Dutiyaasekhasutta — Samaṇasaññāvagga — the eleventh chapter of the Tens, opening the Third Fifty
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A single unprompted ten-item declaration
Length
under 1 minute to read
Closing this chapter
This discourse closes Samaṇasaññāvagga, the eleventh chapter, with its own untranslated colophon and uddāna verse naming all twelve discourses
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the briefest possible closing statement
Why this discourse
Closing this chapter with the shortest possible restatement, the Buddha declares the ten qualities of an adept unprompted, without even the minimal frame of a mendicant's question that opened AN 10.111.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are ten qualities of an adept: 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 same definition as AN 10.111, now declared without being asked.
The last step in stripping away every remaining frame
AN 10.111 still retained a question-and-answer structure, however brief; this discourse removes even that, opening directly with the Buddha's own unprompted declaration — the final stage in a chapter-long process of stripping successive framings away from one stable content.
A chapter's structure fully revealed by its own final page
Read as a whole, this chapter has moved from two isolated fulfillment teachings (AN 10.101–102), through eight variously dressed repetitions of one ten-factor teaching (AN 10.103–110), to two direct definitions of that same content as the mark of a finished practitioner (AN 10.111–112) — a clear three-part architecture only fully visible once the final discourse is reached.
Closing with completion, fittingly
It is difficult to imagine a more fitting note to close a chapter that began with perceptions for ascetics still early in training (AN 10.101) than this final, unprompted declaration of what the fully finished practitioner, the asekha, actually possesses — training's own beginning and its completion framing the chapter from opposite ends.
Key terms
dasa asekhā dhammā — “ten qualities of an adept” — this discourse's own opening declaration, stated without any preceding question.
asekhāya sammādiṭṭhiyā — “an adept's right view” — the first factor, identical in wording to AN 10.111's own opening item.
Samaṇasaññāvaggo — “the Chapter on Perceptions for Ascetics” — the chapter's own name, closing here with its untranslated colophon.
Tatiyapaṇṇāsaka — “the Third Fifty” — the larger structural span this chapter opens, continuing after this chapter's close.
uddāna — a summary verse naming, in brief, all the discourses just covered — here closing the chapter, left untranslated in the English text.
The text
The discourse in full: the ten qualities of an adept, declared without a preceding question. The chapter's own colophon and uddāna verse, in Pāli only, are described but not reproduced. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Ten qualities of an adept
§1“Mendicants, there are ten qualities of an adept. What ten? An adept’s right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. These are the ten qualities of 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
How does this discourse differ from AN 10.111?
Correct: B. The final stage in stripping away every remaining frame from the same stable content.
Question 2 of 5
According to the guide, what three-part architecture does this chapter reveal once its final discourse is reached?
Correct: B. A structure only fully visible from the chapter's own closing page.
Question 3 of 5
According to the guide, what makes this discourse a fitting close to a chapter that opened with AN 10.101's perceptions for ascetics?
Correct: B. A deliberate arc from early practice to full completion.
Question 4 of 5
What does this discourse close, according to the guide?
Correct: B. The chapter's own untranslated closing device, as seen throughout this nipāta.
Question 5 of 5
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
