Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Ordinary doctors prescribe an emetic for the same bodily disorders of bile, phlegm, and wind, and such an emetic genuinely exists but sometimes fails; the noble emetic — the ten right factors, each vomited up along with its wrong counterpart and the bad qualities it produces — works without fail.
A minimal variation, not a new teaching
This discourse changes almost nothing from AN 10.108: the same acknowledgment of a real medical practice, the same limitation of sometimes failing, the same ten right factors, the same guarantee of infallible success — only the specific medical procedure named has changed, from purging to vomiting.
Two directions, one underlying logic
Purgatives and emetics are, in traditional medicine, complementary treatments for the same underlying bodily disorders, expelling them through opposite ends of the body; pairing them as consecutive discourses suggests the point is not which specific bodily process best captures spiritual purification, but that any complete and reliable expulsion, by whatever route, illustrates the same underlying certainty.
The chapter's most minimal reframing yet
Where AN 10.104 through 10.108 each introduced a genuinely distinct image (seed, ignorance, wearing away, washing, purging), this discourse is the first in the run to change almost nothing beyond a single word, underscoring just how flexible — and how secondary — the choice of image actually is next to the ten-factor content itself.
Key terms
The text
Ordinary emetics, and their limitation
§1“Mendicants, doctors prescribe an emetic for eliminating illnesses stemming from disorders of bile, phlegm, and wind. There is such an emetic, I don’t deny it. But this kind of emetic sometimes works and sometimes fails. I will teach a noble emetic that works without fail. Relying on that emetic, sentient beings who are liable to rebirth, old age, and death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress are freed from all these things. Listen and apply your mind well, I will speak. …
The noble emetic that works without fail
§2And what is that noble emetic that works without fail? For one of right view, wrong view is vomited up. And the many bad, unskillful qualities produced by wrong view are vomited up. And because of right view, many skillful qualities are fully developed. For one of right purpose, wrong purpose is vomited up. … For one of right speech, wrong speech is vomited up. … For one of right action, wrong action is vomited up. … For one of right livelihood, wrong livelihood is vomited up. … For one of right effort, wrong effort is vomited up. … For one of right mindfulness, wrong mindfulness is vomited up. … For one of right immersion, wrong immersion is vomited up. … For one of right knowledge, wrong knowledge is vomited up. … For one of right freedom, wrong freedom is vomited up. And the many bad, unskillful qualities produced by wrong freedom are vomited up. And because of right freedom, many skillful qualities are fully developed. This is the noble emetic that works without fail. Relying on this emetic, sentient beings who are liable to rebirth, old age, and death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress are freed from all these things.”
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