Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
What is not the teaching is the ten wrong factors from wrong view to wrong freedom; the teaching is the ten right factors from right view to right freedom.
Dhamma, a word this project has used constantly
“Dhamma” has appeared throughout this entire project in dozens of overlapping senses — the Buddha's teaching as a whole, individual phenomena, moral qualities, principles — and this discourse narrows all of that range to one specific claim: whatever fails to match the ten right factors does not count as dhamma at all, regardless of how it presents itself.
An echo of AN 10.37's schism
This discourse's dhamma/adhamma pairing recalls AN 10.37's technical definition of schism, which likewise turned on mendicants explaining what is not the teaching as the teaching and vice versa — here stated directly and positively, without the surrounding narrative of institutional rupture.
A claim with real stakes for a teaching tradition
Applying “not the teaching” to specific identifiable factors, rather than leaving “dhamma” as a vague honorific, gives this discourse real teeth: it supplies exactly the criterion by which any claimed teaching, ancient or modern, could in principle be checked against the ten-factor standard.
Key terms
The text
Not the teaching, and the teaching
§1“I will teach you what is the teaching and what is not the teaching. … And what is not the teaching? 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. And what is the teaching? 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.”
Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.