Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Skillful ethics leads progressively to the highest through ten links: no regret, joy, rapture, tranquility, bliss, immersion, true knowledge and vision, disillusionment and dispassion, and the knowledge and vision of freedom, each the goal and benefit of the one before it.
A new nipāta, and this chapter's own namesake
As with every new nipāta before it, the Book of the Tens opens with a discourse lending its own subject — atthiya, goal or benefit — to the chapter's name, Anisaṁsavagga, the Chapter on Benefits.
A chain built by repeated questioning
Rather than stating the ten links outright, the discourse builds them one at a time: Ānanda asks the goal of ethics, receives an answer, then asks the goal of that answer, and so on nine times running, before the Buddha restates the whole chain in a single unbroken recitation.
A ten-link version of a chain met before, in shorter form
This same progressive logic — each stage the necessary ground for the next — already appeared in shorter form in this project, at AN 7.65's six-link chain from conscience to freedom, and echoes the well-known Upanisā Sutta pattern found elsewhere in the canon. This version's own ten links culminate not in freedom itself but in the knowledge and vision of freedom — explicit reflective awareness of liberation already attained.
Key terms
The text
Nine questions, chained
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Then Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, what is the goal and benefit of skillful ethics?” “Ānanda, having no regrets is the goal and benefit of skillful ethics.” “But what is the goal and benefit of having no regrets?” “Joy is the goal and benefit of having no regrets.” “But what is the goal and benefit of joy?” “Rapture …” “But what is the goal and benefit of rapture?” “Tranquility …” “But what is the goal and benefit of tranquility?” “Bliss …” “But what is the goal and benefit of bliss?” “Immersion …” “But what is the goal and benefit of immersion?” “Truly knowing and seeing …” “But what is the goal and benefit of truly knowing and seeing?” “Disillusionment and dispassion …” “But what is the goal and benefit of disillusionment and dispassion?” “Knowledge and vision of freedom is the goal and benefit of disillusionment and dispassion.
The chain, restated in full
§2So, Ānanda, the goal and benefit of skillful ethics is not having regrets. Joy is the goal and benefit of not having regrets. Rapture is the goal and benefit of joy. Tranquility is the goal and benefit of rapture. Bliss is the goal and benefit of tranquility. Immersion is the goal and benefit of bliss. Truly knowing and seeing is the goal and benefit of immersion. Disillusionment and dispassion is the goal and benefit of truly knowing and seeing. Knowledge and vision of freedom is the goal and benefit of disillusionment and dispassion. So, Ānanda, skillful ethics progressively lead up to the highest.”
Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.