Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A senior mendicant lives comfortably anywhere with ten qualities: long standing in ordination, ethical conduct, deep learning, mastery of both monastic codes, skill in settling disciplinary issues, love of the teaching, contentment with any requisites, dignified deportment, mastery of the four absorptions, and the ending of defilements.
A composite drawn from qualities met throughout this nipāta
Almost every item on this list echoes a quality this project has already met individually in earlier discourses — the judge's skill in disputes (AN 10.33), mastery of both codes, contentment with requisites, the four absorptions on demand — gathered here into a single composite figure rather than scattered across separate teachings.
Comfort as the stated outcome, not status or honor
The discourse's own framing is notably modest: these ten qualities are said to produce comfort (phāsuvihāra) wherever the senior mendicant happens to live, not fame, authority, or veneration — an ordinary, almost domestic measure of success for what might otherwise be described in grander terms.
Seniority as a starting condition, not an achievement
The very first item — being “long standing and having long gone forth” — is simply the passage of time, distinct from the nine qualities that follow, which must actually be cultivated; the discourse implicitly separates mere seniority from the substantive qualities that make a senior mendicant genuinely admirable rather than merely old in robes.
Key terms
The text
Ten qualities of a senior mendicant
§1“Mendicants, a senior mendicant with ten qualities lives comfortably in whatever region they live. What ten? They are long standing and have long gone forth. They’re 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, reinforcing them by recitation, 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 skilled in the instigation and settlement of disciplinary issues. They love the teachings and are a delight to converse with, being full of joy in the teaching and training. They’re content with any kind of robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. They look impressive when going out and coming back, and are well restrained when sitting in an inhabited area. They get the four absorptions—blissful meditations in this life that belong to the higher mind—when they want, without trouble or difficulty. They realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and they live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. A senior mendicant with these ten qualities lives comfortably in whatever region they live.”
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