Numbered Discourses: Fives, Sixes

Summarized by AI from the full volume (263 topics) — click to jump to where each topic begins.

1. Page 90000–90009 AN 5.1–5.10 The Powers of a Trainee This is a run of ten very short, tightly formulaic discourses built around the same five qualities of a spiritual trainee — faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom — restated through different frames: a bare list, a detailed definition of each power, the contrast between an anguished life heading toward a bad rebirth and a happy life heading toward a good one, the image of being delivered straight to hell or to heaven, and the grounds on which a disrobing monastic deserves criticism whil
2. Page 90010 AN 5.11 Powers Not Learned From Anyone Else The Buddha declares that he alone has attained perfection and consummation of insight into teachings never learned before from anyone else, through mastery of the same five powers — faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom. Because he possesses these powers completely, he can claim the “bull's place” of leadership, roar his “lion's roar” with total confidence in any assembly, and set the wheel of the teaching turning. The sutta is a brief declaration of the Buddha's unique spiritual autho
3. Page 90011 AN 5.12 The Peak Of the five powers of a trainee — faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom — the Buddha singles out wisdom as the chief one, the quality that “holds and binds everything together.” He illustrates this with the image of a peaked bungalow roof: just as the roof-peak is the structural key point holding the whole building together, wisdom is what unifies and stabilizes the other four powers. The teaching closes with the standard exhortation for mendicants to train in developing all five power
4. Page 90012–90015 AN 5.13–5.16 The Five Powers (Faculties) A second, related list of five powers — faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion (samādhi), and wisdom, corresponding to the five spiritual faculties — is presented across four short discourses. The set moves from a bare listing to precise definitions of each power (including a full description of the four absorptions as the content of the immersion-power), then specifies exactly where each power should be observed in practice: faith in the four factors of stream-entry, energy in the four right eff
5. Page 90016–90019 AN 5.17–5.20 Welfare of Self and Others Four short parallel discourses examine whether a mendicant's practice benefits themselves, others, both, or neither. The determining factors are personal attainment in ethics, immersion, wisdom, freedom, and the knowledge and vision of freedom, together with whether the mendicant actively encourages others toward these same qualities. A mendicant who has developed the qualities but keeps them to themselves benefits only their own welfare; one who lacks the qualities but still teaches others bene
6. Page 90020–90021 AN 5.21–5.22 Disrespect and the Chain of Training Two parallel discourses lay out a strict causal chain showing why basic respect and cooperative behavior among spiritual companions are prerequisites for everything else in the training. A disrespectful, irreverent mendicant with an incompatible lifestyle cannot even fulfill the supplementary training rules, and without that foundation cannot fulfill the trainee's practice, then ethics, then right view, and finally right immersion; the second sutta extends the same chain further, from ethics thr
7. Page 90022 AN 5.23 The Corruptions of Gold and Mind Using the image of native gold corrupted by iron, copper, tin, lead, and silver — which leaves it brittle and unworkable rather than pliable and radiant — the Buddha compares five corruptions of the mind (sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt) that leave the mind unfit for concentration. Once purified of these five hindrances, the mind becomes as workable as pure gold in a skilled goldsmith's hands, capable of being directed at will toward any rea
8. Page 90023 AN 5.24 The Unethical Person and the Tree Simile The Buddha traces how neglecting ethics fatally undermines everything built on top of it: without ethics there is no right immersion, without right immersion no true knowledge and vision, without that no disillusionment and dispassion, and without that no knowledge and vision of freedom, each failure “destroying a vital condition” for the next stage. He illustrates this with a tree lacking branches and foliage, whose bark, softwood, and heartwood consequently never mature; an ethical person, by
9. Page 90024 AN 5.25 Right View Supported by Five Factors In a single short teaching, the Buddha states that right view bears the fruit of freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom only when it is supported by five surrounding factors: ethics, learning, discussion, serenity, and discernment. The sutta is a compact reminder that correct view alone is not sufficient — it needs a supporting ecosystem of moral conduct, study, dialogue with others, and both calm and insight meditation in order to actually ripen into liberation.
10. Page 90025 AN 5.26 The Five Opportunities for Freedom The Buddha describes five distinct occasions on which a diligent mendicant's mind can become liberated: hearing the Teacher or a respected companion teach the Dhamma, teaching the Dhamma to others oneself, reciting memorized teachings, reflecting on and examining the teaching mentally, and properly focusing on a meditation subject. In every case the same sequence unfolds — feeling inspired by the meaning and the teaching leads to joy, then rapture, then bodily tranquility, then bliss, and finall
11. Page 90026 AN 5.27 Limitless Immersion and the Five Knowledges The Buddha instructs mendicants to develop “limitless immersion,” alert and mindful, explaining that doing so gives rise to five personal confirmations: that the immersion is blissful now and will result in future bliss, that it is noble and not “of the flesh,” that it is not cultivated by unworthy people, that it is peaceful, sublime, and unified rather than forced, and that one can mindfully enter and leave it at will. These five knowings function as internal markers confirming that a meditato
12. Page 90027 AN 5.28 Developing Noble Right Immersion with Five Factors In one of the richest teachings in this section, the Buddha explains how to develop “noble right immersion” through five factors corresponding to the four absorptions plus a fifth factor of reviewing one's attainment. Each stage is illustrated with a vivid simile — bath powder kneaded with water until fully saturated without oozing, a spring-fed lake with no external inlet, lotuses growing submerged and soaked through, and a body wrapped head to foot in white cloth — showing how rapture, bliss,
13. Page 90028 AN 5.29 The Benefits of Walking Meditation A short, practical teaching listing five concrete benefits of walking meditation: it builds fitness for travel and endurance in practice, promotes general health, aids proper digestion of what is eaten and drunk, and produces a concentration gained while walking that lasts especially long. It is a rare instance in this section of physical, bodily benefits being cited alongside the usual spiritual ones.
14. Page 90029 AN 5.30 With Nāgita While staying near Icchānaṅgala, the Buddha is approached by a crowd of brahmins and householders bearing food, making a loud commotion outside the monastery gates. When his attendant Nāgita explains the noise, the Buddha declares he never wants fame, contrasting the “filthy, lazy pleasure” of popularity and possessions with the pleasures of renunciation, seclusion, peace, and awakening that he can access at will without difficulty. When Nāgita urges him to accept the crowd's devotion since peop
15. Page 90030 AN 5.31 With Princess Sumanā Princess Sumanā asks the Buddha whether two disciples equal in faith, ethics, and wisdom — one generous, one not — would differ if reborn as gods. The Buddha confirms that the generous one surpasses the other in lifespan, beauty, happiness, glory, and sovereignty in every subsequent state — as a god, then as a human, then even as a renunciate who is treated more agreeably by companions — though he clarifies that once both attain full awakening there is no difference in their freedom. Sumanā is d
16. Page 90031 AN 5.32 With Princess Cundī Princess Cundī asks the Buddha, on her brother Prince Cunda's behalf, what kind of teacher, teaching, community, and ethical conduct one should place confidence in to ensure a good rebirth. The Buddha answers by declaring himself the best of all beings, the noble eightfold path the best of conditioned things, the fading away of craving (extinguishment) the best of all things whether conditioned or unconditioned, the Saṅgha the best of all communities, and the ethical conduct loved by the noble o
17. Page 90032 AN 5.33 With Uggaha: Advice to Daughters After hosting the Buddha and three monks for a meal, the layman Uggaha of Bhaddiya asks the Buddha to advise his daughters, who are about to marry into other families. The Buddha instructs the girls to rise early and retire late in service to their husband, to honor those their husband respects, to be diligent and skilled in domestic work, to properly manage and care for household staff, and to safeguard rather than waste the family's income, promising that women who fulfill these duties are reb
18. Page 90033 AN 5.34 With General Sīha General Sīha asks the Buddha to name a fruit of giving that is visible in this very life. The Buddha lists five: a giver is loved by many, is associated with by good and true people, gains a good reputation, and can enter any assembly with confidence — plus a fifth fruit, a good rebirth, that arrives only in future lives. Sīha responds that he can personally verify the first four from his own experience as a well-known donor, but must take the Buddha's word on faith for the fifth, prompting the
19. Page 90034 AN 5.35 The Benefits of Giving A concise doctrinal summary listing the five benefits of giving already illustrated narratively in the Sīha and Sumanā suttas — being loved, being associated with by good people, gaining a good reputation, not neglecting lay duties, and a good rebirth — followed by a short verse describing how giving ultimately leads to hearing the Dhamma and attaining full extinguishment.
20. Page 90035 AN 5.36 Timely Gifts The Buddha lists five occasions when giving is especially “timely” and therefore especially valuable: giving to a visitor, to someone setting out on a journey, to someone who is sick, during a famine, and offering the season's first harvested grains and fruits to the ethical. Verses that follow praise timely, clear-minded giving as highly fruitful, noting that even those who merely rejoice at another's gift or assist with it share in the resulting merit.
21. Page 90036 AN 5.37 Giving Food The Buddha explains that giving food specifically transmits five gifts to the recipient, which return to the giver in future lives: long life, beauty, happiness, strength, and eloquence. Each is drawn out individually — giving food that sustains life yields long life as a god or human, and so on — closing with a verse tying these five qualities together as the reward of an attentive, intelligent giver.
22. Page 90037 AN 5.38 The Benefits of Faith The Buddha describes five benefits enjoyed by a faithful person: admirable people show them sympathy first, approach them first, give them alms first, and teach them the Dhamma first, and they are reborn well after death. He illustrates this with a great banyan tree at a crossroads that shelters birds of every kind, comparing a faithful, ethical, gentle person to such a tree that becomes a refuge for monks, nuns, and laypeople alike, closing with verses on how such a person eventually hears the
23. Page 90038 AN 5.39 Why Parents Want a Child The Buddha explains the practical and cultural reasons parents in this society hoped for children: children are expected to reciprocate the care given to them, perform filial duties, preserve family customs, manage the inheritance, and make merit-offerings on their parents' behalf after death. Verses reinforce that grateful children who look after their aging parents and remain faithful and ethical are especially praiseworthy, keeping the family's good customs alive.
24. Page 90039 AN 5.40 Great Sal Trees The Buddha compares how great sal trees grow to full stature only because they are rooted in and supported by the Himalayan mountains, to how a family grows and flourishes only when supported by a household head endowed with faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom. Just as a tree's branches, bark, shoots, softwood, and heartwood all mature together, a family's members — children, partners, kin, colleagues, and dependents — all prosper together under an ethical, faithful head of household
25. Page 90040 AN 5.41 Five Reasons to Get Rich The Buddha explains to the householder Anāthapiṇḍika the five legitimate reasons a person seeks wealth: to make themselves and their family happy through honestly-earned income, to make friends and colleagues happy, to protect themselves against losses from disaster or misfortune, to make ritual offerings to relatives, guests, ancestors, the king, and deities, and to support ethical ascetics and brahmins through religious giving. Because his wealth serves these five purposes, a disciple has no r
26. Page 90041 AN 5.42 A True Person The Buddha describes how a “true person” born into a family becomes a source of benefit and happiness not just for their parents and children but for their whole circle — spouse, servants, friends, and even ascetics and brahmins who depend on them — much as a great rain cloud nourishes all the crops around it. Verses praise such a principled, ethical, truthful person as protected by the gods and beyond reproach, “like a pendant of Black Plum River gold.”
27. Page 90042 AN 5.43 Five Things Hard to Get Anāthapiṇḍika learns from the Buddha that five things everyone desires — long life, beauty, happiness, fame, and heaven — cannot be obtained merely by praying or wishing for them, since if they could, no one would lack them. Instead, for each of the five, the Buddha teaches that a disciple must practice the specific way of life that actually leads to that outcome, redirecting religious aspiration away from petition and toward disciplined ethical and spiritual effort.
28. Page 90043 AN 5.44 With Ugga of Vesālī: The Giver of the Agreeable The householder Ugga, citing something he once heard the Buddha say — “the giver of the agreeable gets the agreeable” — offers the Buddha, in succession, his finest porridge, meat dish, vegetables, rice, imported cloth, and finally an expensive sandalwood plank in place of his luxurious bedding, which he recognizes is unsuitable for a monastic, and the Buddha accepts each gift out of sympathy while reciting verses praising Ugga's generosity. After Ugga later dies and is reborn as a radiant mind-
29. Page 90044 AN 5.45 Overflowing Merit The Buddha describes an incalculably vast, “overflowing” merit that arises when a mendicant, supported by a donor's gift of robes, almsfood, lodging, furnishings, or medicine, enters and dwells in limitless loving immersion of the heart — the donor's resulting merit becomes as impossible to measure as the volume of water in the ocean. A closing simile compares the many rivers that all eventually reach the one great sea to the many kinds of gifts that likewise swell into one great stream of merit
30. Page 90045 AN 5.46 The Five Accomplishments A one-line teaching naming the five “accomplishments” a person can achieve: accomplishment in faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom — the same five qualities that recur throughout this section as the core measure of a flourishing spiritual and lay life.
31. Page 90046 AN 5.47 The Five Kinds of Wealth The Buddha defines five kinds of true “wealth” that matter more than material riches: the wealth of faith (confidence in the Buddha's awakening), ethics (keeping the five precepts), learning (remembering and understanding the teachings), generosity (a heart free of stinginess), and wisdom (insight into arising and passing away). Verses close by praising the person grounded in these five as truly prosperous, their life “not in vain,” urging the wise to devote themselves to faith, ethical behavior
32. Page 90047–90048 AN 5.48–5.49 Things That Cannot Be Had, and King Pasenadi's Grief The Buddha teaches that five things can never be had by anyone in the world, human or divine: escaping old age, sickness, death, ending, or perishing. He contrasts the “unlearned ordinary person,” who is struck by “sorrow's poisoned arrow” and mortifies themselves with grief when these inevitabilities strike loved ones, against the “learned noble disciple,” who reflects that this is the universal lot of all beings and so avoids that same devastating sorrow, remaining “sorrowless and free of thor
33. Page 90049 AN 5.50 With Nārada: Pulling Out Sorrow's Arrow When King Muṇḍa's beloved Queen Bhaddā dies, he refuses to eat, bathe, or work, brooding endlessly over her preserved corpse, until his treasurer Piyaka arranges an audience with the Venerable Nārada. Nārada delivers the same “five things that cannot be had” teaching found in 5.48, walking the king through the same contrast between the unlearned ordinary person and the learned noble disciple and the same closing verses, and the king is so moved that he asks the teaching's name — learning it is c
34. Page 90050 AN 5.51 The Five Hindrances That Weaken Wisdom The Buddha names the five hindrances — sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt — as “obstacles and parasites of the mind that weaken wisdom,” using the image of a swift mountain river whose current is dispersed and weakened when channels are opened to drain it on both sides. A mendicant whose wisdom is thus weakened by unabandoned hindrances cannot discern what is truly beneficial for themselves or others, or realize any noble attainment; but one wh
35. Page 90051 AN 5.52 A Heap of the Unskillful A brief, emphatic teaching stating that the five hindrances — sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt — deserve to be called, rightly and entirely, “a heap of the unskillful,” a concise summary judgment on their uniformly harmful nature.
