Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
All those accomplished in view divide into ten types: five who conclude their path in this realm (at most seven rebirths, family-to-family, one-seeder, once-returner, or arahant in this very life) and five who conclude it after leaving this realm (extinguished between lives, upon landing, without extra effort, with extra effort, or heading upstream to the Akaniṭṭha realm).
A technical map, not a narrative
Unlike most of this chapter's discourses, this one offers no story, simile, or setting — just a precise, exhaustive classification of noble persons, the kind of technical map more often associated with Abhidhamma-style analysis than narrative discourse.
Realm as the organizing axis
The ten types are not ranked by attainment alone but sorted first by where completion happens: the first five complete the path while still human, the second five only after taking rebirth in a higher, non-human realm — five distinct sub-varieties of non-returner, distinguished by exactly when and how extinguishment occurs after that rebirth.
A direct pair with AN 10.64
This discourse's entire ten-item classification reappears in AN 10.64 without a single change — only the criterion for entering the list differs: here, “accomplished in view” (diṭṭhisampanna), there, direct experiential confidence.
Key terms
The text
Ten kinds of noble person
§1“Mendicants, all those who have come to a conclusion about me are accomplished in view. Of those who are accomplished in view, five conclude their path in this realm, and five conclude their path after leaving this realm behind. Which five conclude their path in this realm? The one who has seven rebirths at most, the one who goes from family to family, the one-seeder, the once returner, and the one who is perfected in this very life. These five conclude their path in this realm. Which five conclude their path after leaving this realm behind? The one who is extinguished between one life and the next, the one who is extinguished upon landing, the one who is extinguished without extra effort, the one who is extinguished with extra effort, and the one who heads upstream, going to the Akaniṭṭha realm. These five conclude their path after leaving this realm behind. All those who have come to a conclusion about me are accomplished in view. Of those who are accomplished in view, these five conclude their path in this realm, and these five conclude their path after leaving this realm behind.”
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