Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The defiled principle is the ten wrong factors from wrong view to wrong freedom; the undefiled principle is the ten right factors from right view to right freedom.
Āsava, already named as the project's own destination
“Defilements” (āsava) is not new vocabulary in this chapter's run: it is the exact term AN 10.122 named as what the ten right factors, developed and cultivated, actually end — this discourse reframes that same relationship as a direct property of the factors themselves, defiled or undefiled, rather than as an outcome the factors produce.
A shift from outcome to intrinsic quality
Where AN 10.122 described the ten factors as leading to the ending of defilements — a causal, outcome-oriented claim — this discourse instead asks whether the factors themselves are defiled or undefiled as they stand, a subtly different question about their own intrinsic character rather than their downstream effect.
The sixth of eleven, past the chapter's midpoint
With this discourse, the chapter has now applied its template to six distinct word-pairs, moving past its own midpoint toward the remaining five — blameworthy, mortifying, accumulation, and the two suffering-outcome pairings that will close the chapter.
Key terms
The text
The defiled, and the undefiled
§1“I will teach you the defiled principle and the undefiled. … And what is the defiled principle? 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 defiled principle. And what is the undefiled principle? 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 undefiled principle.”
Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.