Untitled in the source — Sāmaññavagga — the twenty-second chapter of the Tens, one core pattern multiplied across four bases and four escalating counts
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The ten courses of action stated plainly, leading to hell or heaven
Length
under 1 minute to read
Chapter's namesake
This chapter, Sāmaññavagga, the Chapter on Similarity, takes its own name from the single repeating pattern — not this specific discourse — that runs through all sixteen of its discourses
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — the simplest discourse in a chapter that will grow more complex
Why this discourse
Opening a sixteen-discourse chapter built from a single multiplication, this untitled discourse states the plainest possible base case: the ten courses of action themselves, with no additional layer of involvement yet added.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A person with the ten unskillful courses of action is placed in hell as if delivered there; a person with the ten skillful courses of action is placed in heaven as if delivered there.
The base case of a four-by-four multiplication
This discourse and its three immediate siblings (AN 10.222–224) share one base statement — placed in hell or heaven “as if delivered there” — escalating from ten qualities (this discourse) to twenty, thirty, and forty; checked against bilara-data before writing, the escalation works by adding one further mode of involvement in the same ten acts at each step: simply doing them, doing and encouraging others, doing and encouraging and approving, and finally doing, encouraging, approving, and praising.
Untitled, like several discourses across this project
Neither the English translation nor the Pāli root gives this discourse its own distinct title, both marking it only by its numbered position and content — a pattern already met at several other bare, compact discourses across this nipāta.
A chapter named for its method, not its content
Sāmaññavagga, “the Chapter on Similarity,” describes the chapter's own organizing method rather than any shared subject matter — the same four-count escalation pattern applied identically to four otherwise unrelated base statements, giving the whole chapter its structural unity.
Key terms
nikkhitto evaṁ niraye — “placed in hell as if delivered there” — this discourse's own base phrase, already met in this same form at AN 10.211 opening chapter 21.
dasahi dhammehi samannāgato — “with ten qualities” — the base count this discourse states, before AN 10.222–224 escalate it to twenty, thirty, and forty.
sāmañña — “similarity” or sameness — the term this chapter takes its own name from, describing its shared organizing method rather than shared content.
micchādiṭṭhiko hoti — “has wrong view” — the tenth and final item of the base ten courses of unskillful action.
sammādiṭṭhiko hoti — “has right view” — the mirrored tenth item closing the ten skillful courses of action.
The text
The discourse in full: the ten courses of action stated plainly as leading to hell or heaven. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Hell, and heaven, at the base count of ten
§1“Someone with ten qualities is placed in hell as if delivered there. 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. Someone with these ten qualities is placed in hell as if delivered there. Someone with ten qualities is placed in heaven as if delivered there. 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. Someone with these ten qualities is placed in heaven as if delivered there.”
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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 is the base case this discourse states, before the escalation in the discourses that follow?
Correct: B. The simplest starting point of a four-by-four multiplication running through this entire chapter.
Question 2 of 6
According to the guide, how does the escalation work across this discourse and its three immediate siblings (AN 10.222–224)?
Correct: B. Confirmed against bilara-data before writing: ten, twenty, thirty, forty qualities across four steps.
Question 3 of 6
What does "Sāmaññavagga," this chapter's own name, actually describe, according to the guide?
Correct: B. A structural name, not a content name.
Question 4 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: D. No location is given for this discourse.
Question 5 of 6
Does this discourse have its own distinct title in the source?
Correct: B. A pattern already met at several other bare, compact discourses across this nipāta.
Question 6 of 6
What chapter of AN10 does this discourse open?
Correct: B. The twenty-second chapter of the Tens, the second chapter of the Fifth Fifty.