36. Page 90052 AN 5.53 Factors That Support Meditation The Buddha lists five factors that support successful meditation: faith in the Buddha's awakening, good health with minimal illness, a well-functioning digestion, honesty and openness with the Teacher or wise companions rather than deceit, sustained energy for abandoning unskillful and cultivating skillful qualities, and wisdom into arising and passing away. Together these describe the practical physical, psychological, and moral conditions a meditator needs in place to practice effectively.
37. Page 90053 AN 5.54 Times Good and Bad for Meditation The Buddha contrasts five times unfavorable for meditation — old age, sickness, famine, civil unrest and danger, and schism within the Saṅgha — with five times favorable for it: youth and vigor, good health and digestion, plentiful food, social harmony among the wider population, and harmony within the Saṅgha itself. The teaching recognizes that external circumstances, not just internal effort, genuinely affect a practitioner's capacity to meditate well.
38. Page 90054 AN 5.55 Mother and Son When a monk and his own mother, now a nun, grow emotionally close during a shared rains retreat and end up committing a sexual transgression, the Buddha responds by teaching, starkly, that no one is exempt from being overcome by lust for even the closest of kin. He declares that the sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch of a woman are the most powerfully arousing and captivating things he knows of, an all-encompassing “snare of Māra” that occupies a man's mind whether she is walking, sitting, la
39. Page 90055 Hindrances Mentor (AN 5.56) A mendicant reports to his own mentor that his body feels drugged, he is disoriented, the teachings won't come to mind, and he's plagued by dullness, drowsiness and doubt. The Buddha diagnoses this state as the result of unguarded senses, overeating, neglecting wakefulness, and failing to cultivate the awakening factors morning and evening, and prescribes the opposite practices as the remedy. The mendicant follows this advice, meditates diligently alone, and swiftly attains full awakening, retur
40. Page 90056 Subjects for Regular Reviewing (AN 5.57) The Buddha teaches five facts that everyone, monastic or lay, man or woman, should reflect on often: that one is bound to age, get sick, die, be separated from loved ones, and that one is the owner and heir of one's own deeds. He explains that each reflection counters a specific intoxication - the vanity of youth, health, life, and attachment to the beloved - reducing bad conduct by keeping these realities in view. A noble disciple takes the reflection further, recognizing these truths as univer
41. Page 90057 The Licchavi Youths (AN 5.58) While meditating in the Great Wood near Vesali, the Buddha is silently venerated by a group of rowdy young Licchavi men just back from hunting; the elder Mahanama remarks with delight that such notoriously wild youths are behaving with such reverence. The Buddha turns this into a teaching on five qualities that guarantee only growth, not decline, for any leader or clan head: using legitimately earned wealth to honor one's parents, one's spouse, children and dependents, business partners and neig
42. Page 90058–90059 Gone Forth When Old (AN 5.59–5.60) Two very brief, paired discourses observe how rare it is to find someone who ordains late in life yet still possesses the qualities needed to thrive as a monastic. The first sutta identifies these as being sophisticated, well-presented, learned, able to teach the Dhamma, and having memorized the monastic law; the second restates the same point but substitutes being easy to admonish, retentive, and respectful in learning. Both underscore the Buddha's recognition that late-life ordination poses re
43. Page 90060–90061 Perceptions (AN 5.61–5.62) A short paired teaching lists two sets of five perceptions that, when developed and cultivated, are very fruitful, culminating in freedom from death. The first set is the perceptions of ugliness (of the body), death, drawbacks, the repulsiveness of food, and dissatisfaction with the whole world; the second set substitutes impermanence and not-self for ugliness and drawbacks. Together they present complementary meditative themes - on the body's foulness and on the impermanent, selfless nature of
44. Page 90062–90063 Growth (AN 5.63–5.64) A pair of matching short teachings, addressed first to a male and then to a female noble disciple, describes the five ways a lay follower grows nobly: by growing in faith, ethics, learning, generosity and wisdom. Each version closes with a verse praising the person - a good man or a virtuous laywoman - who cultivates all five as someone who sees clearly and secures what is truly essential in this life. The gender-mirrored structure emphasizes that this path of spiritual growth is equally open to
45. Page 90064–90065 Discussion and Sharing Life (AN 5.65–5.66) Two nearly identical short suttas describe the five qualities that make a mendicant fit to hold a discussion with, or to share communal life with, fellow spiritual practitioners. In both cases the qualification is the same: being personally accomplished in ethics, immersion, wisdom, freedom, and the knowledge and vision of freedom, and being able to field questions on each topic when they arise in conversation. The pairing highlights that intellectual dialogue and close communal living demand th
46. Page 90066–90067 Bases of Psychic Power (AN 5.67–5.68) The Buddha teaches that any monk or nun who develops the four bases of psychic power - immersion arising from enthusiasm, energy, mental development, and inquiry, each paired with active effort - along with a fifth factor of sheer vigor, can expect either full awakening in this life or non-return. In the companion sutta the Buddha recalls that before his own awakening, while still seeking it, he cultivated exactly these five qualities, which enabled him to realize by direct insight anything with
47. Page 90068–90071 Disillusionment, Ending of Defilements, and Freedom of Heart (AN 5.69–5.72) This group of four closely related short suttas repeats a single formula of five contemplations - observing the body's ugliness, the repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, the impermanence of all conditions, and one's own inevitable death - while varying the stated outcome: disillusionment and awakening, the ending of defilements, and freedom of heart and wisdom. The freedom-of-heart suttas add a vivid simile of a warrior who has ‘lifted the cross-bar’, ‘filled in the moat’
48. Page 90072–90073 One Who Lives by the Teaching (AN 5.73–5.74) A mendicant asks the Buddha to define what it means to ‘live by the teaching’ as opposed to merely studying, teaching, reciting or thinking about it. In the first version the Buddha distinguishes those who spend excessive time on any of these activities and thereby neglect retreat and inner serenity from the one who engages moderately while still prioritizing seclusion; in the second version the same fourfold contrast instead turns on whether the person actually understands the deeper meaning of
49. Page 90074 Warriors (1st) (AN 5.75) Using an extended military simile, the Buddha describes five types of warriors ranked by how much combat pressure they can withstand before faltering - from one who breaks at the mere sight of a dust cloud to one who wins outright victory - and maps these onto five types of monks facing temptation by a woman: succumbing merely to hearsay of her beauty, to actually seeing her, to her flirtatious approach, to physical contact ending in sex, and finally the mendicant who, when approached and even t
50. Page 90075 Warriors (2nd) (AN 5.76) A second warrior simile describes five soldiers who go into battle and meet different fates - killed outright, dying en route to aid, dying despite care, recovering, or achieving outright victory - which the Buddha maps onto five monks whose sense-restraint fails to varying degrees when they encounter a scantily-clad woman on almsround: giving in to lust immediately, resigning training on the way to seek help, giving up even after being counseled with the traditional similes for the drawbacks of
51. Page 90076 Future Perils (1st) (AN 5.77) The Buddha teaches five external dangers that a wilderness-dwelling mendicant should reflect on as motivation for urgent meditative effort: the risk of being bitten by venomous creatures, of accidents or illness from harsh conditions, of attack by wild predators, of encountering violent criminals, and of encountering malevolent spirits said to haunt the wilderness. Contemplating that death from any of these would cut short one's spiritual progress, the mendicant is spurred to strive energeticall
52. Page 90077 Future Perils (2nd) (AN 5.78) A companion teaching shifts from external wilderness dangers to five inevitable life changes a mendicant should anticipate and prepare for while still capable: the coming of old age, sickness, famine (which forces crowded, distracting communal living), civil unrest, and schism within the Sangha. In each case the Buddha's reasoning is that these future conditions will make it far harder to focus on the teaching and to keep up remote forest practice, so the wise mendicant strives now, while young,
53. Page 90078 Future Perils (3rd) (AN 5.79) Looking further ahead to institutional decline, the Buddha warns of five perils that have not yet arisen but will afflict the monastic community in future generations: undeveloped teachers ordaining students and guiding them beyond their own competence, those unqualified students in turn producing further unqualified generations, mendicants falling unknowingly into wrong views during doctrinal discussion, monastics preferring flowery poetic compositions by outsiders over the Buddha's own profoun
54. Page 90079 Future Perils (4th) (AN 5.80) This continuation of the future-perils theme catalogs five more institutional dangers: monks who prize fine robes, fine almsfood, or comfortable lodgings and abandon austere forest practice for town life, resorting to improper means to obtain these comforts, plus monks who mix too closely with nuns (risking dissatisfaction, offenses, or disrobing) and with lay attendants and novices (risking improper handling of goods and other breaches of discipline). As with the preceding suttas, these are fra
55. Page 90080–90085 Senior Mendicants: Disliked and Beloved Qualities (AN 5.81–5.86) A run of six short, formulaic paired suttas each list five qualities that make a senior mendicant disliked, or in their opposite form dear and respected, by fellow monastics - covering being ruled by desire, hatred, delusion, irritation and intoxication versus being free of them; harboring greed, hatred and delusion versus being free of them and inoffensive; using deceit, flattery and manipulation for material gain versus being straightforward; lacking faith, conscience, prudence, energy and wis
56. Page 90086 Ethical (AN 5.87) In a fuller, more detailed portrait than the preceding series, the Buddha describes the senior mendicant who is truly dear and respected by spiritual companions: one who is ethically restrained down to the smallest rule, deeply learned in the full range of the teachings and able to recite and penetrate them, an eloquent and clear speaker, able to enter the four absorptions at will, and who has fully realized liberation of heart and wisdom through the ending of defilements. This sutta functions a
57. Page 90087 Senior Mendicants and Wrong View (AN 5.88) The Buddha warns that a senior mendicant who possesses outwardly impressive qualities - long standing in the order, fame, a large following, ample material support, and deep learning - but holds wrong view becomes a serious danger to the community, because others follow his example and are led into false teachings, causing widespread harm. The same five external qualities, when combined with right view instead, make such a senior mendicant a great benefit, drawing people toward the true teaching
58. Page 90088–90089 A Trainee's Decline (AN 5.89–5.90) A pair of teachings on what causes decline in a mendicant still in training: relishing work, idle talk, sleep and socializing, and neglecting to examine the extent of one's own liberation. The second, more detailed version elaborates each factor - taking on excessive duties, wasting time on trivial tasks, mixing inappropriately with laypeople, entering and leaving the village at the wrong times, and missing out on edifying talk about contentment, seclusion and the training - contrasting each wit
59. Page 90090–90091 Accomplishments (AN 5.91–5.92) Two extremely brief, paired lists define the five accomplishments: the first as accomplishment in faith, ethics, learning, generosity and wisdom, qualities especially relevant to lay life, and the second as accomplishment in ethics, immersion, wisdom, freedom, and the knowledge and vision of freedom, the qualities marking full monastic attainment. Together they offer two complementary five-fold templates for spiritual maturity, one oriented toward the lay follower's virtues and one toward the fu
60. Page 90092 Declarations of Enlightenment (AN 5.93) This short sutta enumerates five ways someone might wrongly, or rightly, claim to have attained enlightenment: out of sheer stupidity and folly, out of corrupt ambition and wishful thinking, due to madness or mental disorder, out of simple overestimation of one's own attainment, or - the sole legitimate case - because the declaration is actually true. The teaching serves as a caution against taking claims of awakening at face value and highlights the various mundane failures of judgment that can
61. Page 90093 Living Comfortably: The Absorptions (AN 5.94) The Buddha lists five progressive stages of living comfortably: entering and abiding in each of the four absorptions in turn, and finally realizing the undefiled liberation of heart and wisdom through the ending of defilements. This concise formula presents deepening meditative absorption, culminating in full awakening, as the truest form of comfort available to a practitioner.
62. Page 90094 Unshakable (AN 5.95) A short teaching states that a mendicant equipped with mastery of the four kinds of textual analysis - of meaning, of the text itself, of definitions, and of eloquent expression - combined with regularly reviewing the extent of their own mind's freedom, will soon attain the unshakable, an epithet for full liberation. It links intellectual and expressive mastery of the teaching with ongoing self-examination as the twin conditions for swift spiritual breakthrough.
