Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A noble disciple grows nobly in ten ways: fields and land, money and grain, spouse and children, servants and staff, and livestock on the worldly side; faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom on the spiritual side — both halves named as a single, unified kind of growth.
Worldly prosperity, unapologetically named
Unlike many discourses in this project that treat worldly wealth with suspicion or caution, this one lists land, money, family, staff, and livestock directly alongside faith and wisdom, without any hint that the worldly half is lesser or merely tolerated — both fives are called, together, growing “nobly.”
A closing verse naming both kinds of growth explicitly
The closing two-stanza verse makes the pairing explicit rather than leaving it implicit in the list: the first stanza describes someone who grows in wealth, family, and livestock as becoming rich, famous, and respected; the second describes someone who grows in faith, ethics, wisdom, generosity, and learning as a good man who “sees clearly” — and then names the disciple who has both as growing “in both ways.”
A rare unqualified endorsement of lay flourishing
Because the discourse never restricts its audience or qualifies the worldly half of its list, it reads as an endorsement of a lay disciple's ordinary flourishing just as much as a monastic's, growth in fields and livestock treated as no less real a form of noble growth than growth in wisdom.
Key terms
The text
Ten kinds of noble growth
§1“Mendicants, a noble disciple who grows in ten ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life. What ten? He grows in fields and lands, money and grain, wives and children, in bondservants, workers, and staff, and in livestock. And he grows in faith, ethics, learning, generosity, and wisdom. A noble disciple who grows in ten ways grows nobly, taking on what is essential and excellent in this life.
Closing verse
§2Someone who grows in money and grain, in wives, children, and livestock, is wealthy, famous, and respected by relatives and friends, and even by royals. When someone grows in faith and ethics, wisdom, and both generosity and learning—a good man such as he sees clearly, and in this very life he grows in both ways.”
Self-check quiz
5 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.