Atthasutta — Sādhuvagga — the eighteenth chapter of the Tens, the third chapter of the Fourth Fifty, echoing chapter 14's own eleven word-pairs
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The identical compressed template, with a new content base
Length
under 1 minute to read
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the fourth of this chapter's eleven near-identical variations
Why this discourse
This discourse reruns chapter 14's beneficial/harmful pairing from AN 10.137, shifting from ethical quality to practical consequence, now applied to concrete conduct rather than the ten-factor path.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The harmful is the ten courses of unskillful action; the beneficial is avoiding all ten and cultivating their opposites.
The same practical shift, now doubly concrete
AN 10.137 already marked a shift from purely evaluative language (good, skillful) toward practical consequence (attha, benefit); grounding that same practical vocabulary in the ten courses of action rather than the ten-factor path makes the shift doubly concrete: not only does the discourse ask what helps or harms, it asks this of everyday actions like killing, stealing, and lying rather than abstract path-factors.
An identical title, unlike the previous two discourses
Unlike AN 10.179 and 10.180, both of which showed some small naming variation from their chapter 14 counterparts, this discourse's title (Attha) matches AN 10.137's own title exactly — the chapter's naming choices are not uniformly varied, only occasionally so.
Key terms
attha — “beneficial” — this discourse's own title, matching AN 10.137's own title exactly, unlike the small variations already seen at AN 10.179 and 10.180.
anattha — “harmful” — the negation, applied to the ten courses of unskillful action.
pharusāya vācāya veramaṇī — “avoiding harsh speech” — one of the ten items in this discourse's list.
samphappalāpā veramaṇī — “avoiding talking nonsense” — another item, closing the four verbal courses of action.
byāpāda — “ill will” — the second of the three mental courses of action in this discourse's unskillful list.
The text
The discourse in full: the ten courses of action defined as harmful and beneficial. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The harmful, and the beneficial
§1“I will teach you the beneficial and the harmful. … And what is the harmful? Killing living creatures … wrong view. This is called the harmful. And what is the beneficial? Not killing living creatures … right view. This is called the beneficial.”
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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 to the ten courses of action?
Correct: A. A shift toward practical consequence, first established at AN 10.137 in chapter 14.
Question 2 of 6
According to the guide, how does grounding this pairing in the ten courses of action make its practical shift "doubly concrete"?
Correct: B. Practical consequence applied to concrete, everyday conduct.
Question 3 of 6
According to the guide, how does this discourse's title compare to its chapter 14 counterpart, unlike the previous two discourses in this chapter?
Correct: B. The chapter's naming choices vary only occasionally, not uniformly.
Question 4 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
Question 5 of 6
How many verbal courses of action are there among the ten, according to the guide?
Correct: C. False speech, backbiting, harsh speech, and talking nonsense — four verbal courses, alongside three bodily and three mental.
Question 6 of 6
Who does this discourse's audience consist of, per the glance box?
Correct: A. The same simple audience as every discourse in this compact chapter.