63. Page 90095–90097 Mindfulness of Breathing and the Unshakable (AN 5.96–5.98) A three-sutta series describes conditions under which a mendicant who cultivates mindfulness of breathing will soon attain the unshakable: in each version the mendicant has few duties, eats little, and is dedicated to wakefulness, while the fifth, varying factor is either being deeply learned in the teachings, having ready access to edifying conversation about contentment and the training, or living in the wilderness in remote lodgings - in every case combined with regularly reviewing the extent
64. Page 90098 The Lion (AN 5.99) Using the image of a lion emerging at dusk to roar and hunt, striking every prey - whether a huge elephant or a small hare - with equal care rather than carelessness so as not to lose his way, the Buddha compares this to his own teaching: when he addresses any audience, whether monks, nuns, laypeople, or even ordinary food-carriers and hunters, he teaches every one of them carefully and with full respect for the Dhamma. The simile illustrates the Buddha's consistent seriousness and respect towar
65. Page 90099 With Kakudha (AN 5.100) A deity named Kakudha, a former lay supporter of Moggallana now reborn as a mind-made god, reports to Moggallana that Devadatta's ambition to lead the Sangha has caused him to lose his psychic powers; the Buddha confirms the deity spoke truly and predicts Devadatta will be exposed by his own deeds. The Buddha then describes five types of corrupt teachers - impure in ethics, livelihood, teaching, in how they answer questions, or in knowledge and vision - who falsely claim purity while their disci
66. Page 90100 Assurance (AN 5.101) The Buddha names five qualities - faith, ethics, learning, energy, and wisdom - that make a trainee self-assured, explaining for each one how possessing it removes the corresponding insecurity that plagues someone who lacks it, since the faithless, the unethical, the unlearned, the lazy, and the witless all suffer specific anxieties that a trainee endowed with these qualities is free from. The teaching frames genuine spiritual confidence as arising naturally from real inner development rather th
67. Page 90101 Suspected (AN 5.102) The Buddha notes that even a monk of genuinely impeccable conduct can still become the object of suspicion and be branded a bad monk if he is seen going for almsfood specifically to prostitutes, widows, sexually alluring young women, eunuchs, or nuns - situations that predictably invite scandal regardless of his actual purity. This is a pragmatic warning about the importance of avoiding the mere appearance of impropriety, not just impropriety itself, for the sake of public trust in the monastic
68. Page 90102 A Master Thief (AN 5.103) Using the detailed profile of a professional burglar and highway robber who relies on inaccessible terrain, dense cover, powerful patrons, bribery, and working alone to evade capture, the Buddha draws a point-by-point parallel to the corrupt mendicant: unethical conduct is his rough ground, wrong and extremist views are his thick cover, currying favor with rulers is his reliance on the powerful, using donated requisites to buy people's silence is his bribery, and living alone in the borderlands
69. Page 90103 A Delicate Ascetic of Ascetics (AN 5.104) The Buddha describes five marks of an exceptionally fortunate practitioner - one who rarely needs to use unoffered requisites, is consistently treated agreeably by fellow practitioners, enjoys good health free of the usual physical afflictions, attains the four absorptions effortlessly, and has fully realized liberation - and then declares that he himself, above anyone else, is rightly called this delicate ascetic of ascetics, since he embodies every one of these conditions perfectly. It is a st
70. Page 90104 Living Comfortably: Harmony with Companions (AN 5.105) A short sutta gives a social, communal definition of living comfortably: consistently treating one's spiritual companions with kindness in body, speech and mind, whether in public or private; keeping the same precepts as one's companions, which are pure, praised by the wise and conducive to immersion; and sharing the same noble, liberating view that leads to the complete ending of suffering. Unlike the meditative version of living comfortably taught earlier in this section, this formula locates
71. Page 90105 With Ānanda (AN 5.106) In a dialogue with the Buddha, Ananda repeatedly asks whether there might be a further way to live comfortably within a monastic community, and each time the Buddha adds one more layer to the answer: being personally accomplished in ethics without policing others' conduct, observing oneself rather than others, being untroubled by lack of fame, gaining the four absorptions at will, and finally realizing full liberation - declaring this fivefold combination the finest way of all to live comfortabl
72. Page 90106–90107 Ethics and An Adept (AN 5.107–5.108) Two closely related short suttas state that a mendicant accomplished in ethics, immersion, wisdom, freedom, and the knowledge and vision of freedom - or, in the companion sutta, one who has attained the entire spectrum of an adept's mastery of these same five qualities - becomes worthy of the highest forms of religious offering, hospitality, and veneration, functioning as the supreme field of merit for the world. Together they affirm that it is inner spiritual accomplishment across these five do
73. Page 90108–90109 All Four Quarters and Wilderness (AN 5.109–5.110) A closing pair of formulaic suttas each describe five qualities that make a mendicant fit either to travel comfortably in any direction, or to take up remote wilderness and forest dwelling: strict ethical restraint down to the smallest rule, deep learning in the Dhamma, and the ability to attain the four absorptions and full liberation at will, combined with contentment with whatever robes, food, lodging and medicine one receives in the first sutta, or robust, unflagging energy in the second. Co
74. Page 90110 Qualities of a Mendicant Who Visits Families Well (5.111) The Buddha describes what makes a mendicant unwelcome versus welcome when visiting lay families for alms. An unwelcome mendicant presumes intimacy with people they hardly know, gives away things that aren't theirs to give, clings possessively to close friends, whispers privately, and begs excessively. The welcome mendicant avoids all these faults, treating families with appropriate restraint and respect. The teaching is a practical guide to maintaining the trust and goodwill that sustains the re
75. Page 90111 Choosing a Good Companion Monk (5.112) The Buddha advises on what to look for when choosing a companion ("second monk") for alms rounds or travel. An unsuitable companion walks awkwardly out of step, fails to help carry the bowl, doesn't warn about impending breaches of discipline, interrupts constantly, and is dull-witted. A suitable companion does the opposite on every count, offering practical support and the intelligence to be a real help. The sutta highlights how the quality of one's immediate companions shapes daily monastic pr
76. Page 90112 Sense-Endurance as a Basis for Immersion (5.113) This short teaching states that a mendicant who cannot endure the pull of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches is incapable of entering and sustaining right immersion, or meditative concentration. Conversely, one who can endure these five sense stimuli without being unsettled by them is able to enter and maintain it. The point is that sense restraint is a direct precondition for deep meditative stability, not a separate practice from it.
77. Page 90113 Five Things to Establish in Junior Mendicants (5.114) While staying at Andhakavinda, the Buddha tells Ānanda how senior mendicants should train those who are junior and newly ordained. They should be encouraged and grounded in five things: restraint according to the monastic code, guarding the sense doors, speaking little, dwelling in solitude and wilderness retreat, and cultivating right view. Each point is given as a short exhortation a senior might actually say to a junior, making this a practical curriculum for mentoring new monastics.
78. Page 90114–90119 A Series on Nuns Reborn in Hell or Heaven (5.115-5.120) This is a run of six closely parallel short suttas, each stating that a nun with five particular faults is as good as delivered to hell, while a nun free of them is as good as delivered to heaven. The faulted qualities vary from sutta to sutta - stinginess with lodgings, families, and teaching; praising the blameworthy and blaming the praiseworthy without due care; jealousy; wrong view; wrong speech and action; and wrong effort and mindfulness - but wasting gifts given in faith recurs as a commo
79. Page 90120 The Weak and Sick Mendicant's Path to Freedom (5.121) Visiting a sick mendicant in the infirmary at Vesālī, the Buddha teaches that even someone weak and ill can expect to realize full liberation if they do not neglect five contemplations: meditating on the body's ugliness, the repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, the impermanence of all conditions, and a well-established awareness of their own mortality. The setting itself is significant - the Buddha personally visiting the sick - showing that illness need not be a barrier
80. Page 90121 Five Qualities Leading to Enlightenment or Non-Return (5.122) The Buddha states that any monk or nun who develops five specific qualities can expect one of two outcomes: full enlightenment in this very life, or non-return if some residue of defilement remains. The five are establishing mindfulness to understand the arising and passing of phenomena, meditating on the body's ugliness, the repulsiveness of food, dissatisfaction with the whole world, and the impermanence of all conditions. This closely echoes the sick-mendicant teaching just before it, general
81. Page 90122 What Makes a Patient Easy or Hard to Care For (5.123) The Buddha describes the traits of a difficult patient: doing what is unsuitable for their condition, lacking moderation, refusing medicine, failing to honestly report how they are faring, and being unable to bear physical pain. An easy patient does the reverse of each, cooperating with treatment and communicating honestly with those looking after them. The teaching reflects practical concern for the monastic community's system of mutual care during illness.
82. Page 90123 What Makes a Carer Competent (5.124) Complementing the previous sutta, the Buddha turns to the qualities of the person providing care rather than the patient. An incompetent carer cannot prepare medicine properly, mismanages what is suitable and unsuitable, cares for material reward rather than out of love, is squeamish about bodily fluids, and cannot offer encouraging Dhamma talks. A competent carer is skilled, motivated by genuine care, unsqueamish, and able to inspire the patient spiritually as well as physically, showing that g
83. Page 90124–90125 Two Teachings on What Impedes and Promotes Longevity (5.125-5.126) These two paired suttas each list five factors that shorten or lengthen life. The first names doing what is unsuitable, lacking moderation, eating unwholesome food, being active at the wrong times, and unchastity as life-shortening, with their opposites as life-promoting. The second sutta repeats most of this pattern but substitutes unethical behavior and bad friendships for unsuitable activity and unchastity, emphasizing that both physical habits and moral or social company affect one's health
84. Page 90126 Fitness to Live Apart from the Community (5.127) The Buddha explains when it is appropriate for a mendicant to live apart from the Saṅgha rather than in community. One who is discontent with whatever robes, food, lodging, and medicine they receive, and who is troubled by frequent sensual thoughts, is not fit to live alone. One who is content with these requisites and inclined toward renunciation, by contrast, is fit for solitary practice, contentment and freedom from lust being the safeguards that make solitude spiritually safe rather than ris
85. Page 90127 Suffering and Happiness for an Ascetic (5.128) This teaching closely parallels the previous one, framing the same underlying qualities - discontent with basic requisites and dissatisfaction with the spiritual life versus contentment and satisfaction - as sources of suffering or happiness for a renunciant. It reinforces that an ascetic's wellbeing hinges less on external circumstances than on their inner relationship to what they have and to the path they have chosen. The teaching functions as a companion piece to the preceding sutta on livin
86. Page 90128 The Five Deeds That Lead Straight to Hell (5.129) A brief but severe teaching names the five gravest possible offenses - killing one's mother, killing one's father, killing an arahant, maliciously drawing a Buddha's blood, and causing a schism in the Saṅgha - as "fatal wounds" that lead directly to hell. These correspond to the traditional five ānantarika-kammas, the most heinous acts in Buddhist ethics, considered to produce immediate and unavoidable negative rebirth regardless of any other merit. The sutta's brevity underscores the gravity: n
87. Page 90129 Five Losses and Five Endowments That Actually Matter (5.130) The Buddha lists five kinds of loss - of relatives, wealth, health, ethical conduct, and right view - and their positive counterparts as five endowments. He then makes a pointed distinction: losing relatives, wealth, or health does not by itself cause rebirth in a bad destination, but losing ethics or right view does. This reorders common human priorities, teaching that moral and spiritual integrity, not material or social security, are what actually determine one's fate after death.
88. Page 90130–90131 The Wheel-Turning Monarch and the Wheel of Dhamma (5.131-5.132) In this pair of parallel suttas, the Buddha compares a wheel-turning monarch's five qualities for wielding unassailable power - knowing what is right, knowing principle, knowing moderation, knowing the right time, and knowing the assembly - to his own five qualities for rolling forth the supreme Wheel of Dhamma. The second sutta extends the same simile one generation down, comparing the monarch's eldest son continuing his father's rule to Sāriputta continuing to turn the Wheel of Dhamma after th
89. Page 90132 Principle as the King Above the King (5.133) Asked who is king over the wheel-turning monarch himself, the Buddha answers: principle. He describes how a just king protects and provides security for all classes of his realm - nobles, soldiers, brahmins, householders, even animals - by honoring principle above his own will. He then extends the image to himself: the Buddha, as a principled king, provides protection to monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen by teaching them exactly what bodily, verbal, and mental conduct and livelihood to cultivate
90. Page 90133 Living Secure Anywhere, Like a King or a Freed Mind (5.134) The Buddha describes the five qualities that let an anointed king rule securely in any territory - noble birth, wealth, military power, a wise commander, and the resulting glory - and then maps each onto five qualities that let a mendicant live with a liberated mind wherever they go: pure ethical conduct in place of noble birth, deep learning in place of wealth, energetic effort in place of military power, and liberating wisdom in place of a wise commander, culminating in freedom itself. The ela
91. Page 90134–90135 What Justifies Aspiring to Kingship or to Liberation (5.135-5.136) This pair of suttas uses the same structure twice. First, a king's eldest son with the right lineage, looks, parental favor, popularity, and princely training has grounds to think "why shouldn't I aspire to kingship?" - mirrored by a mendicant with faith in the Buddha's awakening, good health, honesty, energy, and wisdom, who can rightly aspire to end the defilements. The second sutta repeats the pattern for aspiring to be viceroy rather than king, matched against a mendicant's ethical conduct,
92. Page 90136 Five Who Barely Sleep at Night (5.137) A brief, almost proverbial teaching lists five types who stay awake through the night: a woman longing for a man, a man longing for a woman, a thief anticipating loot, a king absorbed in his duties, and a mendicant longing for release from the yoke of defilement. By placing spiritual urgency alongside desire, greed, and duty, the sutta suggests that a mendicant's yearning for freedom should be as consuming and wakeful as these other powerful human preoccupations.
93. Page 90137 Merely Existing as a Monk vs. Truly Being One (5.138) The Buddha compares a royal elephant that eats, takes up space, and does its business without being any use in battle - because it cannot endure sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches - to a mendicant who likewise merely occupies a monastic role without real attainment, for the same reason: an inability to withstand sensory temptation. The teaching is a pointed warning that simply wearing the robe and going through the motions does not make one a true mendicant if sense-restraint is lacking
94. Page 90138 The Battle-Ready Elephant and the Battle-Ready Mind (5.139) This longer sutta develops the elephant simile in full: a war elephant unable to endure the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches of battle falters and is useless, while one that can endure all five stays firm and fit for combat, and only the latter is truly reckoned an asset to the king. The Buddha then maps this in detail onto the mendicant: one who is aroused and destabilized by desirable sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches is not worthy of the offerings and veneration given to
95. Page 90139 Five Elephant Virtues Mapped onto the Ideal Mendicant (5.140) The Buddha describes five qualities that make a royal elephant valuable in war - it listens attentively to its trainer, destroys the enemy in battle, protects its own vulnerable parts and rider, endures being struck and the din of battle, and moves swiftly wherever directed - and matches each to a mendicant's spiritual capacities. The mendicant "listens" by attentively receiving the Buddha's teaching, "destroys" unskillful thoughts as they arise, "protects" the senses from being overwhelmed, "en
96. Page 90140 Five Flawed Character Types (5.141) The Buddha catalogues five kinds of people found in the world: those who give generously but then look down on the recipient, those who form a close friendship and then come to despise the friend, those who are gullible to gossip and rumor, those who are fickle and impulsive in their commitments, and those who are simply dull and unable to distinguish skillful from unskillful qualities. Each type is illustrated with a short definition of the behavior in question. The sutta offers a psychological
97. Page 90141 Five Individuals and Their Relationship to Wrongdoing (5.142) The Buddha presents five types of people defined by how they relate to moral transgression and regret: one who transgresses and regrets it, one who transgresses without regret, one who does not transgress yet still feels needless regret, one who neither transgresses nor regrets but lacks deep understanding, and one who neither transgresses nor regrets and does understand where defilements cease completely. He then gives the exact words a teacher should use to counsel each of the first four types
98. Page 90142 Five Rare Treasures, Redefined (5.143) Overhearing a group of Licchavi nobles at the Sārandada Shrine marveling at the rarity of five worldly treasures - elephants, horses, jewels, women, and wealthy householders - the Buddha gently rebukes their fixation on sensual pleasure and offers his own list of five treasures that are truly rare in the world: the appearance of a Buddha, a teacher of his teaching, someone who understands that teaching, someone who practices it, and someone who is grateful for it. The episode is a vivid, narrati
99. Page 90143 Meditating Flexibly on the Repulsive and Unrepulsive (5.144) The Buddha teaches a mendicant to practice perceiving the repulsive within the unrepulsive, the unrepulsive within the repulsive, both perceptions applied to both kinds of objects, and finally an equanimous stance that lets go of the repulsive and unrepulsive distinction altogether. Each mode of perception is explained by its specific antidotal purpose - preventing greed for attractive things, preventing hatred toward unattractive things, and ultimately preventing greed, hatred, and delusion fro
100. Page 90144 The Five Precepts as the Boundary Between Hell and Heaven (5.145) In its simplest form yet, this sutta states that someone who kills, steals, commits sexual misconduct, lies, and drinks intoxicants is bound for hell, while someone who abstains from all five is bound for heaven. This directly restates the five basic ethical precepts of lay Buddhist practice as the decisive factor in one's post-mortem destiny, without further elaboration.
