Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The principle not to recollect is the ten wrong factors from wrong view to wrong freedom; the principle to recollect is the ten right factors from right view to right freedom.
The fifth and final practice-verb
This discourse completes the progression flagged at AN 10.149: arouse, resort to, develop, make abundant, and now recollect — a shift from verbs of active cultivation to a verb of retention, holding what has already been cultivated in mind.
Anussarati, a term of recollective practice
Anussarati, to recollect, is a term familiar from this canon's broader vocabulary of recollection practices (anussati) — recollection of the Buddha, the teaching, the Saṅgha, and other objects of contemplative memory; this discourse applies the same recollective faculty directly to the ten-factor path itself.
One discourse before the Third Fifty closes
With this discourse, the chapter has now completed all five of its closing practice-verbs; only AN 10.154 remains, which will close not only this chapter but the entire Third Fifty, ending twenty-five discourses of steady, repetitive elaboration on a single teaching.
Key terms
The text
Not to be recollected, and to be recollected
§1“I will teach you the principle to recollect and the principle not to recollect. … And what is the principle not to recollect? 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 principle not to recollect. And what is the principle to recollect? 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 principle to recollect.”
Self-check quiz
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