Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A person with thirty qualities — doing the ten unskillful acts, encouraging others to do them, and approving of them — is placed in hell as if delivered there; the mirrored thirty skillful qualities lead to heaven.
A third mode: silent or spoken endorsement
Where encouraging (AN 10.222) involves actively urging someone toward an act, approving (samanuñño hoti) is a subtly different, potentially quieter form of complicity — endorsing or condoning an act, even without necessarily having actively pushed anyone toward it in the first place.
The escalation's own internal logic, made explicit
By this third step, the pattern is unmistakable: each jump of ten items adds exactly one further mode of relating to the same underlying ten acts — doing, then encouraging, then approving — a widening circle of complicity built entirely from repetition and addition rather than any new content.
Key terms
The text
Hell, and heaven, at thirty qualities
§1“Someone with thirty qualities is placed in hell as if delivered there. What thirty? They kill living creatures, steal, and commit sexual misconduct. They use speech that’s false, backbiting, harsh, or nonsensical. They’re covetous, malicious, with wrong view. They encourage others to do these things. And they approve of these things. Someone with these thirty qualities is placed in hell as if delivered there. Someone with thirty qualities is placed in heaven as if delivered there. What thirty? 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. They encourage others to do these things. And they approve of these things. Someone with these thirty qualities is placed in heaven as if delivered there.”
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