Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A mendicant who is faithful, ethical, learned, a Dhamma speaker, one who frequents assemblies, teaches with assurance, is expert in the training, lives in the wilderness, masters the four absorptions, and has ended the defilements possesses all ten qualities and is ‘impressive all around.’
Ten qualities, incomplete until all are present
The discourse names each quality's absence as leaving a mendicant ‘incomplete in that respect,’ then prescribes fulfilling it — a cumulative structure where the final declaration of completeness only arrives once every one of the ten has been addressed in turn.
The ninth quality: the four absorptions
This discourse's own distinctive ninth item — getting the four absorptions ‘when they want, without trouble or difficulty’ — is what distinguishes it from its two companion discourses, which otherwise share all nine remaining qualities exactly.
A three-discourse set, one variable item
AN 10.8 through AN 10.10 form a deliberate set: nine qualities held constant — faith, ethics, learning, teaching ability, assembly attendance, teaching with assurance, training expertise, and forest dwelling, plus the ending of defilements as the tenth — while the ninth item varies across the three, naming first the four absorptions, then the formless liberations, then the three knowledges.
Key terms
The text
Ten qualities, completed one at a time
§1“Mendicants, a mendicant is faithful but not ethical. So they’re incomplete in that respect, and should fulfill it, thinking: ‘How can I become faithful and ethical?’ When the mendicant is faithful and ethical, they’re complete in that respect. A mendicant is faithful and ethical, but not learned. … they’re not a Dhamma speaker … they don’t frequent assemblies … they don’t teach Dhamma to the assembly with assurance … they’re not an expert in the monastic law … they don’t stay in the wilderness, in remote lodgings … they don’t get the four absorptions—blissful meditations in this life that belong to the higher mind—when they want, without trouble or difficulty … they don’t realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. So they’re incomplete in that respect, and should fulfill it, thinking: ‘How can I become faithful, ethical, and learned, a Dhamma speaker, one who frequents assemblies, one who teaches Dhamma to the assembly with assurance, an expert in the training, one who lives in the wilderness, in remote lodgings, one who gets the four absorptions when they want, and one who lives having realized the ending of defilements?’ When they’re faithful, ethical, and learned, a Dhamma speaker, one who frequents assemblies, one who teaches Dhamma to the assembly with assurance, an expert in the training, one who lives in the wilderness, in remote lodgings, one who gets the four absorptions when they want, and one who lives having realized the ending of defilements, they’re complete in that respect. A mendicant who possesses these ten qualities is impressive all around, and is complete in every respect.”
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