Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The tenfold path, unchanged from AN 4.206, now classified as bad, worse, good, or better rather than as an untrue or true person.
The grid, one cell further
This discourse is the plainest possible confirmation that the recombination begun at AN 4.207 is systematic rather than incidental. AN 4.207 took the ten deeds and attached the bad/worse/good/better vocabulary. This discourse takes the tenfold path — the eight familiar path factors plus right knowledge and right freedom — and attaches the identical vocabulary.
Between the two, every content set this chapter has assembled has now been paired with every vocabulary it has introduced except one: the ten deeds and the tenfold path have each been given the sappurisa framing and the pāpa framing. Only the third vocabulary, still to come, remains unpaired with either content set.
Nothing new in the content, and that is the point
There is very little to say about this discourse’s substance that AN 4.206 did not already say, and very little to say about its vocabulary that AN 4.207 did not already establish. That is not a weakness in the discourse; it is exactly what a reader should expect once the grid’s shape has been recognized.
The manuscript itself reflects this: the abridgment marks compress further here than at any earlier discourse in the chapter, because by this point a reciter has been through both the ten-factor path and the bad/worse/good/better frame separately, and only needs to be told that the two are now being joined.
What completing half the grid demonstrates
With this discourse, two of the grid’s four cells are filled: ten deeds under the bad/worse/good/better frame, and the tenfold path under the same frame. What this half of the demonstration already shows is that neither content set is more naturally suited to one vocabulary than the other — the ten deeds and the tenfold path have both taken the sappurisa framing and the pāpa framing without any apparent strain.
That is worth stating plainly, because it supports the reading offered at AN 4.207: the vocabulary is doing retrieval work, not conceptual work. If a different vocabulary genuinely changed what was being claimed about the content, this pairing would be expected to fit awkwardly in at least one direction. It does not.
What remains
Two discourses are left in this chapter, and both belong to the third vocabulary: pāpadhamma, bad character, applied first to the ten deeds again at AN 4.209, then to the tenfold path at AN 4.210, closing both the grid and the chapter at once.
Key terms
The text
Bad, worse, good, better
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you who’s bad and who’s worse, who’s good and who’s better.
Who’s bad
§2And who’s bad? It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom. This is called bad.
Who’s worse
§3And who’s worse? It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong immersion, wrong knowledge, and wrong freedom. And they encourage others in these same qualities. This is called worse.
Who’s good
§4And who’s good? It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. This is called good.
Who’s better
§5And who’s better? It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right immersion, right knowledge, and right freedom. And they encourage others in these same qualities. This is called better.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.