101. Page 90145 Choosing Fellow Mendicants Wisely (5.146) The Buddha advises against associating with a mendicant companion who habitually initiates building projects, gets embroiled in disciplinary disputes, clashes with senior mendicants, wanders aimlessly for long periods, and cannot offer inspiring Dhamma talks. A worthwhile companion avoids all these distractions and is able to genuinely encourage and inspire. The teaching underscores how much one's spiritual progress depends on the character of those one keeps close company with.
102. Page 90146 How an Insincere Person Gives (5.147) The Buddha characterizes ungenerous or insincere giving through five traits: giving carelessly, thoughtlessly, not with one's own hand, giving only leftover scraps, and giving without regard for the consequences of the gift. Genuine giving, by a "true person," reverses each of these - careful, thoughtful, personally delivered, of good quality, and mindful of its effects. The teaching frames generosity not just as an act but as a matter of attitude and manner, which shapes its spiritual value.
103. Page 90147 The Fruits of Giving Well (5.148) Building on the previous sutta, the Buddha lists five qualities of a truly generous gift - given out of faith, given carefully, given at the right time, given without expecting anything in return, and given without harm to giver or receiver - and then describes the specific karmic fruit each quality produces, from beauty and wealth to an attentive household, timely abundance, refined sensory enjoyment, and protection of one's property from disaster. This is one of the more detailed teachings on
104. Page 90148–90149 What Erodes a Temporary Liberation (5.149-5.150) These two related suttas address a mendicant who has attained a temporary, not-yet-permanent state of mental freedom, and what causes it to decline. The first sutta names an excessive relish for work, talk, sleep, and company, plus failure to reflect on the extent of one's freedom, as the causes of decline; the second names relish for work, talk, and sleep together with poor sense-restraint and overeating. Both suttas agree that ongoing vigilance - reviewing one's attainment, restraining the sen
105. Page 90150–90152 What Blocks or Enables Genuine Learning from the Teaching (5.151-5.153) This trio of closely related suttas examines what prevents or allows someone to "step into the sure path" toward skillful qualities upon hearing the true teaching. Obstacles named across the three suttas include disparaging the talk, the speaker, or oneself; listening with a scattered mind or irrational attention; being dull and overconfident about one's own knowledge; and listening with a hostile, fault-finding, or attacking mindset. The positive counterparts - respectful, focused, humble, and
106. Page 90153–90155 What Causes the True Teaching to Endure or Disappear (5.154-5.156) This three-part series addresses the long-term survival of the Buddha's teaching itself. The first sutta names careless listening, careless reflection on meaning, and careless practice as causes of decline; the second focuses on the transmission chain - failing to memorize, explain, have others recite, rehearse, or mentally examine the texts; the third broadens to institutional causes including corrupted memorization, being hard to admonish, senior teachers failing to pass on the tradition befor
107. Page 90156 Matching the Topic of Conversation to the Person (5.157) The Buddha explains why it is unwise to praise faith, ethics, learning, generosity, or wisdom to someone who lacks that quality: rather than being inspired, they become defensive, resentful, and hard-hearted because they cannot recognize the described joy in themselves. Conversely, praising these same qualities to someone who actually possesses them resonates and brings them genuine joy and confidence. The teaching is a piece of practical wisdom about skillful communication - the same words can
108. Page 90157 The Roots of Timidity and Self-Assurance (5.158) In a brief teaching, the Buddha attributes a mendicant's timidity to five deficiencies - lack of faith, lack of ethical conduct, little learning, laziness, and lack of wisdom - while self-assurance comes from possessing the opposite five qualities. The teaching frames confidence not as a personality trait but as something built directly from substantive spiritual and moral development.
109. Page 90158 Five Attitudes to Establish Before Teaching Others (5.159) Prompted by Ānanda's report that Venerable Udāyī is teaching a large lay audience, the Buddha tells Ānanda that teaching Dhamma to others is not easy and requires first establishing five intentions: to teach step-by-step, to teach by showing one's reasoning or method, to teach out of genuine kindness, to never teach while secretly hoping for material gain, and to teach without causing harm to oneself or others. This functions as an ethical checklist for anyone in a teaching role within the tradi
110. Page 90159 Five Things Hard to Shake Once Arisen (5.160) A very brief teaching names greed, hatred, delusion, a compulsive urge to speak out, and restless thoughts of travel as five mental states that, once they arise, are especially difficult to dispel. Grouping the three root defilements alongside these more mundane compulsive impulses suggests that ordinary restlessness and the urge to talk or wander can be just as sticky and hard to overcome as the classic spiritual poisons.
111. Page 90160 Five Ways to Release Resentment Toward Anyone (5.161) The Buddha offers five methods for dissolving resentment toward any person: deliberately cultivating love, compassion, or equanimity toward them, choosing to simply disregard them and pay them no attention, or reflecting that they, like everyone, are the owner and heir of their own deeds, meaning their conduct will bring its own consequences regardless of one's resentment. This offers a practical toolkit of alternative mental strategies rather than insisting on only one method, recognizing that
112. Page 90161 Five Vivid Similes for Overcoming Resentment (5.162) Sāriputta expands on the theme of resentment with five vivid, extended similes matched to five types of people: someone impure in body but pure in speech, like a rag-robe wearer salvaging a good scrap of cloth from a discarded rag; someone impure in speech but pure in body, like a thirsty traveler filtering clean water from a mossy pond; someone impure in both but who has occasional moments of clarity, like drinking carefully from a cow's hoofprint; someone impure in both with no redeeming momen
113. Page 90162–90163 Fitness to Discuss or Share Life with Spiritual Companions (5.163-5.164) In this pair of near-identical short suttas, Sāriputta states that a mendicant is fit to hold serious discussions with, or to share communal life with, fellow practitioners when they are personally accomplished in ethics, immersion, wisdom, freedom, and the knowledge and vision of freedom, and can answer questions about each when they arise. The same five accomplishments qualify someone for both roles, suggesting that genuine spiritual companionship and genuine intellectual dialogue both require
114. Page 90164 Five Motives Behind Any Question (5.165) Sāriputta identifies five reasons anyone might ask a question of another: out of sheer stupidity and confusion, out of corrupted desire or an agenda, in order to belittle or disparage, out of a genuine wish to understand, or with the constructive attitude that if the other person answers well that is good, and if not he will answer it correctly himself. Sāriputta then states that his own motive is this last, most generous one. This closes the section with a piece of self-reflective advice about
115. Page 90165 5.166 Cessation and the Qualities of a Beloved Elder Sāriputta teaches that a mendicant accomplished in ethics, immersion, and wisdom can attain the cessation of perception and feeling either in this life or, failing that, after being reborn among mind-made gods; when Udāyī repeatedly and wrongly denies this is possible, the Buddha publicly rebukes Udāyī's arrogance and affirms Sāriputta's teaching. The Buddha then chides Ānanda for not defending a harassed senior monk, prompting Ānanda to worry how the Buddha will react to the incident. Called on
116. Page 90166 5.167 How to Make and Receive an Accusation Sāriputta lays out five conditions a mendicant should establish before accusing a fellow monastic of wrongdoing: speaking at the right time, truthfully, gently, beneficially, and with goodwill rather than hidden hostility. He explains how an improperly accused person should be reassured that they need feel no remorse, while one who is properly and fairly accused should be encouraged to acknowledge their fault; conversely, one who accuses improperly should be corrected, and one who accuses proper
117. Page 90167 5.168 Ethics as the Root of the Path (Sāriputta) Sāriputta explains that the whole path to freedom is a causal chain: without ethical conduct, right immersion cannot arise; without immersion, true knowledge and vision fail; without that, disillusionment and dispassion don't develop; and without those, liberating knowledge and vision never comes. He illustrates this with the image of a tree lacking branches and foliage, whose bark, softwood, and heartwood can never mature - just as an unethical person undermines every stage of spiritual growth.
118. Page 90168 5.169 What Makes a Mendicant Quick-Witted Ānanda asks Sāriputta how to define a mendicant who is quick-witted in the teachings, learns readily, and never forgets what they've learned, but Sāriputta turns the question back to the well-learned Ānanda. Ānanda answers that such a mendicant is skilled in five respects: the meaning of a teaching, the teaching itself, its precise definitions, its correct phrasing, and its logical sequence. Sāriputta praises the answer and the assembly resolves to remember Ānanda specifically as someone who emb
119. Page 90169 5.170 The Best Sight, Sound, and Happiness (With Bhaddaji) Ānanda asks fellow monk Bhaddaji to name the best possible sight, sound, happiness, perception, and state of existence. Bhaddaji answers in conventional cosmological terms, citing visions of a supreme god, the blissful exclamations of luminous deities, the contentment of beautiful gods, and the exalted formless realms of nothingness and neither-perception-nor-non-perception. Ānanda then offers a deeper, specifically Buddhist redefinition: the truly best sight, sound, happiness, perception, and m
120. Page 90170 5.171 Five Qualities That Cause Timidity in a Lay Follower The Buddha teaches that a lay follower who kills, steals, commits sexual misconduct, lies, and drinks intoxicants is overcome by timidity and social insecurity because of their bad conduct. Conversely, a lay follower who keeps these five precepts - avoiding killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants - becomes self-assured. The short teaching frames basic lay ethics as the direct cause of psychological confidence versus anxiety in everyday life, not merely a matter of future reb
121. Page 90171 5.172 Ethics and Self-Assurance for the Householder This closely related teaching restates that a lay follower living at home who breaks the five precepts - killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking intoxicants - lacks self-assurance, while one who upholds all five precepts is self-assured. It reinforces the same basic point as the preceding discourse: moral conduct in ordinary lay life is what grounds a person's inner confidence, independent of external circumstances.
122. Page 90172 5.173 Lay Ethics as the Gateway to Heaven or Hell The Buddha states plainly that a lay follower who breaks the five precepts is, in effect, delivered straight to hell by the weight of their own actions, while one who keeps the five precepts is delivered to heaven. The teaching uses stark, almost mechanical language - "placed as if delivered there" - to emphasize that ethical conduct functions as a direct, near-automatic determinant of rebirth destination, reinforcing the five precepts as the non-negotiable baseline of lay Buddhist practice.
123. Page 90173 5.174 Fear, Enmity, and the Five Precepts (With Anāthapiṇḍika) Speaking to the householder Anāthapiṇḍika, the Buddha explains that so long as a person has not given up killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants, they live surrounded by fear and enmity - both immediate psychological anguish and dangers created in this life and future lives - and are destined for hell. Giving up these five "fears and enmities" instead quiets that anxiety and secures a good rebirth. The Buddha closes with verses summarizing the same point: whoever fails to re
124. Page 90174 5.175 The "Corpse-Worker" Versus the "Lotus" Among Lay Followers The Buddha describes two contrasting types of lay Buddhist. One, lacking faith and ethics, indulging in superstitious omen-based rites, and preferring to give religious donations to outsiders before the Buddhist community, is branded a "corpse-worker" - a stain and reject among lay followers, evoking the low-status, ritually polluting corpse-handling class. The other, faithful, ethical, free of superstition, and generous first toward the Buddhist community, is praised as a "gem" and a lotus amon
125. Page 90175 5.176 The Rapture of Seclusion Beyond Material Support Anāthapiṇḍika arrives with some five hundred lay followers, and the Buddha tells them that merely supplying the monastic Saṅgha with robes, food, lodging, and medicine is not enough - they should also train to periodically experience for themselves the rapture of meditative seclusion. Sāriputta praises this teaching and explains what it means concretely: when a noble disciple enters that rapture, five states are absent from their mind - the pleasure and pain tied to sensual pleasures, the pleasu
126. Page 90176 5.177 Five Trades Forbidden to Lay Buddhists The Buddha gives a short, direct ethical instruction that a lay follower should not engage in five types of trade: dealing in weapons, living beings, meat, intoxicants, and poisons. This brief list has become a foundational reference point for Buddhist lay economic ethics, marking out livelihoods considered incompatible with the precept against harming living beings.
