyāla) This is a massive compressed peyyāla section representing what would otherwise be over five hundred nearly identical suttas, each repeating the seven-individual framework of the preceding sutta but systematically substituting different objects of contemplation, suffering, not-self, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, and letting go, applied in turn to the eye and other sense faculties, sense objects, the six types of consciousness, contact, feeling, perception, intention, craving, thought
Page 149–150 Three Enumerations for Insight into Greed (7.615-7.617) Three short, closely parallel suttas each state that seven things should be developed for insight into greed, but each supplies a different concrete list: the seven awakening factors, mindfulness through equanimity, in the first; seven perceptions, impermanence, not-self, ugliness, drawbacks, giving up, fading away, and cessation, in the second; and a further set of seven perceptions, ugliness, death, repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the world, impermanence, suffering in impermanence,
Page 150 Untitled Discourses on Greed (7.618-644, peyyāla) A further compressed block of discourses applies the same seven things should be developed formula used for insight into greed to a whole sequence of related goals, complete understanding, complete ending, giving up, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, and giving away of greed, again using the standard lists of awakening factors and perceptions for each. This mechanical but comprehensive expansion shows that the same sets of seven qualities serve every stage and framing of overcoming gree
Page 150–151 Untitled Discourses on Hatred and Other Defilements; End of the Book of the Sevens (7.645-1124, peyyāla) The final and largest compression in the Sevens collection extends the entire preceding insight into greed formula, with its purposes of complete understanding, ending, giving up, and vanishing, each needing seven things to be developed, across an extensive list of other defilements and unwholesome mental qualities, including hatred, delusion, anger, acrimony, disdain, contempt, jealousy, stinginess, deceitfulness, obstinacy, aggression, conceit, arrogance, vanity, and negligence. This closes th
Page 151–152 The Benefits of Love (8.1) The Buddha lists eight benefits that come from cultivating and consistently practicing the heart's release through loving-kindness: sleeping and waking at ease without bad dreams, being loved by humans and non-humans alike, being protected by deities, being safe from fire, poison, and weapons, and, if one does not go on to full awakening, being reborn in a heavenly realm. Verses following the prose praise love as more valuable than even the most elaborate royal sacrifices, comparing it to the mo
Page 152–157 Wisdom (8.2) The Buddha explains eight causes that lead to developing and maturing the fundamental wisdom of the spiritual life: relying respectfully on the Teacher or a senior companion, actively asking questions to clarify doubts, then withdrawing in seclusion to reflect on what was learned, being ethically disciplined, being deeply learned in the teachings, being energetically committed to abandoning the unskillful, avoiding idle talk in favor of Dhamma discussion or noble silence, and meditating on the r
Page 157 Disliked, First Version (8.3) The Buddha lists eight qualities that make a mendicant disliked, disapproved of, and unrespected by their spiritual companions: praising what is disliked and criticizing what is liked, craving material things and honor, lacking conscience and prudence, and holding corrupt wishes and wrong view. The mirror-image absence of these qualities, along with few desires and right view, makes a mendicant liked, approved of, and respected instead.
Page 157–158 Disliked, Second Version (8.4) A parallel sutta gives a second set of eight qualities that make a mendicant disliked versus liked by their companions: desiring material things, honor, and status, not knowing moderation or proper timing, impure conduct, excessive talkativeness, and insulting or abusing fellow monastics on the negative side, with their opposites, contentment, moderation, purity of conduct, restraint in speech, and respectful treatment of companions, producing the opposite, well-regarded outcome.
Page 158–159 Worldly Conditions, First Version (8.5) The Buddha names the eight conditions that govern worldly life, gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain, noting that these impermanent, ever-shifting conditions constantly revolve around all beings. He teaches, in both prose and verse, that a wise, mindful person recognizes these conditions as inherently perishable and so is neither elated by the desirable ones nor troubled by the undesirable ones, having gone beyond both favoring and opposing them, which is the
Page 159–162 Worldly Conditions, Second Version (8.6) Expanding on the previous sutta's eight worldly conditions, this version contrasts the unlearned ordinary person, who meets gain, loss, fame, disgrace, blame, praise, pleasure, and pain without ever reflecting that these are impermanent and so remains caught in habitual favoring and opposing, with the learned noble disciple, who reflects on the impermanent nature of each and thereby avoids being emotionally captured by them. This reflective habit, not the mere experience of these conditions whic
Page 162–163 Devadatta's Failure (8.7) Speaking about his former disciple Devadatta shortly after his fall from the community, the Buddha teaches that it is valuable for a mendicant to periodically examine both their own failures and successes and those of others, and identifies eight things, being overcome by gain, loss, fame, disgrace, honor, dishonor, corrupt wishes, and bad friendship, that led Devadatta to a hellish rebirth for an entire eon, an irredeemable outcome. He urges the mendicants to train in overcoming these same eigh
Page 163–168 Uttara on Failure (8.8) Venerable Uttara teaches on Mount Saṅkheyyaka that mendicants should periodically examine their own and others' failures and successes, repeating the eight causes of Devadatta's downfall; the great god-king Vessavaṇa overhears and reports this to Sakka, lord of gods, who travels to question Uttara about whether the teaching originated with him or with the Buddha. Uttara replies with the simile of a large heap of grain, from which many people gather grain by different means yet it all comes from
Page 168–170 Nanda's Restraint of the Senses The Buddha describes how the monk Nanda, despite being handsome and once prone to lust, lives a pure spiritual life through four practices. He guards the sense doors by consciously reflecting before looking in any direction so that covetousness and displeasure do not overwhelm him. He eats in moderation, reflecting that food is only for sustaining the body and supporting practice, not for pleasure or vanity. He is devoted to wakefulness, spending the day and most of the night in walking and sitt
Page 170–174 Expelling the Corrupt Mendicant as Trash After a monk accused of an offense responds with evasion, distraction, and hostility, the Buddha instructs the community to expel him so he does not corrupt well-behaved mendicants. He teaches through similes: bad barley among good barley, worthless grain blown aside when winnowing, and a rotten tree that sounds hollow when struck all look normal until their true nature is revealed, at which point they must be removed to protect the rest. In verse, the Buddha urges the monks to recognize such co