Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Aṅguttara Nikāya · Discourse 10.148

The Teaching of the True Persons

Sappurisadhammasutta — Ariyavagga — the fifteenth chapter of the Tens, the Chapter on the Noble, closing the Third Fifty

Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The identical template, with a new word-pair
Length
under 1 minute to read
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the fourth of this chapter's ten near-identical variations

Why this discourse

Following directly on AN 10.147's concern with the true teaching, this discourse personalizes the question: not what teaching is genuine in the abstract, but what teaching belongs to genuine persons as opposed to counterfeit ones.

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

The teaching of untrue persons is the ten wrong factors from wrong view to wrong freedom; the teaching of true persons is the ten right factors from right view to right freedom.

From teaching to teacher, a natural next step

Where AN 10.147 asked what counts as the true teaching itself, this discourse asks essentially the same question through the lens of who holds it — sappurisa, a true or good person, versus asappurisa, its negation, are terms already familiar from this canon's frequent classification of people by character rather than doctrine alone.

Consecutive discourses now closely paired

AN 10.147 and this discourse form the closest pair yet in this chapter, differing only in whether the ten factors are attributed to an abstract teaching or to the persons who hold it — a variation of emphasis rather than of content, similar to how AN 10.143 and 10.144 closed the previous chapter on two near-synonymous notes.

Sappurisa, a term this project has met before

“True person” recurs across this project in discussions of who deserves association, respect, and emulation; this discourse anchors that recurring social category to the same fixed ten-factor content underlying every other discourse in this chapter.

Key terms

sappurisadhamma — “the teaching of true persons” — this discourse's own title, personalizing AN 10.147's abstract concern with authentic teaching.
asappurisadhamma — “the teaching of untrue persons” — the negation applied to the ten wrong factors.
sappurisa — “a true” or good person — a recurring social category across this project, here anchored to the ten right factors specifically.
micchāsaṅkappo — “wrong purpose” — the second factor, unchanged from every earlier list in this chapter.
sammāñāṇaṁ — “right knowledge” — the ninth factor, one of the two extending the classical eightfold path.

The text

The discourse in full: the ten-factor path defined as the teaching of untrue persons and of true persons. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

The teaching of untrue persons, and of true persons

§1“Mendicants, I will teach you the teaching of the true persons and the teaching of the untrue persons. … And what is the teaching of the untrue persons? Wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom. This is the teaching of the untrue persons. And what is the teaching of the true persons? Right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. This is the teaching of the true persons.”

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Self-check quiz

6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 6
What pairing does this discourse apply the chapter's template to?
Correct: B. A personalized variant of AN 10.147's concern with authentic teaching.
Question 2 of 6
According to the guide, how does this discourse relate to AN 10.147 immediately preceding it?
Correct: B. A shift of emphasis, not content, similar to AN 10.143 and 10.144 in the previous chapter.
Question 3 of 6
According to the guide, where has "sappurisa" (true person) recurred elsewhere in this project?
Correct: B. A familiar social category, here anchored to the ten-factor content.
Question 4 of 6
According to the guide, what natural progression does this discourse represent?
Correct: B. Teaching to teacher, doctrine to character.
Question 5 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
Question 6 of 6
What is the sixth of the ten factors, common to every discourse in this chapter?
Correct: A. The sixth position in the ten-factor list, unchanged across this chapter.
Answered 0 of 6 · Correct 0

Further reading

← PreviousAN 10.147 · The True Teaching