Paṭhamasutta — Parisuddhavagga — the thirteenth chapter of the Tens, the Chapter on Purified Things
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A single-sentence claim, then the familiar ten-item list
Length
under 1 minute to read
Chapter's namesake
This discourse gives its own name to the new chapter, Parisuddhavagga, the Chapter on Purified Things, the most compact chapter met so far in this nipāta — eleven discourses, most barely a sentence long, named only by their position (First through Eleventh)
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — as brief as a discourse in this project gets
Why this discourse
Opening the shortest and most repetitive chapter met so far in this nipāta, the Buddha makes an exclusivity claim about the ten right factors: whatever purity they have, they have nowhere but within his own training.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The ten right factors, from right view to right freedom, are not purified and cleansed anywhere except within the Holy One's own training.
A chapter of near-identical single sentences
This chapter departs sharply from chapters 11 and 12's elaborate similes, narratives, and named interlocutors: its eleven discourses are, with only two exceptions (AN 10.132 and 10.133), simply named by their ordinal position — First, Second, Third, and so on — each stating one brief claim about the same ten factors in relation to the Buddha's own training.
An exclusivity claim, not merely a description
The word nāññatra, “apart from” or “nowhere else but,” makes this discourse's claim genuinely exclusive rather than merely descriptive: it does not say the ten factors are best developed within this training, but that their purity simply does not exist anywhere outside it.
The first of five distinct claims, soon to be recombined
AN 10.123 through 10.127 will each state one distinct claim about the ten factors — purity, arising, fruitfulness, ending the three poisons, and leading to liberation — before AN 10.128 introduces a further condition that the chapter's remaining discourses recombine with several of these same five claims.
Key terms
parisuddhā pariyodātā — “purified and cleansed” — this discourse's own claim about the ten right factors, and the source of the chapter's own name.
nāññatra sugatavinayā — “not apart from the Holy One's training” — the exclusivity clause repeated, with minor variation, throughout this entire chapter.
sugata — “the Holy One,” literally “one who has gone well” — an epithet for the Buddha, naming the training these ten factors are said to depend on exclusively.
sammādiṭṭhi — “right view” — the first of the ten factors, opening this chapter's list exactly as it has opened every list since AN 10.103.
sammāvimutti — “right freedom” — the tenth and final factor, closing the list.
The text
The discourse in full: the single claim, and the familiar ten-item list. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Not purified apart from this training
§1“Mendicants, these ten things are not purified and cleansed apart from the Holy One’s training. What ten? Right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. These ten things are not purified and cleansed apart from the Holy One’s training.”
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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 does this discourse claim about the ten right factors?
Correct: B. An exclusivity claim about where genuine purity of these factors is found.
Question 2 of 5
How does this chapter's structure differ from chapters 11 and 12, according to the guide?
Correct: B. A sharp departure from the elaborate similes and narratives of the two preceding chapters.
Question 3 of 5
What does the word "nāññatra" ("apart from") signal about this discourse's claim?
Correct: B. A strong exclusivity clause, not a comparative preference.
Question 4 of 5
According to the guide, what happens to this discourse's claim across AN 10.124 through 10.131?
Correct: B. A structured sequence of claims and recombinations, not simple repetition.
Question 5 of 5
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
