Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A judge needs ten qualities: ethical conduct restrained by the code, deep learning in the teaching, mastery of both monastic codes, firmness in training, skill at persuading opposing parties, skill at raising and settling disciplinary issues, and a four-part knowledge of what a dispute is, how it arises, how it ceases, and the way leading to its cessation.
A recurring core, opening a new pattern
The first three qualities — ethical restraint, deep learning, and mastery of both monastic codes — will recur unchanged as the opening three qualities of AN 10.34, 10.35, and 10.36, each asking about a different kind of monastic authorization. AN 10.33 is the first of that set, and the only one whose remaining seven qualities concern arbitration rather than pastoral care.
A four-part echo of the four noble truths
The final four qualities — knowing what a dispute is, how it originates, how it ceases, and the practical way to its cessation — follow exactly the same four-part logic (the fact, its origin, its cessation, the path to cessation) used elsewhere in the canon for the four noble truths themselves, here applied to the narrower, practical problem of a Saṅgha dispute.
An institution named only here
The ubbāhikā — a special tribunal drawn from senior mendicants to settle a matter the full assembly could not easily resolve — is not otherwise discussed in this project; this discourse gives the qualifications for sitting on one without narrating a case.
Key terms
The text
Upāli's question
§1“Sir, how many qualities should a mendicant have to be deemed a judge?” “Upāli, a mendicant should have ten qualities to be deemed a judge. What ten?
Ten qualities
§2It’s when a mendicant is ethical, restrained in the monastic code, conducting themselves well and resorting for alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, they keep the rules they’ve undertaken. They’re very learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. These teachings are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased, describing a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. They are very learned in such teachings, remembering them, rehearsing them, mentally scrutinizing them, and penetrating them theoretically. Both monastic codes have been passed down to them in detail, well analyzed, well mastered, well evaluated in both the rules and accompanying material. They’re firm and unfaltering in the training. When there are opposing parties, they’re able to persuade, advocate, and convince them, make them see the other side and trust each other. They’re skilled in the instigation and settlement of disciplinary issues. They know what a disciplinary issue is. They know how a disciplinary issue originates. They know how a disciplinary issue ceases. They know the practical way leading to the cessation of a disciplinary issue. A mendicant should possess these ten qualities to be deemed a judge.”
Self-check quiz
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