127. Page 90177 5.178 Crime Is Punished by Deed, Not by Virtue (Kings) Through a repeated question-and-answer with the assembled mendicants, the Buddha establishes that no one has ever seen a king punish a person specifically for having given up killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, or drinking - kings only punish people for actually committing such misdeeds. He walks through each of the five precepts this way, including a case where intoxication leads to committing several of the other offenses at once. The teaching argues, by this simple empirical appeal t
128. Page 90178 5.179 Confidence of the Stream-Enterer (With Sāriputta) Addressing Sāriputta in front of Anāthapiṇḍika and five hundred lay followers, the Buddha explains that white-clothed laypeople who keep the five precepts and who can access, whenever they wish, four sources of inner confidence may rightly declare themselves stream-enterers destined for awakening, free from rebirth in the lower realms. The four sources are unwavering confidence in the Buddha, the teaching, the Saṅgha, and one's own unbroken ethical conduct. The Buddha closes with verses urging p
129. Page 90179 5.180 The Monk Gavesī and the Buddha's Smile While traveling in Kosala, the Buddha unexpectedly smiles on entering a grove, and when Ānanda asks why, the Buddha tells the story of Gavesī, a lay follower under the former Buddha Kassapa who led five hundred other lay followers but realized none of them, including himself, kept the precepts fully. Gavesī repeatedly resolves to raise his own standard of practice - first completing the precepts, then celibacy, then eating only once a day - and each time his five hundred followers spontaneously
130. Page 90180–90189 5.181-5.190 The Ascetic-Practice Peyyāla: Five Motives Behind Austere Habits This is a run of ten short, formulaic discourses (5.181 through 5.190) covering various austere ascetic practices - dwelling in the wilderness, wearing rag robes, living at the root of a tree, dwelling in charnel grounds, sleeping in the open air, never lying down, sleeping wherever a mat happens to be laid, eating only one meal a day, refusing food offered after the meal has begun, and eating solely from the almsbowl. Each discourse repeats the identical template: any of these five practices ma
131. Page 90190 5.191 Brahmin Ideals Better Kept by Hounds The Buddha delivers a pointed satire, telling the mendicants that five ancient brahmin traditions - marrying only within caste, having sex only with women in their fertile phase, refusing to buy or sell brides, refraining from hoarding wealth, and begging for food modestly at proper times - are no longer practiced by brahmins but are, ironically, still observed instinctively by dogs. Each parallel is drawn out point by point: dogs mate only with their own kind, only when in heat, without being b
132. Page 90191 5.192 The Five Kinds of Brahmin (With Doṇa) The brahmin Doṇa complains that the Buddha fails to show elder brahmins customary deference, and boasts of his own pure lineage and mastery of the Vedas; when the Buddha asks which of the five classic types of brahmin described by the ancient seers Doṇa belongs to, Doṇa admits he doesn't even know what they are. The Buddha then defines each type in turn: one equal to a Divinity who practices the four divine abodes of love, compassion, joy, and equanimity after a life of pure study and celibacy;
133. Page 90192 5.193 Why Memorized Verses Sometimes Won't Come to Mind (With Saṅgārava) The brahmin Saṅgārava asks the Buddha why well-rehearsed hymns sometimes fail to be recalled while unrehearsed ones sometimes spring easily to mind. The Buddha answers that it depends on the state of one's heart: when overwhelmed by any of the five hindrances - sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, or doubt - the mind cannot see clearly, illustrated by five similes of a bowl of water made turbid by dye, boiling heat, algae, wind-stirred ripples, or murky da
134. Page 90193 5.194 Piṅgiyānī's Five Similes for the Buddha's Teaching (With Kāraṇapālī) The brahmin Kāraṇapālī questions his colleague Piṅgiyānī, who is returning from visiting the Buddha, about the Buddha's wisdom and why he is so devoted to him. Piṅgiyānī answers with five vivid similes: hearing the Buddha teach is like tasting the finest food that spoils one for anything inferior, like a starving person finding a honey-cake, like smelling fragrant sandalwood from any angle, like being cured instantly of a grave illness, and like plunging into a cool lotus pond after suffering in
135. Page 90194 5.195 The Buddha's Radiance and the Five Rare Treasures Amid an assembly of five hundred colorfully dressed Licchavi nobles, the Buddha's own radiance outshines them all, prompting the brahmin Piṅgiyānī to spontaneously praise him in verse comparing him to a fragrant lotus blooming at dawn, bright as the sun. The Licchavis honor Piṅgiyānī by draping him in five hundred robes, which he in turn offers to the Buddha. The Buddha then teaches that five kinds of "treasure" are exceedingly rare in the world: a fully awakened Buddha, a teacher who proclaims
136. Page 90195 5.196 The Five Great Dreams Before Awakening The Buddha recounts five symbolic dreams that came to him on the night before his awakening: lying with the whole earth as his bed and the Himalayas as his pillow, with his limbs stretched into the surrounding seas; grass sprouting from his navel and reaching the sky; white caterpillars climbing from his feet to his knees; four different-colored birds becoming pure white at his feet; and walking unsoiled across a mountain of filth. He then explains how each dream was later fulfilled: his complet
137. Page 90196 5.197 The Hidden Causes That Stop Rain The Buddha reveals to the mendicants five causes of drought that ordinary weather-forecasters cannot perceive: an upsurge of the fire element or the wind element in the upper atmosphere that disperses clouds, the titan-lord Rāhu scooping up rainwater and discarding it into the ocean, negligence among the rain-cloud deities, and moral decline among human beings themselves. The teaching frames rainfall as governed by both natural-elemental and moral-cosmological factors beyond ordinary human scien
138. Page 90197 5.198 The Five Marks of Well-Spoken Speech In a brief but influential teaching, the Buddha defines speech that is truly "well spoken" as having five qualities: it is timely, true, gentle, beneficial, and spoken with a loving rather than hostile motive. Speech meeting all five criteria is blameless and cannot be fairly criticized by sensible people, making this one of the classic short formulas used throughout the tradition to guide ethical and skillful communication.
139. Page 90198 5.199 Five Ways a Family Earns Merit From Visiting Renunciates The Buddha explains that when ethical wandering ascetics visit a household, the family generates abundant merit through five successive responses: feeling confidence at the sight of them (a path to heaven), rising and offering a seat (a path to rebirth in an eminent family), overcoming stinginess (a path to becoming illustrious), sharing generously (a path to wealth), and asking questions and listening to the teaching (a path to wisdom). Each response is tied to a specific favorable karmic outco
140. Page 90199 5.200 The Five Elements of Escape The Buddha describes five specific mental "escapes" a mendicant can recognize by contrast: when the mind fails to settle on sensual pleasure but leaps forth confidently toward renunciation instead, becoming free of the distress that sensuality causes - and likewise for ill will versus good will, for harming versus compassion, for attachment to form versus the formless, and for fixation on substantial reality versus its cessation. A mendicant whose mind no longer lingers in any of these five unde
141. Page 90200 5.201 Why the True Teaching Endures or Declines (With Kimbila) Venerable Kimbila asks the Buddha why the true teaching sometimes fails to last long after a Buddha's final passing, and why at other times it endures. The Buddha answers simply that decline results when monks, nuns, and lay followers of both genders lose respect and reverence for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, the training, and one another, while the teaching endures precisely when that mutual respect and reverence is maintained. The short exchange locates the survival of Buddhism not i
142. Page 90201 5.202 Five Benefits of Listening to the Teaching The Buddha lists five concrete benefits gained from listening to the Dhamma: hearing new things not previously known, clarifying what has already been learned, resolving uncertainty and doubt, correcting mistaken views, and inspiring confidence and clarity of mind. This short teaching functions as an endorsement of regular Dhamma study and listening as a practical spiritual discipline in its own right.
143. Page 90202 5.203 The Thoroughbred Horse and the Worthy Mendicant The Buddha compares a fine royal thoroughbred horse - valued for integrity, speed, tenderness, patience, and gentleness - to a mendicant possessing these same five qualities, who becomes similarly "fit for a king" in a spiritual sense: worthy of offerings, hospitality, and veneration as an unsurpassed field of merit for the world. The parallel draws out how the refined temperament prized in a noble animal mirrors the character qualities that make a monastic genuinely worthy of support and respec
144. Page 90203 5.204 The Five Spiritual Powers The Buddha names the five spiritual powers foundational to the path: faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom. Though stated with almost no elaboration here, these five powers form one of the standard sets used throughout the early texts to summarize the inner faculties that must be balanced and strengthened for progress toward awakening.
145. Page 90204 5.205 Five Kinds of Hard-Heartedness The Buddha identifies five states of mind that leave a mendicant's heart "hardened" and unable to incline toward diligent practice: doubt about the Teacher, doubt about the teaching, doubt about the Saṅgha, doubt about the training, and anger or resentment toward one's fellow practitioners. Each of these forms of uncertainty or interpersonal hostility is shown to directly block the motivation and commitment needed for spiritual effort, framing unresolved doubt and grudge-holding as genuine obsta
146. Page 90205 5.206 The Five Shackles of the Heart The Buddha describes five attachments that "shackle" the heart and prevent wholehearted spiritual effort: unresolved craving for sensual pleasures, attachment to one's own body, attachment to physical form, indulgence in overeating and excessive sleep, and practicing the spiritual life merely hoping to be reborn as a particular kind of god rather than for liberation itself. Each of these subtly self-interested motivations is shown to undermine the keenness and persistence a mendicant needs, cont
147. Page 90206 5.207 Five Benefits of Rice Porridge In a brief, practical teaching on monastic diet, the Buddha lists five benefits of eating porridge: it wards off hunger, quenches thirst, settles the digestive wind, cleans the bladder, and aids digestion. This kind of mundane, health-oriented teaching reflects the concern with practical wellbeing that supports a mendicant's ability to practice.
148. Page 90207 5.208 The Benefits of Using Chew Sticks The Buddha lists five drawbacks of neglecting to clean one's teeth with a chew stick - harm to the eyes, bad breath, unclean taste-buds, food fouled by bile and phlegm, and loss of appetite - and the corresponding five benefits of doing so. As with the teaching on porridge, this reflects a strand of practical hygiene guidance woven into the monastic instructions.
149. Page 90208 5.209 The Drawbacks of Chanting Like Singing The Buddha criticizes reciting the teaching with a drawn-out, melodic, "singing" voice, listing five drawbacks: the reciter becomes attached to the sound of their own voice, listeners become attached to it too, householders mock the monastics for singing like laypeople, immersion breaks down when one gets absorbed in the melody, and later generations imitate the bad habit. The teaching guards against turning recitation into aesthetic performance at the expense of its spiritual purpose.
150. Page 90209 5.210 Mindful Versus Unmindful Sleep The Buddha contrasts falling asleep unmindfully and without awareness - which leads to poor sleep, waking up miserable, nightmares, loss of protection from benevolent deities, and involuntary emission - with falling asleep mindfully and aware, which brings restful sleep, a happy waking, freedom from bad dreams, divine protection, and no such emission. The teaching frames the manner of falling asleep itself as a meditative practice with real consequences for a mendicant's wellbeing.
151. Page 90210 5.211 Five Consequences of Abusing Fellow Monastics The Buddha warns that a mendicant who verbally abuses and denounces their spiritual companions can expect five serious consequences: expulsion or being cut off from the community, committing a further corrupt offense, contracting a severe illness, dying with a feeling of being lost, and being reborn in hell. The teaching treats interpersonal harshness within the monastic community as carrying grave karmic and even worldly weight, not as a minor breach of etiquette.
152. Page 90211 5.212 The Cost of Starting Fights in the Saṅgha The Buddha lists five drawbacks awaiting a mendicant who provokes fights, quarrels, disputes, debates, and disciplinary proceedings within the Saṅgha: failing to achieve any new attainment, losing ground already gained, acquiring a bad reputation, dying with a sense of loss, and being reborn in hell. This reinforces the value the early community placed on communal harmony, treating a divisive troublemaker's fate as parallel to that of an abuser.
153. Page 90212 5.213 The Five Costs of Poor Ethics, and Five Rewards of Good Ethics The Buddha contrasts the five drawbacks of unethical conduct - loss of wealth through negligence, a bad reputation, timidity and embarrassment in any social gathering, dying with a feeling of loss, and rebirth in hell - with the five corresponding benefits of ethical conduct: gaining wealth through diligence, a good reputation, boldness and self-assurance in any gathering, dying without regret, and rebirth in a heavenly realm. The parallel structure makes ethics not just a religious requirement
154. Page 90213 5.214 The Drawbacks of Talking Too Much The Buddha states that a person who talks excessively tends toward false, backbiting, harsh, and nonsensical speech, and as a result is reborn in hell, while a person who speaks thoughtfully avoids these speech faults and is reborn in a good realm. The teaching links habitual over-talking directly to careless, harmful speech and its karmic consequences, favoring measured, deliberate communication.
155. Page 90214 5.215 The First Teaching on Intolerance and Tolerance The Buddha describes five drawbacks of being intolerant of criticism or hardship - becoming disliked, accumulating enmity and personal faults, dying with a feeling of loss, and being reborn in hell - contrasted with five benefits of being tolerant: being well liked, having little enmity and few faults, dying without regret, and a good rebirth. The teaching commends patience and equanimity as qualities that shape both one's social relationships and ultimate destiny.
156. Page 90215 5.216 A Second Teaching on Intolerance and Tolerance This closely paired discourse repeats the same basic contrast between intolerance and tolerance, but replaces "enmity and faults" with cruelty and remorse as the key difference: the intolerant person becomes disliked and is cruel and remorseful, dying with a feeling of loss and heading for hell, while the tolerant person is liked, free of cruelty and remorse, and is reborn well. Read alongside the previous sutta, it reinforces the same ethical point from a slightly different angle, emphasizing t
157. Page 90216 5.217 The Consequences of Poor Personal Conduct (1st) The Buddha lists five drawbacks of what is termed "unimpressive conduct" - self-blame, criticism from sensible observers, a damaged reputation, dying with regret, and rebirth in hell - against five benefits of exemplary conduct: freedom from self-blame, praise from sensible observers, a good reputation, a peaceful death, and a favorable rebirth. The teaching frames the way a mendicant carries themselves day to day as having real consequences for both worldly standing and spiritual fate.
158. Page 90217 5.218 The Consequences of Poor Personal Conduct (2nd) A companion teaching to the previous one, this discourse reframes the drawbacks of unimpressive conduct in terms of its effect on others and on one's own mind: it fails to inspire confidence in those who lack it, causes some who do have confidence to lose it, means one doesn't follow the Teacher's instructions, sets a bad example for those who come after, and leaves the mind unclear. Exemplary conduct produces the opposite effects on all five counts, emphasizing a mendicant's responsibility as a
159. Page 90218 5.219 The Five Drawbacks of Fire In a brief, almost proverbial teaching, the Buddha lists five drawbacks of fire: it harms the eyes, damages the complexion, saps strength, draws crowds together, and encourages idle, low talk - presumably referring to people gathering around a fire to gossip. The homely comparison uses an everyday hazard as a springboard for a lesson about the subtle social and physical costs of something ordinarily taken for granted.
160. Page 90219 5.220 The Five Drawbacks of the City of Madhurā The Buddha names five drawbacks of the city of Madhurā: its ground is uneven and dusty, its dogs are fierce, its local spirits are vicious, and almsfood is difficult to obtain there. As a short, almost travelogue-style teaching, it likely served practical purposes for mendicants planning where to wander and beg for alms, cataloguing a specific place's unfavorable conditions for monastic life.
