Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The same vital-conditions chain as AN 10.3 — lacking or fulfilling ethics cascading through freedom from regret, joy, rapture, tranquility, bliss, immersion, true knowledge and vision, disillusionment and dispassion, to the knowledge and vision of freedom — is here taught by Sāriputta rather than the Buddha.
A shift in speaker, not in content
Word for word, apart from compression through the source's own peyyāla, this discourse repeats AN 10.3's chain exactly, including its tree simile in both directions. The only substantive change is the speaker: Sāriputta teaching the mendicants directly, without the Buddha present in the narrative.
A pattern already familiar from this project
This project has already met teachings repeated by a different speaker without changing content — AN 9.27 and AN 9.28's identical stream-entry formula, addressed first to Anāthapiṇḍika and then to the mendicants generally, is the closest precedent. Here the variable is not audience but teacher.
Confirming the chain's standing beyond the Buddha's own voice
That a senior disciple can teach this exact sequence without alteration suggests the chain was understood as settled doctrine, not a teaching unique to how the Buddha himself happened to phrase it on one occasion.
Key terms
The text
The same chain, taught by Sāriputta
§1There Venerable Sāriputta addressed the mendicants … “Reverends, an unethical person, who lacks ethics, has destroyed a vital condition for having no regrets. When there are regrets, one who has regrets has destroyed a vital condition for joy. … One who lacks disillusionment and dispassion has destroyed a vital condition for knowledge and vision of freedom. Suppose there was a tree that lacked branches and foliage. Its shoots, bark, softwood, and heartwood would not grow to fullness. In the same way, an unethical person, who lacks ethics, has destroyed a vital condition for having no regrets. When there are regrets, one who has regrets has destroyed a vital condition for joy. … One who lacks disillusionment and dispassion has destroyed a vital condition for knowledge and vision of freedom.
§2An ethical person, who has fulfilled ethics, has fulfilled a vital condition for not having regrets. When there are no regrets, one who has no regrets has fulfilled a vital condition for joy. … One who has fulfilled disillusionment and dispassion has fulfilled a vital condition for knowledge and vision of freedom. Suppose there was a tree that was complete with branches and foliage. Its shoots, bark, softwood, and heartwood would grow to fullness. In the same way, an ethical person, who has fulfilled ethics, has fulfilled a vital condition for not having regrets. When there are no regrets, one who has no regrets has fulfilled a vital condition for joy. … One who has fulfilled disillusionment and dispassion has fulfilled a vital condition for knowledge and vision of freedom.”
Self-check quiz
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