Paṭhamaasekhasutta — Samaṇasaññāvagga — the eleventh chapter of the Tens, opening the Third Fifty
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
An unnamed mendicant questioning the Buddha
Form
A single question, a single-sentence answer
Length
under 1 minute to read
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the briefest discourse in this chapter
Why this discourse
After eight discourses repeating the same ten right factors under eight different images, an unnamed mendicant asks the most direct possible question — what actually defines an adept — and receives the identical ten factors back, with no simile at all, as the complete and sufficient answer.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
An adept mendicant is defined as one who has an adept's right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom — the identical ten factors already met throughout this chapter, now given as the direct definition of full attainment.
A question this entire chapter has been answering
In context, this brief question-and-answer functions as a kind of reveal: the ten-factor teaching repeated eight times under eight different images was never simply about ethical cause and effect in the abstract — it was, all along, a definition of what a fully trained adept (asekha) actually possesses.
Asekha, a specific technical term for completion
Asekha, translated here as “adept,” names one who has completed the training entirely and has nothing further to learn, distinct from a sekha, one still in training; the term itself carries the specific technical sense of a fully accomplished arahant, not merely an experienced or senior practitioner.
Question and answer, at last, without cause and effect
Every discourse from AN 10.103 through 10.110 framed the ten factors in terms of production, effect, or removal — this factor produces that one, this one washes away that one. This discourse, by contrast, asks and answers a question of pure definition: not what the ten factors do, but simply what they are, possessed together, in one who has completed the path.
Key terms
asekha — “adept” — one who has completed the training entirely, this discourse's own title and subject, technically distinct from a sekha still in training.
kathaṁ nu kho, bhante, asekho bhikkhu paññāyatī'ti — “how is an adept mendicant defined?” — the unnamed mendicant's own direct question.
asekhāya sammādiṭṭhiyā samannāgato hoti — “has an adept's right view” — the recurring formula's opening clause, here stating pure possession rather than cause and effect.
asekhena sammāñāṇena, asekhāya sammāvimuttiyā — “an adept's right knowledge… an adept's right freedom” — the ninth and tenth factors, closing the definition exactly as they closed AN 10.103's original chain.
sekha — “one in training” — the implied contrast term to asekha, though not itself used in this discourse's own text.
The text
The discourse in full: a mendicant's question, and the Buddha's definition of an adept. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
A question about the adept
§1Then a mendicant went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, they speak of the one called ‘an adept’. How is an adept mendicant defined?” “Mendicant, it’s when a mendicant has an adept’s right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. That’s how a mendicant is an adept.”
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Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 5
What question does the unnamed mendicant ask?
Correct: B. A direct question about the definition of full attainment.
Question 2 of 5
What is the Buddha's answer?
Correct: B. The chapter's recurring content, finally presented as a definition rather than a cause-and-effect chain.
Question 3 of 5
What does the term "asekha" technically mean, according to the guide?
Correct: B. A specific technical term for a fully accomplished arahant.
Question 4 of 5
According to the guide, how does this discourse's framing differ from AN 10.103 through 10.110?
Correct: B. A shift from production and removal to simple, direct definition.
Question 5 of 5
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