161. Page 90220–90221 Long Wandering (5.221–222) The Buddha lists five drawbacks that come from a mendicant liking to wander for long, aimless periods rather than settling for a reasonable time: one fails to learn or consolidate new teachings, loses confidence in what has been learned, falls prey to serious illness, and ends up friendless. A companion discourse repeats the same structure but frames the loss in terms of spiritual attainments — wandering too much means what has been achieved slips away and is never solidified. In both cases the
162. Page 90222 Overstaying (5.223) This short teaching addresses the opposite problem: staying too long in one monastery. The Buddha explains that overstaying leads a mendicant to accumulate excess belongings and medicine, take on too many administrative duties, mix inappropriately with laypeople and other renunciates in a worldly way, and become emotionally attached to the place so that leaving becomes painful. A reasonable length of stay avoids all of these pitfalls, keeping possessions light, duties minimal, social boundaries
163. Page 90223 Stingy (5.224) A brief companion teaching on overstaying, this discourse narrows in on one specific consequence: prolonged residence breeds stinginess. The five things a mendicant becomes miserly about are dwellings, families (as alms-supporters), material possessions, praise, and the Dhamma teaching itself. Staying for a reasonable length of time instead keeps the mind generous and unpossessive in all five respects. The sutta reinforces that attachment to a place quietly narrows generosity even in someone who
164. Page 90224–90225 Visiting Families (5.225–226) These two suttas warn about the dangers of a mendicant spending too much time visiting and mixing with lay families. The first lists concrete monastic offenses that can arise — wandering without leave, sitting alone in private or hidden places with a member of the opposite sex, or teaching at length to someone of the opposite sex — along with the general problem of sensual thoughts multiplying. The second sutta traces a causal chain: frequent contact leads to familiarity, familiarity to closenes
165. Page 90226 Riches (5.227) This sutta gives a balanced view of wealth rather than a simple condemnation. On the drawback side, riches are vulnerable to fire, flood, seizure by kings, theft, and being squandered by ungrateful heirs — nothing about wealth is truly secure. On the benefit side, riches allow a person to support their own happiness, care for parents, spouse, children, and household staff, look after friends, and fund religious donations to ascetics and brahmins that lead toward heaven. The teaching reflects the
166. Page 90227 Eating Late (5.228) The Buddha discusses the practical consequences for a household that eats its meals late in the day rather than at a proper time. Late meals mean guests go unserved, deities who receive spirit-offerings are neglected, ascetics and brahmins observing the one-meal-a-day discipline miss their chance to receive food, servants perform their duties carelessly, and the food itself, eaten out of its proper period, is said to be less nutritious. Keeping proper meal times reverses all of these problems. T
167. Page 90228–90229 Black Cobras (5.229–230) In these two paired similes, the Buddha compares women (framed here as a danger to celibate monks) to a venomous black cobra. The first sutta lists five shared qualities: filthy, foul-smelling, cowardly, frightening, and treacherous. The second sutta shifts to a different but overlapping set — irritable, acrimonious, venomous, forked-tongued, and treacherous — and explicitly glosses the metaphor: a woman's "venom" is said to be strong lust, her "forked tongue" is backbiting, and her "treachery"
168. Page 90230 A Resident Mendicant — Admirable or Not (5.231) This sutta sets out what makes a mendicant living in a monastery (a "resident") worthy of admiration or not. An unadmirable resident lacks competence in duties and etiquette, is poorly learned, is not self-effacing, speaks poorly, and is generally dull-witted. The admirable counterpart excels in all five respects: skilled in duties, deeply learned, modest, well-spoken, and wise. The teaching sets a baseline standard of competence and humility expected of monastics who live long-term in a communi
169. Page 90231 A Resident Mendicant Who Is Liked (5.232) Here the Buddha describes the qualities that make a resident mendicant genuinely dear, respected, and admired by fellow monastics. They must be ethical and careful even about minor faults, deeply learned and able to recite and penetrate the teachings, articulate and clear in speech, able to enter the four absorptions at will, and fully liberated through the ending of defilements. This composite portrait links moral discipline, scholarship, communication skill, meditative mastery, and awakening i
170. Page 90232 A Resident Mendicant Who Graces the Monastery (5.233) This sutta describes a resident mendicant whose mere presence elevates the reputation and atmosphere of the monastery. The qualities are largely the same as the previous sutta — ethical conduct, deep learning, and articulate speech — but here it adds the ability to educate, encourage, and inspire visitors through Dhamma talks, alongside mastery of the four absorptions. The emphasis shifts slightly from personal esteem to the monastic's outward-facing role in uplifting others who come to the mona
171. Page 90233 A Very Helpful Resident Mendicant (5.234) This teaching describes a resident mendicant who is practically indispensable to a monastery's upkeep. Beyond ethical conduct and deep learning, this person repairs whatever is decayed or damaged around the monastery and takes initiative to alert lay supporters when a large traveling Saṅgha is arriving, urging them to make merit through timely giving. Combined with meditative attainment, this profile highlights the value of practical, hands-on service and community coordination as forms of monas
172. Page 90234 A Sympathetic Mendicant (5.235) This sutta turns to how a resident mendicant should relate compassionately to lay supporters. Such a mendicant encourages laypeople toward higher ethical conduct, helps them understand the truth of the teachings, visits the sick to prompt mindfulness with encouraging words, alerts the community when a large Saṅgha is arriving so people can make merit, and eats whatever food is offered — coarse or fine — without wasting a gift given in faith. It is a portrait of a monastic whose relationship with
173. Page 90235–90237 Deserving Criticism, Hell and Heaven (5.236–238) This set of three closely related suttas describes a resident mendicant who, through careless or biased judgment, is destined for a hell-like outcome versus one destined for a heaven-like outcome, using the phrase "placed in hell/heaven as if delivered there." The negative pattern is praising the blameworthy and blaming the praiseworthy without proper examination, inspiring faith in what is dubious rather than what is genuinely inspiring, being stingy toward monasteries, families, and possession
174. Page 90238–90239 Stinginess and Hell/Heaven (5.239–240) These two brief, paired suttas narrow the previous theme down to stinginess alone as the deciding factor for a resident mendicant's fate. The first version lists stinginess toward monasteries, families, material things, and praise, combined with wasting gifts given in faith, as leading to a hell-like rebirth; the reverse behavior leads to heaven. The second version adds stinginess toward the teachings themselves to the list, making it the fullest five-fold catalogue of miserliness. Both suttas h
175. Page 90240–90243 Bad Conduct (1st) and Abbreviated Body/Speech/Mind (5.241–244) The Buddha lays out five drawbacks of bad conduct in general: self-blame, criticism from sensible observers, a bad reputation, a troubled mind at the time of death, and rebirth in a bad place after death; good conduct brings the opposite five benefits. The following three suttas apply the identical formula specifically to bad and good conduct of body, speech, and mind in turn, each given in heavily abbreviated form since the pattern has already been spelled out. This four-part sequence establish
176. Page 90244–90247 Bad Conduct (2nd) and Abbreviated Body/Speech/Mind (5.245–248) This is a second cycle of the same four-part pattern on bad and good conduct, but with a different set of consequences: instead of focusing on rebirth after death, it focuses on one's relationship to the truth itself — bad conduct causes a person to drift away from true teachings and settle into wrong views, while good conduct causes them to drift away from false teachings and settle into the truth. As before, the general teaching on conduct is followed by three abbreviated repetitions applying
177. Page 90248 A Charnel Ground (5.249) This vivid sutta compares a morally corrupt individual to a charnel ground, the place where corpses were traditionally left to decompose. Just as a charnel ground is filthy, foul-smelling, frightening, a gathering place for scavenging predators, and a place where people weep, a person of bad conduct is filthy through corrupt bodily, verbal, and mental behavior, gains a foul reputation because of it, is avoided from a distance by good-hearted companions, attracts and associates with others of sim
178. Page 90249 Faith in Individuals (5.250) The Buddha warns of the spiritual risk in placing one's faith too heavily in a specific individual person rather than in the teaching itself. If that person later falls into a serious offense and is formally suspended by the Saṅgha, is demoted within the community, moves away, disrobes, or dies, the devotee's faith collapses along with them, causing the devotee to stop associating with other mendicants, stop hearing the true teaching, and fall away from the path altogether. The sutta is a cautio
179. Page 90250–90252 Qualifications for Ordination, Dependence, and Attending a Novice (5.251–253) This trio of near-identical short suttas sets the qualification standard for three important monastic roles: giving full ordination to a new monastic, accepting a junior monastic into a dependence relationship (mentorship), and having a novice serve as one's personal attendant. In each case the standard is the same: the senior mendicant must possess the complete spectrum of an adept's (an arahant's) ethics, immersion, wisdom, freedom, and the knowledge and vision of freedom. The repeated formula
180. Page 90253–90254 Kinds of Stinginess and the Purpose of the Spiritual Life (5.254–255) These two short suttas name the five recognized kinds of stinginess: stinginess with dwellings, families (as alms sources), material things, praise, and the teachings themselves — with stinginess about the teaching singled out as the most contemptible of the five. The second sutta then makes a striking claim: the entire spiritual life is lived precisely in order to give up and root out these five forms of miserliness. Together they position generosity, especially generosity with knowledge and sp
181. Page 90255–90256 Stinginess as a Barrier to Absorption and Awakening (5.256–263) The Buddha states plainly that without giving up the five kinds of stinginess (toward dwellings, families, possessions, praise, and the teaching), a mendicant cannot enter the first absorption; abandoning them makes absorption accessible. The following abbreviated sutta extends this exact same claim across the second, third, and fourth absorptions and all four stages of awakening — stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and full perfection (arahantship) — compressing what would be seven near-ide
182. Page 90257–90258 A Variant List Blocking Absorption and Awakening (5.264–271) This pair of suttas repeats the identical structure and claim as the previous set — that certain unabandoned qualities block entry into the four absorptions and the four stages of awakening — but swaps out one item in the list: instead of stinginess toward the teaching, the fifth factor here is lack of gratitude and thankfulness. As before, the second sutta abbreviates and extends the same claim across all the higher absorptions and stages of awakening. The variation highlights that ingratitude
183. Page 90259 A Meal Assigner (5.272) This sutta addresses the practical governance of a monastic community, specifically who should or should not be appointed to the administrative role of assigning meals to mendicants. A person unfit for the role makes decisions swayed by favoritism, hostility, folly, or fear, and does not keep track of who has already been assigned a meal; a fit candidate is free of these biases and keeps accurate track. The sutta closes by extending the same standard to whether such a person, once appointed, sho
184. Page 90260 Lodgings Allotter and Other Monastic Appointments (5.273–285) This long peyyāla-style sutta reuses the meal-assigner formula from the previous discourse and mechanically applies it across an entire list of other monastery administrative posts: lodgings allotter, lodgings allocator, storeperson, robe receiver and distributor, porridge, fruit, cake, and minor-accessories distributors, bathing-cloth and bowl allocators, and supervisors of monastery staff and of novices. In every case the same criterion applies — freedom from favoritism, hostility, stupidity,
185. Page 90261 A Monk and the Five Precepts (5.286) This sutta shifts from monastic offenses to the basic five ethical precepts shared with lay Buddhists. A monk who kills living beings, steals, engages in sexual activity, lies, and consumes alcohol is said to be destined for hell; one who abstains from all five is destined for heaven. Framed for a monk specifically (where any sexual activity, not just misconduct, is a violation), this sutta sets the five precepts as a stark, binary marker of a monastic's basic moral standing.
186. Page 90262 The Five Precepts Across Other Groups (5.287–292) This abbreviated sutta extends the same five-precept formula from the previous discourse to nuns, trainee nuns, novice monks, novice nuns, laymen, and laywomen. For these groups the sexual precept is phrased as abstaining from sexual misconduct (rather than all sexual activity, reflecting that lay people and some trainees are not bound to full celibacy), while killing, stealing, lying, and drinking intoxicants remain the same. The teaching establishes that the same fundamental moral standard, ap
187. Page 90263 An Ājīvaka Ascetic (5.293) The same five-precept standard for hell-bound conduct is now applied to a member of a rival ascetic sect, the Ājīvakas. Someone who kills, steals, engages in sexual activity, lies, and drinks intoxicants is said to be headed for hell regardless of what religious group they belong to. The brief sutta makes the point that basic moral law is universal, applying even to practitioners outside the Buddhist fold, rather than being a sectarian rule.
188. Page 90264 Jain and Other Ascetics (5.294–302) This heavily abbreviated peyyāla sutta extends the same hell-bound five-precept formula across a long list of other non-Buddhist religious practitioners of the era: Jain ascetics, disciples of the "shavelings," matted-hair ascetics, wanderers, followers of Māgaṇḍiya, trident-bearing ascetics, followers of "the unobstructed," followers of Gotama (a different teacher of that name), and ritual performers for the gods. In every case, killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking intoxica
189. Page 90265–90269 Five Things for Insight into Greed (5.303–307) This set of five short, parallel suttas each offers a different five-item meditative toolkit for gaining insight into and overcoming greed. The lists include: perceptions of ugliness, death, drawbacks, the repulsiveness of food, and dissatisfaction with the whole world; perceptions of impermanence, not-self, death, food's repulsiveness, and world-dissatisfaction; a sequence moving from perceiving impermanence to suffering to not-self to giving up to fading away; the five spiritual faculties of f
190. Page 90270 Closing Peyyāla Series and End of the Book of the Fives (5.308–1152) This enormous closing passage compresses hundreds of would-be suttas (numbered 5.308 through 1152) into a single formulaic template. It takes the same five spiritual faculties or powers (faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom) already introduced and systematically pairs them with an extensive list of purposes — complete understanding, finishing, giving up, ending, the vanishing, fading away, cessation, and giving away — applied in turn to a long roster of negative mental states: greed
191. Page 90271 Worthy of Offerings (1st) — Opening of the Sixes (6.1) This sutta marks the beginning of a new collection, the Book of the Sixes (Chakka-nipāta), set at Jeta's Grove near Sāvatthī. The Buddha describes a mendicant worthy of the highest religious offerings and veneration as one who meets sense experience through all six sense doors — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and mental phenomena — with complete equanimity, neither elated nor upset, remaining mindful and aware throughout. This calm, balanced relationship to all six senses is presented
192. Page 90272 Worthy of Offerings (2nd) — The Six Direct Knowledges (6.2) This sutta offers a much richer profile of someone worthy of offerings, built around the six kinds of direct knowledge (abhiññā) attained through deep meditation. These are: psychic powers such as multiplying oneself, passing through solid matter, walking on water, and touching the sun and moon; clairaudience that hears both human and heavenly sounds; the ability to read others' minds and mental states; the recollection of one's own countless past lives in vivid detail; clairvoyance that sees be
193. Page 90273–90274 Faculties and Powers (6.3–6.4) These two short, near-identical suttas offer a simpler, more accessible profile of a mendicant worthy of offerings, in contrast to the elaborate psychic-power description in the preceding sutta. The first names the five spiritual faculties — faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom — combined with the full realization of liberation through the ending of defilements, as sufficient qualification. The second repeats the exact same structure but calls the same five qualities "powers" rather
194. Page 90275–90277 The Thoroughbred (6.5–6.7) Three short, near-identical suttas compare a mendicant to a prize royal warhorse worthy of a king. Just as a fine thoroughbred can endure sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches while also being (in turn) beautiful, strong, or fast, a mendicant who can endure all six sense-objects — including mental phenomena — becomes worthy of offerings and the supreme field of merit for the world. The simile teaches that spiritual worth, like a horse's fitness for royal service, rests on resilience under s
195. Page 90278 Unsurpassable (bare list) A brief listing sutta naming six things as unsurpassable: seeing, hearing, acquisition, training, service, and recollection. The list is given without elaboration, functioning as a summary formula for the fuller exposition found later at 6.30.
