Dhammasutta — 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 fifth of this chapter's eleven near-identical variations
Why this discourse
This is the third time this project meets a dhamma/adhamma pairing (after AN 10.138 in chapter 14 and AN 10.147 in chapter 15's saddhamma variant), each time testing what actually counts as “the teaching” against a different underlying content.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
What is not the teaching is the ten courses of unskillful action; the teaching is avoiding all ten and cultivating their opposites.
A third variation on this project's own recurring question
AN 10.138 (chapter 14) first paired dhamma and adhamma against the ten-factor path; AN 10.147 (chapter 15) intensified the same question with the prefix sad-; this discourse now returns to the plain dhamma/adhamma pairing, but tests it against the ten courses of action — a third distinct answer to essentially the same recurring question of what counts as the genuine teaching.
A concrete test, not merely a categorical one
Testing “the teaching” against concrete conduct gives this discourse's version of the claim unusually direct stakes: whatever endorses or excuses killing, stealing, or lying does not count as the teaching, regardless of what else it might claim about itself — a plainer, harder-edged test than the more abstract path-factor version at AN 10.138.
Key terms
dhamma — “the teaching” — this discourse's own title, the third time this project has tested this claim against a different underlying content.
adhamma — “what is not the teaching” — the negation, applied here to the ten courses of unskillful action.
musāvādā veramaṇī — “avoiding false speech” — one of the ten items in this discourse's list.
abhijjhā veramaṇī — note: covetousness (abhijjhā) and the other two mental courses of action are not phrased with veramaṇī in the root text but as their own positive opposites (contentment, good will, right view) — checked against bilara-data before writing, not assumed uniform across all ten items.
micchādiṭṭhi — “wrong view” — the tenth and final item, closing this discourse's list exactly as at every other discourse in this chapter.
The text
The discourse in full: the ten courses of action defined as not the teaching, and the teaching. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
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? Killing living creatures … wrong view. This is called what is not the teaching. And what is the teaching? Not killing living creatures … right view. This is called the teaching.”
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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. The third time this project has tested this specific claim against a different underlying content.
Question 2 of 6
According to the guide, where has this project already met dhamma/adhamma pairings before this discourse?
Correct: B. A third distinct answer to a recurring question across three different chapters.
Question 3 of 6
According to the guide, what makes this discourse's version of the claim have "unusually direct stakes"?
Correct: B. A plainer, harder-edged test than the more abstract path-factor version.
Question 4 of 6
According to the guide, how are the three mental courses of action phrased in the root text?
Correct: B. A grammatical detail confirmed by checking the root text rather than assumed from pattern alone.
Question 5 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
Question 6 of 6
What chapter of AN10 does this discourse belong to?
Correct: B. The third chapter of the Fourth Fifty.
