Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The harmful is the ten wrong factors from wrong view to wrong freedom; the beneficial is the ten right factors from right view to right freedom.
From quality to consequence
Attha, here rendered “beneficial,” carries a practical, outcome-oriented sense distinct from AN 10.134's more purely evaluative “good” — the question shifts subtly from what kind of thing the ten factors are to what they actually do for whoever practices them.
A term with a wide semantic range
Attha is a notably flexible word elsewhere in this canon, capable of meaning benefit, purpose, meaning, or goal depending on context; its pairing here with anattha, harm, narrows it specifically to the sense of practical advantage versus practical damage.
A pairing echoing this chapter's own eventual close
This discourse's concern with beneficial and harmful outcomes anticipates the register of this chapter's final two discourses (AN 10.143 and 10.144), which will make the practical consequence explicit by naming suffering and happiness directly as the outcome of wrong and right factors respectively.
Key terms
The text
The harmful, and the beneficial
§1“I will teach you the beneficial and the harmful. … And what is the harmful? Wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom. This is called the harmful. And what is the beneficial? 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 beneficial.”
Self-check quiz
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