196. Page 90279 Topics for Recollection (bare list) Lists the six standard topics for recollection — the Buddha, the teaching, the Sangha, ethics, generosity, and the deities — as a bare list, serving as an index verse for the fuller expositions of the same six topics found in nearby suttas.
197. Page 90280 With Mahānāma Mahānāma the Sakyan asks the Buddha what meditation a noble disciple who has already reached a fruit of the path practices. The Buddha answers with the six recollections in full: of the Buddha's qualities, the well-explained teaching, the accomplished Sangha, one's own pure ethics, one's own generosity, and the virtues shared with the deities. Each recollection is said to clear the mind of greed, hate and delusion, producing inspiration, joy, rapture, tranquility, bliss and finally samādhi — a c
198. Page 90281 Warm-hearted (1st) Describes six qualities that make a mendicant genuinely warm-hearted toward their spiritual companions: treating them kindly in body, speech and mind both in public and private, sharing material possessions without reservation, living by shared ethical precepts, and holding the shared noble view that leads to the complete ending of suffering.
199. Page 90282 Warm-hearted (2nd) Restates the same six warm-hearted qualities from the previous sutta, but frames their practical value explicitly: these qualities generate fondness, respect, and cohesion within the community, keeping it harmonious and free of dispute.
200. Page 90283 Elements of Escape Presents six meditative attainments as definitive escapes from their corresponding affliction, rejecting the idea that a properly developed practice could still coexist with its opposite vice. Love (metta) is declared incompatible with ill will, compassion with cruelty, rejoicing with discontent, equanimity with desire, the signless liberation with attachment to signs, and the uprooting of the conceit "I am" with lingering doubt. Anyone who claims otherwise is told they are misrepresenting the B
201. Page 90284 A Good Death Sāriputta teaches that a mendicant who relishes work, talk, sleep, company, closeness, and proliferation of thought dies without truly having let go, whereas one who does not relish these things dies well, having renounced attachment to "substantial reality" in order to end suffering. The closing verses contrast the "beast" who delights in proliferation and thereby fails to reach extinguishment with the one who abandons it and wins the supreme sanctuary from the yoke.
202. Page 90285 Regret A close companion to the previous sutta, again spoken by Sāriputta, using the image of "making one's bed" to lie in: those who relish work, talk, sleep, company, closeness and proliferation die tormented by regret, while those who reject these things die free of regret, having given up attachment to worldly reality in order to end suffering.
203. Page 90286 Nakula's Father When the householder Nakula's father falls gravely ill, his wife Nakula's mother counsels him not to die anxious, methodically addressing each likely worry — that she can support the family alone, that she will remain faithful, that she will keep seeing the Buddha and Sangha, and that she is herself an accomplished lay follower with confidence, ethics and independent understanding of the teaching. Her reassurance calms him so completely that his illness subsides on the spot, and when he later vi
204. Page 90287 Sleep After the senior disciples retire for the night following meditation with the Buddha, junior mendicants sleep in late, snoring until sunrise. The Buddha rebukes them by asking whether any king, official, or ascetic has ever thrived while indulging heavily in sleep, noting that even highly realized ascetics unheard of neglecting sense-restraint and wakefulness, and instructs the mendicants to guard their senses, eat moderately, and stay dedicated to wakeful practice through the night and toward d
205. Page 90288 A Fish Dealer Seeing a fisherman selling fish he had killed himself, the Buddha asks whether anyone has ever grown wealthy or prosperous through such violent livelihoods — fishing, or butchering cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, or hunting deer — and the mendicants agree none have. He explains this is because such workers regard their victims with murderous intent when led to slaughter, and warns that harboring such intent toward human beings is far worse, leading after death to rebirth in hell.
206. Page 90289 Mindfulness of Death (1st) The Buddha asks the mendicants how they practice mindfulness of death, and several answer with progressively shorter time-spans they hope to survive — a day and night, a day, the time to eat a meal, a few mouthfuls, a single mouthful, or a single breath. He judges those content with the longer spans as living negligently, and only those who reflect within the span of a single mouthful or breath as living diligently, since only they use every possible moment to develop the teaching before death.
207. Page 90290 Mindfulness of Death (2nd) The Buddha gives a fuller method for cultivating mindfulness of death: as day turns to night and night turns to day, a mendicant should reflect on the many sudden causes of death — snakebite, injury, illness — and ask whether any unskillful qualities remain that would obstruct their progress if death came immediately. If so, they must apply urgent effort to abandon them, as if extinguishing a fire on their own head; if not, they should meditate joyfully, continuously training in skillful qualiti
208. Page 90291 At Sāma Village A radiant deity visits the Buddha at night and announces that three qualities cause a mendicant's decline: relishing work, talk, and sleep. The next morning the Buddha relays this to the mendicants and adds three further causes the deity did not mention — enjoying company, being hard to admonish, and having bad friends — combining them into a fuller teaching on the roots of spiritual decline.
209. Page 90292 Non-decline A companion teaching to the previous sutta, listing the six qualities that prevent a mendicant's decline: not relishing work, talk, sleep, or company, being easy to admonish, and keeping good spiritual friends.
210. Page 90293 Dangers The Buddha explains that terms like "danger," "suffering," "disease," "boil," "chain," and "bog" are all figurative names for sensual pleasures, because someone gripped by lustful craving remains unfree from danger and suffering both in this life and in lives to come. The accompanying verses describe how those who recognize the peril in grasping become free from birth and death, reaching a safe, quenched state beyond fear and enmity.
211. Page 90294 The Himalaya The Buddha states that a mendicant skilled in six aspects of meditative immersion — entering it, remaining in it, emerging from it, feeling positive toward it, knowing its scope, and directing a purified mind through it — could metaphorically shatter the Himalayas, let alone overcome mere ignorance, emphasizing the transformative power that comes from true mastery of concentration.
212. Page 90295 Topics for Recollection (full exposition) A fuller version of the six recollections — of the Buddha, teaching, Sangha, ethics, generosity, and deities — than the bare list given earlier, explaining for each how contemplating it clears the mind of greed, hate and delusion and leaves the disciple "unswerving," having left greed behind. It concludes that it is by relying on this practice that certain beings become purified.
213. Page 90296 With Mahākaccāna Mahākaccāna praises the Buddha for finding, amid the world's confinement, an "opening" in the form of the six recollections, then expounds them in full — recollection of the Buddha, teaching, Sangha, ethics, generosity, and deities. He adds that each recollection lets the disciple meditate with a heart as vast and boundless as space, free of enmity and ill will, underscoring how devotional reflection opens onto expansive liberation.
214. Page 90297 Proper Occasions (1st) A mendicant asks when it is appropriate to seek out an esteemed senior mendicant for guidance. The Buddha lists six occasions: whenever the mind is overwhelmed by sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, or doubt, and when one does not know what meditation subject would end the defilements without delay — in each case, going to a senior mendicant for instruction is the correct response.
215. Page 90298 Proper Occasions (2nd) Senior mendicants at Isipatana debate the proper time of day to visit an esteemed mendicant — after almsround, in the afternoon, or at dawn — each suggestion rejected because of fatigue, ongoing meditation, or other reasons. Mahākaccāna resolves the disagreement by reciting what he actually heard from the Buddha: that the true "occasion" is not a time of day at all but any moment one's mind is overcome by a hindrance or lacks direction, restating the six-fold teaching on when to seek guidance.
216. Page 90299 With Udāyī The Buddha repeatedly asks Udāyī how many topics for recollection there are, but Udāyī stays silent until Ānanda prompts him, and even then he answers with only recollection of past lives. Dissatisfied, the Buddha turns to Ānanda, who correctly lists five topics — the absorptions, the perception of light, contemplation of the body's repulsive parts, contemplation of a decaying corpse, and the fourth absorption — each yielding a distinct benefit. The Buddha praises Ānanda and adds a sixth: mainta
217. Page 90300 Unsurpassable (full exposition) A full exposition of the six "unsurpassable" things named earlier in the chapter. For each — seeing, hearing, gaining, training, serving, and recollecting — the Buddha contrasts an ordinary, pointless version (watching spectacles, hearing music, gaining wealth, training in worldly skills, serving nobles, recollecting family) with the unsurpassable version: seeing, hearing, gaining faith in, training under, serving, and recollecting the Buddha or his disciples, which alone leads to disillusionmen
218. Page 90301 A Trainee States that a mendicant still in training declines through relishing work, talk, sleep and company, failing to guard the senses, and overeating, while avoiding these six things prevents decline — a compact ethical checklist aimed at those who have not yet reached full awakening.
219. Page 90302 Non-decline (1st) A glorious deity visits the Buddha by night to declare that respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Sangha, the training, diligence, and hospitality prevents a mendicant's decline; the Buddha confirms this to the assembly the next morning in a closing verse.
220. Page 90303 Non-decline (2nd) A parallel deity visitation reports nearly the same six safeguards against decline, but names conscience and prudence — rather than diligence and hospitality — as the final two qualities, again versified by the Buddha for the assembly.
221. Page 90304 With Mahāmoggallāna Wondering which gods know they are stream-enterers, Moggallāna travels psychically to question the recently deceased and now divine Tissa. Across several classes of heavenly beings, Tissa explains that only those gods who have experiential confidence in the Buddha, teaching and Sangha, and who possess the ethics loved by the noble ones, actually recognize their own stream-entry — the rest, despite their exalted status, remain unaware of it.
222. Page 90305 Things That Play a Part in Realization Lists six perceptions said to contribute to spiritual realization: impermanence, suffering within impermanence, not-self within suffering, giving up, fading away, and cessation — a condensed meditative sequence moving from insight into transience toward final liberation.
223. Page 90306 Roots of Dispute The Buddha identifies six root causes of conflict within the monastic community: irritability and resentment, contempt for others, jealousy and stinginess, deceitfulness, corrupt ambition combined with wrong view, and stubborn attachment to one's own opinions. Anyone harboring these roots lacks proper respect for the Buddha, teaching and Sangha and generates disputes harmful to everyone; mendicants are urged to recognize and eliminate them in themselves and others before they take hold.
224. Page 90307 A Gift With Six Factors The laywoman Veḷukaṇṭakī, Nanda's mother, prepares a religious donation that the Buddha praises as having six factors — three belonging to the giver (joy before, during, and after giving) and three to the recipients (their freedom, or progress toward freedom, from greed, hatred and delusion). The Buddha compares the resulting merit to the vastness of the ocean, impossible to measure precisely, and praises hands-on generosity offered with a mind of letting go.
225. Page 90308 One's Own Volition A brahmin claims that people act neither by their own will nor by another's will, a fatalistic doctrine. The Buddha refutes this by pointing to the observable existence of initiative, exertion, and effort in human behavior, showing the view is incoherent for anyone who evidently comes and goes by their own choice — after which the brahmin becomes a lifelong lay follower.
226. Page 90309 Sources The Buddha teaches that deeds arise from three unwholesome sources — greed, hatred, and delusion — each of which only reproduces itself and leads to bad rebirths, and three wholesome sources — contentment, love, and understanding — which likewise only reproduce their own kind and lead to good rebirths, illustrating a basic law of moral causation.
227. Page 90310 With Kimbila Venerable Kimbila asks why the true teaching sometimes fails to endure and sometimes lasts long after the Buddha's passing. The Buddha answers that its survival depends entirely on whether the fourfold community — monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen — maintains respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Sangha, the training, diligence, and hospitality.
228. Page 90311 A Tree Trunk Sāriputta points to a large tree trunk and explains that a mendicant with mastery of psychic power could, depending on which element they attend to, perceive it as nothing but earth, water, fire, air, beauty, or ugliness, since each of these elements is genuinely present within it — illustrating the flexible, element-based nature of advanced meditative attainment.
229. Page 90312 With Nāgita When crowds of villagers noisily bring offerings hoping to see the Buddha, he tells his attendant Nāgita that he wants no part of fame, since popularity is a "filthy, lazy pleasure" that obstructs the deeper pleasures of renunciation, seclusion, peace and awakening. He then explains why he favors mendicants living in the wilderness over those in villages: away from social comforts, forest-dwellers are pushed to overcome drowsiness, to deepen or safeguard their meditative attainment, and to avoid
230. Page 90313 The Giant Watching King Pasenadi's celebrated bull elephant pass by to public admiration for its huge body, the Buddha tells Ānanda and Udāyī that he reserves the title "giant" not for creatures of great physical size but for one who does nothing monstrous in body, speech, or mind. Udāyī then recites an extended verse portrait comparing the Buddha to a magnificent elephant built entirely of virtues — gentleness and harmlessness as its feet, faith as its trunk, wisdom as its head — untouched by the world j
231. Page 90314 With Migasālā The laywoman Migasālā is confused that her chaste father Purāṇa and her unchaste uncle Isidatta were both declared by the Buddha to have been reborn in the same heavenly realm despite their very different conduct. When Ānanda reports this puzzle, the Buddha explains that outward similarity conceals real differences in inner attainment, and that only a Realized One can truly judge individuals — ordinary people who pass judgment based on surface resemblance only harm themselves, since hidden facto
232. Page 90315 Debt Using an extended simile, the Buddha compares the moral situation of someone lacking faith, conscience, prudence, energy and wisdom to a poor person's descent into debt: doing bad deeds is falling into debt, concealing them is paying interest, being called out by good friends is a warning, remorseful thoughts in solitude are prosecution, and a bad rebirth is imprisonment. The parallel wholesome path — grounded in faith and ethical restraint, culminating in liberation — is framed as the ultimate
233. Page 90316 By Mahācunda Mahācunda addresses a rift between mendicants devoted to doctrinal analysis and those devoted to absorption meditation, describing how each side tends to belittle the other's approach as fake or pointless, leaving both groups uninspired and benefiting no one. He urges the two camps to praise and value each other instead, since both direct meditative experience of the deathless and penetrating wisdom into deep teachings are equally rare and valuable achievements.
