Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A person with the ten courses of unskillful action should not be associated with, frequented, paid homage, venerated, praised, or deferred to, is not a success, is not pure, does not win over conceit, does not grow in wisdom, and brims with much wickedness; a person who avoids all ten should receive the opposite treatment and outcome in each case, and brims with much merit.
A near-repeat of chapter 16's own peyyāla, one discourse longer
Checked against bilara-data before writing, this chapter's compressed range spans twelve discourses (10.199–210) rather than chapter 16's eleven (10.156–166) — the difference is that this chapter's opening “should (not) be associated with” discourse (AN 10.199) is folded directly into the same merged source file, where chapter 16's equivalent (AN 10.155) was left as its own separate, uncompressed file.
Ten association-verbs, the same set as chapter 16
The ten verb-pairs crossed against the ten courses of action match chapter 16's own list exactly: frequented, paid homage, venerated, praised, revered/deferred to, a success, pure, wins over conceit, and grows in wisdom — the same association vocabulary, now applied to a person defined by conduct (killing, stealing, and the rest) rather than the ten-factor path.
A double colophon, closing chapter and Fifty together
This page's final segment carries two closing declarations at once: ‘Aparapuggalavaggo pañcamo’ (the Other Individuals Chapter, the fifth [of the Fourth Fifty]) and ‘Catuttho paṇṇāsako samatto’ (the Fourth Fifty is finished) — the same double-colophon pattern already met closing the Second Fifty at AN 10.100 and the Third Fifty at AN 10.154, confirming chapters 16–20 as a complete unit.
A naming correction, caught before writing
This chapter's own name, confirmed directly from bilara-data, is Aparapuggalavagga, “Another” or “Further Chapter on Individuals” — distinct from an earlier, mistaken note in this project's own working records that called it “Ariyapuggalavagga”; the correct name is recorded here after checking the source directly rather than trusting an unverified prior guess.
Key terms
The text
Should not be associated with, and should be
§1“Mendicants, you should not associate with an individual who has ten qualities. What ten? They kill living creatures, steal, and commit sexual misconduct. They use speech that’s false, backbiting, harsh, or nonsensical. And they’re covetous, malicious, with wrong view. You should not associate with an individual who has these ten qualities. You should associate with an individual who has ten qualities. What ten? They don’t kill living creatures, steal, or commit sexual misconduct. They don’t use speech that’s false, backbiting, harsh, or nonsensical. They’re contented, kind-hearted, with right view. You should associate with an individual who has these ten qualities.”
Ten further verbs, compressed
§2“Mendicants, you should not frequent an individual who has ten qualities … You should frequent …” “You should not pay homage … You should pay homage …” “You should not venerate … You should venerate …” “You should not praise … You should praise …” “You should not revere … You should revere …” “You should not defer to … You should defer to …” “Someone is not a success … Someone is a success …” “Someone is not pure … Someone is pure …” “Someone does not win over conceit … Someone wins over conceit …” “Someone does not grow in wisdom … Someone grows in wisdom …”
Wickedness, and merit
§3“An individual who possesses these ten qualities brims with much wickedness. … An individual who possesses these ten qualities brims with much merit. What ten? They don’t kill living creatures, steal, or commit sexual misconduct. They don’t use speech that’s false, backbiting, harsh, or nonsensical. They’re contented, kind-hearted, with right view. An individual who has these ten qualities creates much merit.”
Self-check quiz
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