Ahirikasutta — Duccaritavagga — the twenty-third chapter of the Fours
Setting
None stated; the Duccaritavagga gives no location for this discourse, and it is addressed to the mendicants directly
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
One elided line, the same four qualities as AN 4.219
Length
under a minute to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this discourse
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — a third appearance for material first assembled two chapters back
Why this discourse
Faithless, unethical, shameless, imprudent — AN 4.219’s tetrad, itself drawn from the sevenfold list AN 4.202 assembled two chapters back. This discourse is now the third distinct place this pool of qualities has surfaced, each time cut to fit whatever form and formula the chapter at hand required.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Faithlessness, lack of ethics, shamelessness, and lack of prudence keep a fool broken and blameworthy; faith, ethics, conscience, and prudence keep an astute person intact and praiseworthy.
A third cut from the same pool
Assaddho, dussīlo, ahiriko, anottappī repeats AN 4.219’s tetrad exactly, which in turn drew three of its four terms from AN 4.202’s sevenfold description of an untrue person, two chapters back. The pool of qualities describing untrustworthiness — faith, ethics, conscience, prudence, learning, energy, mindfulness, wisdom, in various combinations — has now supplied content to at least three separate discourses across two chapters, each drawing a different subset to fit a tetrad.
Hiri and ottappa, once more
The guardians of the world, conscience and prudence, were discussed at length when this same pair first appeared at AN 4.219. That discussion — their restraint of conduct from within, and their standing as serious enough to place a person in the worst company alongside faithlessness and lack of ethics — applies to this discourse without change.
One discourse left in this chapter’s main sequence
After this, AN 4.230 closes the chapter’s run of reused tetrads with the remaining terms from AN 4.202’s pool, drawn the same way AN 4.220 drew them a chapter earlier, before the chapter turns to its genuinely new closing discourse on poets.
Key terms
assaddha, dussīla, ahirika, anottappī — faithless, unethical, shameless, imprudent — identical to AN 4.219’s tetrad.
lokapāla dhammā — “guardians of the world” — conscience and prudence together, as discussed at AN 4.219.
khataṁ upahataṁ attānaṁ pariharati — this chapter’s formula, continued through this discourse.
asappurisa / sappurisa — “untrue person” and “true person” — the character-types AN 4.202 first sorted this pool of qualities to distinguish.
hiri / ottappa — conscience and prudence, moral shame and moral dread — the two guardians named in this discourse’s tetrad.
The text
The discourse exactly as the source abridges it, ellipsis marks included. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The elided discourse
§1“A foolish person … brims with much wickedness. … They’re faithless, unethical, shameless, and imprudent. … An astute person … brims with much merit. … They’re faithful, ethical, conscientious, and prudent. …”
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Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 10
What four qualities does this discourse name?
Correct: B. Identical to AN 4.219’s tetrad.
Question 2 of 10
How many distinct discourses has the pool of qualities first assembled at AN 4.202 now supplied content to?
Correct: B. AN 4.202, AN 4.219, and now this discourse.
Question 3 of 10
What are hiri and ottappa called together in the wider canon?
Correct: B. Discussed at length when this pair first appeared at AN 4.219.
Question 4 of 10
What formula wraps this discourse?
Correct: B. This chapter’s consistent wrapper.
Question 5 of 10
Where was this tetrad first given, under a different formula?
Correct: B. Itself drawn from AN 4.202’s sevenfold list.
Question 6 of 10
What earlier discourse first assembled the sevenfold list this tetrad is drawn from?
Correct: B. Describing an untrue person and an even more untrue person, two chapters back.
Question 7 of 10
What discourse closes this chapter’s run of reused tetrads, immediately after this one?
Correct: B. Repeating the pattern AN 4.220 set a chapter earlier.
Question 8 of 10
What discourse follows the chapter’s main sequence, moving to genuinely new content?
Correct: B. The chapter’s closer, unrelated to the hell/heaven or khata formulas.
Question 9 of 10
What does the guide say this repeated drawing on one pool of qualities shows about the collection?
Correct: B. Consistent with the pattern already observed at AN 4.219.
