Vajjasutta — 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 seventh of this chapter's eleven near-identical variations
Why this discourse
As with AN 10.183's āsava/sāsava distinction, this discourse's root title uses the bare noun vajja (fault) rather than chapter 14's adjectival sāvajja (with fault) — the same small grammatical pattern repeating on a second word-pair in a row.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The blameworthy principle is the ten courses of unskillful action; the blameless principle is avoiding all ten and cultivating their opposites.
The same noun-versus-adjective pattern, twice now
This discourse's Vajjasutta parallels the previous discourse's Āsavasutta exactly: chapter 14 titled the equivalent discourse (AN 10.140) Sāvajjasutta, the adjectival form, while this chapter twice in a row prefers the bare noun instead — a small but now-recurring signature of how this chapter's own titles diverge from chapter 14's, distinct from the content, which remains functionally identical.
A social judgment, grounded in concrete acts
As already noted at AN 10.140, “blameworthy” carries an inherently social sense — legitimate criticism from others; grounding it here in the ten courses of action rather than the ten-factor path makes the social judgment maximally concrete: not abstract wrong view alone, but killing, stealing, and lying as the things one could actually be blamed for.
Key terms
vajja — “fault” or blame — this discourse's own root title, the bare noun form, paralleling the previous discourse's āsava/sāsava distinction.
avajja — “blameless” — the mirrored term, applied here to avoiding the ten courses of unskillful action.
sāvajja — “blameworthy,” with the fault” — the adjectival form used at chapter 14's AN 10.140, distinct from this discourse's own bare noun title.
kāmesumicchācārā veramaṇī — “avoiding sexual misconduct” — one of the ten items in this discourse's list.
micchādiṭṭhi — “wrong view” — the tenth and final item, closing the list.
The text
The discourse in full: the ten courses of action defined as blameworthy and blameless. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The blameworthy, and the blameless
§1“I will teach you the blameworthy principle and the blameless. … And what is the blameworthy principle? Killing living creatures … wrong view. This is called the blameworthy principle. And what is the blameless principle? Not killing living creatures … right view. This is called the blameless principle.”
· · ·
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 same pairing already met at chapter 14's AN 10.140, again with a subtly different Pali title.
Question 2 of 6
According to the guide, what pattern does this discourse's title repeat from the previous discourse?
Correct: B. A recurring signature across two consecutive discourses in this chapter.
Question 3 of 6
According to the guide, what does grounding "blameworthy" in concrete conduct accomplish?
Correct: B. The same social sense already noted at AN 10.140, now applied to concrete acts.
Question 4 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
Question 5 of 6
What chapter of AN10 does this discourse belong to?
Correct: B. The third chapter of the Fourth Fifty.
Question 6 of 6
How many discourses into this chapter's eleven-discourse run does this discourse fall?
Correct: B. Seven of eleven word-pair variations completed.
