Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A mendicant with five personal factors, using a lodging with five factors of its own, will soon realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life.
Five personal factors, an internal readiness
The mendicant's own five factors span the inner life needed for practice: confidence in the Buddha, physical health fit for meditation, honesty with teacher and companions, roused energy, and the wisdom that sees arising and passing away.
Five factors of place, an external readiness
The lodging's own five factors are entirely practical: neither too far nor too near, undisturbed by day and quiet by night, free of biting insects and reptiles, easy requisites, and — distinctively — the presence of learned senior mendicants able to answer questions and clarify doubts.
Ten by combination, this chapter's own method
Like AN 9.21's three-particular comparison earlier in this project, this discourse reaches its ten-count not through one flat list but by combining two distinct five-item sets — inner readiness and outer circumstance — suggesting that neither alone is sufficient without the other.
Key terms
The text
Five personal factors
§1“Mendicants, a mendicant with five factors, using and frequenting lodgings with five factors, will soon realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. And how does a mendicant have five factors? It’s when a noble disciple has faith in the Realized One’s awakening: ‘That Blessed One is perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, supreme guide for those fit for training, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.’ They are rarely ill or unwell. Their stomach digests well, being neither too hot nor too cold, but just right, and fit for meditation. They’re not devious or deceitful. They reveal themselves honestly to the Teacher or sensible spiritual companions. They live with energy roused up for giving up unskillful qualities and embracing skillful qualities. They’re strong, staunchly vigorous, not slacking off when it comes to developing skillful qualities. They’re wise. They have the wisdom of arising and passing away which is noble, penetrative, and leads to the complete ending of suffering. That’s how a mendicant has five factors.
Five factors of a lodging
§2And how does a lodging have five factors? It’s when a lodging is neither too far nor too near, but convenient for coming and going. It’s not bothered by people by day, and at night it’s quiet and still. There’s little disturbance from flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and reptiles. While staying in that lodging the necessities of life—robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick—are easy to come by. And in that lodging there are several senior mendicants who are very learned, inheritors of the heritage, who have memorized the teachings, the monastic law, and the outlines. From time to time they go up to those mendicants and ask them questions: ‘Why, sir, does it say this? What does that mean?’ Those venerables reveal what is hidden, clarify what is unclear, and dispel doubt regarding the many doubtful matters. That’s how a lodging has five factors. A mendicant with five factors, using and frequenting lodgings with five factors, will soon realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements.”
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