Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
What is not the teaching of the noble ones is the ten wrong factors; what is the teaching of the noble ones is the ten right factors.
A pairing with a claim of lineage
“The teaching of the noble ones” (ariyadhamma) carries more institutional weight than AN 10.134's simple “good”: it frames the ten factors not merely as commendable but as what the community of noble ones (ariya) actually holds and transmits, a claim about authentic membership in a lineage as much as about ethical quality.
The template, already economized
Where AN 10.134 gave the Buddha's full preparatory address, this discourse elides most of it, moving directly from the brief announcement to the definitions — the first sign of this chapter's characteristic compression taking hold after its own opening discourse.
Ariya, a term met throughout this project
Ariya, “noble,” is far from new vocabulary in this nipāta — it names the noble eightfold path itself, the noble truths, and the noble persons classified at AN 10.63 and 10.64; this discourse simply makes explicit what all of that shared vocabulary has implied throughout: these ten factors are what “noble” actually refers to.
Key terms
The text
Not the noble teaching, and the noble teaching
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you the teaching of the noble ones, and what is not the teaching of the noble ones. … And what is not the teaching of the noble ones? Wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom. This is called what is not the teaching of the noble ones. And what is the teaching of the noble ones? Right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. This is called the teaching of the noble ones.”
Self-check quiz
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