“Sandaka, take a certain teacher who claims to be all-knowing and all-seeing, to know and see everything without exception, thus: ‘Knowledge and vision are constantly and continually present to me, while walking, standing, sleeping, and waking.’ They enter an empty house; they get no almsfood; a dog bites them; they encounter a wild elephant, a wild horse, and a wild cow; they ask the name and clan of a woman or man; they ask the name and path to a village or town. When asked, ‘Why is this?’ they answer: ‘I had to enter an empty house, that’s why I entered it. I had to get no almsfood, that’s why I got none. I had to get bitten by a dog, that’s why I was bitten. I had to encounter a wild elephant, a wild horse, and a wild cow, that’s why I encountered them. I had to ask the name and clan of a woman or man, that’s why I asked. I had to ask the name and path to a village or town, that’s why I asked.’

A sensible person reflects on this matter in this way: ‘This teacher makes such a claim, but they answer in such a way. This spiritual life is unreliable.’ Realizing this, they leave disappointed.

This is the first kind of unreliable spiritual life.

Furthermore, take another teacher who is an oral transmitter, who takes oral transmission to be the truth. They teach by oral transmission, by the lineage of testament, by canonical authority. But when a teacher takes oral transmission to be the truth, some of that is well learned, some poorly learned, some true, and some otherwise.

A sensible person reflects on this matter in this way: ‘This teacher takes oral transmission to be the truth. He teaches by oral transmission, by the lineage of testament, by canonical authority. But when a teacher takes oral transmission to be the truth, some of that is well learned, some poorly learned, some true, and some otherwise. This spiritual life is unreliable.’ Realizing this, they leave disappointed.

This is the second kind of unreliable spiritual life.