234. Page 90317 Apparent in the Present Life (1st) The wanderer Sīvaka asks what it means for the teaching to be "apparent in the present life." The Buddha leads him through a simple self-check — whether he can directly recognize the presence or absence of greed, hatred and delusion in himself right now — showing that the teaching's immediacy lies in this kind of first-person, verifiable self-observation, after which Sīvaka becomes a lifelong lay follower.
235. Page 90318 Apparent in the Present Life (2nd) A brahmin poses the same question about the teaching being "apparent in the present life," and the Buddha again demonstrates it through direct self-examination, this time framed around recognizing corrupt or uncorrupt intentions of body, speech and mind, with the same result of the brahmin taking lifelong refuge.
236. Page 90319 With Khema Two mendicants, Khema and Sumana, separately visit the Buddha and each declare — using deliberately paradoxical phrasing — that a fully awakened mendicant does not conceive of themselves as better, equal, or worse than others. The Buddha later explains to the assembly that this is the correct, ego-free way for genuinely enlightened people to speak of their attainment, warning that those who boast of enlightenment while still comparing themselves to others are only fooling themselves and will com
237. Page 90320 Sense Restraint Using the image of a tree that cannot grow full bark and heartwood without first having branches and foliage, the Buddha lays out a causal chain: sense restraint supports ethical conduct, which supports right immersion, which supports true knowledge and vision, which supports disillusionment and dispassion, which supports final liberation. Each link is described as a "vital condition" that either collapses or fulfills the next, showing why undermining any one stage of practice undermines everyth
238. Page 90321 With Ānanda Ānanda explains to Sāriputta how a mendicant successfully learns new teachings, retains what they have heard, keeps familiar teachings fresh, and comes to understand what was previously unclear: by memorizing and reciting the various genres of teaching, reflecting on them internally, and regularly consulting learned senior mendicants to clarify what is hidden or doubtful. Sāriputta praises Ānanda's answer as itself demonstrating exactly these qualities.
239. Page 90322 Aristocrats The brahmin Jānussoṇi asks the Buddha to characterize the defining ambition, preoccupation, fixation, and ultimate goal of six types of people — aristocrats, brahmins, householders, women, bandits, and ascetics. The Buddha gives a distinct formula for each, for example that aristocrats seek wealth and ultimately authority while ascetics seek patience and ultimately extinguishment — a social typology that culminates in praising the ascetic's goal as the highest of all.
240. Page 90323 Diligence Asked whether there is one single quality that secures benefit in this life and in lives to come, the Buddha answers diligence, illustrating its supremacy with a string of similes — an elephant's footprint contains all others, a bungalow's rafters converge at the peak, reeds are gathered by their tips, mangoes on a stalk all follow when it is cut, lesser rulers serve a wheel-turning monarch, and the moon's light outshines all the stars — each showing how diligence encompasses and elevates every
241. Page 90324 About Dhammika The quarrelsome monk Dhammika is expelled from all seven monasteries in his homeland for abusing visiting mendicants, and arrives before the Buddha unsure where else to go. The Buddha tells him two extended parables — a land-spotting bird released from a ship that returns only when it finds no land elsewhere, and a great banyan tree whose guardian deity, angered by one greedy person, withholds its fruit from everyone until Sakka teaches the deity to "stand by a tree's duty" and bear with those w
242. Page 90325 With Soṇa The energetic monk Soṇa despairs that despite his effort his mind remains unfree, and privately considers returning to lay life to enjoy his family's wealth. The Buddha visits him and uses the simile of a lute string — unplayable when tuned too tight or too slack, but resonant at even tension — to teach the middle way between forcing energy and lapsing into laziness. Balancing his effort accordingly, Soṇa soon attains full awakening, and later describes to the Buddha the six qualities of a mind
243. Page 90326 With Phagguna The gravely ill Venerable Phagguna endures agonizing pain, and shortly after the Buddha visits and teaches him, he dies with unusually clear and untroubled faculties. The Buddha explains to Ānanda that hearing the teaching at exactly the right moment freed Phagguna's mind from the five lower fetters, then lists six such benefits of hearing or examining the teaching at a critical time — whether one meets the Buddha himself, one of his disciples, or simply recalls the teaching internally, achievin
244. Page 90327 The Six Classes of Rebirth Ānanda reports the rival teacher Pūraṇa Kassapa's scheme classifying people into six castes of rebirth by their sect or occupation, ranging from "black" (butchers and hunters) up to "ultimate white" (particular ascetic teachers). The Buddha dismisses this scheme as presumptuous, since Pūraṇa Kassapa spoke for people who never consented to being classified, and offers his own six classes instead, based on the moral quality of one's birth circumstances crossed with later conduct — showing that a d
245. Page 90328 Defilements The Buddha teaches six methods by which a mendicant eliminates defilements and becomes worthy of offerings: restraining the six sense faculties before feverish reactions can arise, using the four requisites (robes, food, lodging, medicine) only for their proper reflective purpose rather than for pleasure, patiently enduring hardships like heat, hunger, and harsh criticism, avoiding genuinely dangerous situations and bad company, actively dispelling unwholesome thoughts as soon as they arise, and
246. Page 90329 With Dārukammika The householder Dārukammika tells the Buddha his family gives gifts only to fully awakened or nearly-awakened forest-dwelling mendicants who live on alms and wear rag robes. The Buddha gently corrects him, explaining that as a layman enjoying comforts and unable to read others' inner attainment, he cannot reliably judge who is truly accomplished merely from outward austerities like wilderness-dwelling or rag robes. What actually matters is whether a mendicant, whatever their external practice, h
247. Page 90330 AN 6.60 With Citta Hatthisāriputta Senior mendicants discussing the teachings are interrupted by the astute Citta Hatthisāriputta, prompting Mahākoṭṭhita to warn that even someone who has attained the four absorptions or the signless immersion can still fall away from the training if they grow too intimate with lay society. Five similes drive the point home: an ox that breaks its pen to raid crops again, dust that returns to a rain-washed crossroad, debris that refills a drained pond, appetite that returns after a satisfying meal
248. Page 90331 AN 6.61 In the Middle A group of senior mendicants debate the meaning of a verse from "The Questions of Metteyya" that speaks of two "ends," a "middle," and a "seamstress" who weaves beings back into existence. Several mendicants offer differing but structurally identical answers—contact and its origin and cessation; past and future and the present; pleasant and painful and neutral feeling; name and form and consciousness; the interior and exterior sense fields and consciousness; and reality with its origin and cessa
249. Page 90332 AN 6.62 Knowledge of the Faculties of Persons Ananda reports that a mendicant questioned whether the Buddha's declaration that Devadatta was doomed to hell for an eon was made with full deliberation or was just a manner of speaking; the Buddha firmly insists it was entirely deliberate, comparing Devadatta to a person sunk in a sewer of feces with not even a hair-tip of cleanness left uncovered. He then teaches Ananda how, by repeatedly encompassing a person's mind over time, he can tell whether their skillful or unskillful "root" remains in
250. Page 90333 AN 6.63 The Penetrative Exposition The Buddha delivers a systematic "penetrative exposition," analyzing six categories of experience—sensual pleasures, feelings, perceptions, defilements, deeds (kamma), and suffering—by examining each one's source, diversity, result, cessation, and the path leading to its cessation. Contact is repeatedly shown as the common source of sensual pleasure, feeling, and perception; ignorance as the root of defilements; and craving as the origin of suffering itself, with the noble eightfold path given a
251. Page 90334 AN 6.64 The Lion's Roar The Buddha describes six unique powers that entitle a Realized One to "roar his lion's roar" with confidence in any assembly: true knowledge of what is possible and impossible, of how past, future, and present deeds bear fruit through cause, of corruption and purification in meditative attainments, of his own countless past lives in vivid detail, of how beings pass on to good or bad rebirths according to their deeds (via clairvoyance), and of the undefiled liberation of heart and wisdom won thro
252. Page 90335–90338 AN 6.65–6.68 Prerequisites for Non-Return, Perfection, Friendship, and Solitude A cluster of four short, formulaic suttas each name six things whose abandonment enables a specific attainment: giving up lack of faith, conscience, prudence, laziness, unmindfulness, and witlessness makes the fruit of non-return realizable, while giving up dullness, drowsiness, restlessness, remorse, lack of faith, and negligence makes full perfection (arahantship) realizable. A third sutta sets out a causal chain showing that good friends and companions are the necessary first link enabling a
253. Page 90339 AN 6.69 A God A radiant deity visits the Buddha at night and declares that six qualities protect a mendicant from decline: respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Sangha, and the training; being easy to correct; and good friendship. The following morning the Buddha repeats the deity's words to the assembled mendicants, and Sariputta is asked to unpack their detailed meaning. Sariputta explains that true respect and good friendship mean not only personally embodying each quality but also actively encouragin
254. Page 90340–90344 AN 6.70–6.74 Immersion as the Basis for Powers and Absorption This cluster of five short suttas teaches that stable, purified immersion is the indispensable foundation for all higher attainments. Without it, a mendicant cannot wield psychic powers such as multiplying the body, passing through walls, walking on water, flying, or touching the sun and moon, nor gain clairaudience, mind-reading, recollection of past lives, clairvoyant knowledge of beings' rebirths, or the ending of defilements—while with immersion all of these become possible. Two further sutt
255. Page 90345–90354 AN 6.75–6.84 The "Perfection" Chapter: Qualities That Enable or Block Progress A long run of ten brief, tightly formulaic suttas from the "Perfection" chapter, each pairing six unwholesome qualities against their six wholesome opposites to show what enables or blocks spiritual success. Topics covered include how sensual, malicious, and cruel thought and perception bring a life of distress and a bad rebirth while their wholesome counterparts bring ease and a good rebirth; how abandoning conceit and its variants, or lack of mindfulness and sense-restraint, opens the way to p
256. Page 90355–90365 AN 6.85–6.95 The "Coolness" Chapter: The Profile of One Accomplished in View An extended run of short, formulaic suttas from the "Coolness" chapter, unified around the figure of the person "accomplished in view" (the stream-enterer). They teach that realizing supreme coolness (nibbana) requires skillfully managing the mind—restraining, exerting, encouraging, and watching it with equanimity as each moment demands—and valuing extinguishment above worldly existence. Several suttas explain that being obstructed by past deeds or defilements, having committed one of the five h
257. Page 90366–90376 AN 6.96–6.106 The "Benefit" Chapter: Rarity of the Dhamma and Fruits of Insight This run opens by naming six things rare in the world—the appearance of a Buddha, a teacher of his teaching, rebirth in a civilized land, unimpaired faculties, intelligence, and enthusiasm for the skillful—then lists six benefits that come with realizing stream-entry, including certainty in the true teaching, freedom from decline, and limited future suffering. A formulaic series follows showing that only by regarding all conditions as impermanent, suffering, and not-self, rather than clinging to
258. Page 90377–90384 AN 6.107–6.114 The "Triads" Chapter: Antidotes to Unwholesome Roots The chunk closes with a tightly formulaic series of eight very short suttas from the "Triads" chapter, each following the identical template of naming three unwholesome things and then the three things that should be developed to abandon them. These include greed, hatred, and delusion countered by perceiving ugliness, developing love, and cultivating wisdom; bad bodily, verbal, and mental conduct countered by their good counterparts; sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts, perceptions, and "elem
259. Page 90385–90386 Two Triads: Being Hard to Admonish and Restlessness (AN 6.115–6.116) These two short paired discourses each name three unwholesome states and the three wholesome qualities that overcome them. The first pairs being hard to admonish, bad friendship, and a scattered mind with their remedies: being easy to admonish, good friendship, and mindfulness of breathing. The second pairs restlessness, lack of restraint, and negligence with serenity, restraint, and diligence. Both suttas use the same terse formula, showing how specific inner faults are directly countered by cu
260. Page 90387–90388 Six Obstacles to Meditating on the Body and the Other Establishments of Mindfulness (AN 6.117–6.118) These two suttas explain that six habits block a mendicant from meditating on the body, and that giving them up makes such meditation possible. The obstructing habits are relishing work, talk, sleep, and company, failing to guard the sense doors, and eating too much. The second sutta extends the same formula across all four establishments of mindfulness — body, feelings, mind, and principles — each considered internally, externally, and both together. Together they teach that basic restraint in
261. Page 90389–90390 Tapussa and Other Lay Disciples Certain of Freedom from Death (AN 6.119–6.139) This is a peyyāla series describing the householder Tapussa and, in an abbreviated repeat, some twenty other named lay disciples such as Bhallika, Anāthapiṇḍika, Citta of Macchikāsaṇḍa, Mahānāma the Sakyan, and Jīvaka Komārabhacca. Each is said to possess the same six qualities — experiential confidence in the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha, together with noble ethics, knowledge, and freedom — which make them certain about the Realized One and assured of having realized freedom from death.
262. Page 90391–90393 Three Discourses on Developing Insight into Greed (AN 6.140–6.142) These three short, untitled discourses each list a different set of six things to be developed for insight into greed. The first names the "unsurpassable" experiences of seeing, listening, acquisition, training, service, and recollection. The second lists recollection of the Buddha, the teaching, the Saṅgha, ethics, generosity, and the deities — the standard six recollections. The third gives six perceptions: impermanence, suffering in impermanence, not-self in suffering, giving up, fading away,
263. Page 90394–90395 Abbreviated Series on Overcoming Greed, Hate, and Related Defilements, Concluding the Book of the Sixes (AN 6.143–6.649) This massive peyyāla (abbreviated repetition) series closes the Book of the Sixes by cycling the same six-quality formula through many synonyms for craving and its accompanying modes of understanding — complete understanding, complete ending, giving up, ending, vanishing, fading away, cessation, giving away, and letting go. It then repeats the whole cycle for a long list of other defilements: hate, delusion, anger, acrimony, disdain, contempt, jealousy, stinginess, deceitfulness, deviousness, ob