Dutiyaagāravasutta — Sekhabalavagga — the first chapter of the Fives
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 5.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
AN 5.9's disrespect-qualified formula, with 'grows, improves, matures' replacing 'falls away, stands firm', followed by the vagga's closing colophon and mnemonic verse
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
This reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number for this variant
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — short in its own text, but closing material worth reading carefully
Why this discourse
AN 5.10 does two things at once. As a discourse, it takes AN 5.9's disrespect-qualified formula and swaps the image one more time: not falling and standing now, but vuddhiṁ virūḷhiṁ vepullaṁ, growth, improvement, and maturity, achieved or not achieved in this teaching and training. As the tenth discourse, it also closes the chapter, and the source text appended to it a piece of material this reading guide has not yet had occasion to explain: an uddāna, a Pāli mnemonic verse that compresses all ten titles of the chapter into a few lines for memorization, left untranslated in Sujato’s English.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A disrespectful and irreverent mendicant lacking the five powers can’t achieve growth, improvement, or maturity in this teaching and training; a respectful and reverent mendicant with all five can achieve all three.
A third variation on the inherited formula
AN 5.8 gave the base claim in a falling/standing image. AN 5.9 added disrespect as a qualifier without changing the image. AN 5.10 keeps the qualifier and changes the image a second time, to a triad of growth words. Vuddhi, growth; virūḷhi, increase or flourishing; vepulla, fullness or maturity — three near-synonyms stacked together, in the same way AN 5.3’s distress, anguish, fever were stacked rather than merged into one word. The chapter appears to favor this kind of triple emphasis at its more consequential moments.
What is being grown or matured
The object is imasmiṁ dhammavinaye, in this teaching and training — the whole dispensation, not a single practice or a single quality. This is a broader claim than any earlier discourse in the chapter made: not that the mendicant themselves prospers, but that their whole participation in the Buddha’s teaching and discipline either flourishes or stalls, depending on the same five qualities and the same one attitude.
The uddāna: how a chapter carries its own index
At the very end of the source text, after the discourse itself closes, comes a line naming the chapter — Sekhabalavaggo paṭhamo, ‘the first chapter, on the powers of a trainee’ — followed by a short verse in Pāli that compresses all ten discourse titles from this chapter into a chantable mnemonic: in brief, in detail, suffering, cast down, the fifth by training, becoming and in sensual pleasures, and so on. Sujato leaves this verse untranslated in the English edition, since it exists purely as an aid to memorizing the chapter’s own contents in order, not as teaching in its own right. It is the collection’s own index, built into the text rather than added by an editor, and every vagga from here through the rest of the Fives will close the same way — a colophon this reading guide will not re-explain each time it appears.
What comes after this chapter
The Fives continue immediately with the Balavagga, the second chapter, still called ‘Powers’ but now returning to the more familiar bala that shares three terms with the sekhabala rather than five. A reader arriving at AN 5.11 having read this chapter in full will recognize the terrain immediately.
Key terms
vuddhi — “growth” — the first of three near-synonyms replacing the falling/standing image, applied here to a mendicant’s whole participation in the teaching.
virūḷhi — “increase, flourishing” — the second of the three, stacked rather than merged with the others.
vepulla — “fullness, maturity” — the third, completing the triad this discourse uses at its most consequential moment.
dhammavinaya — “teaching and training” — the Buddha’s whole dispensation, named as what either flourishes or stalls, rather than a single practice.
uddāna — “mnemonic verse, summary” — the chapter-closing Pāli verse compressing all ten titles for memorization, left untranslated and not re-explained on later pages.
The text
The discourse in full: the disrespect-qualified formula, now claiming growth, improvement, and maturity in the teaching and training rather than falling or standing. The closing colophon and Pāli mnemonic verse are part of the source but are not translated text, and are described rather than reproduced here. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Disrespectful, unable to grow
§1“Mendicants, a disrespectful and irreverent mendicant with five qualities can’t achieve growth, improvement, or maturity in this teaching and training. What five? A disrespectful and irreverent mendicant who is faithless … shameless … imprudent … lazy … witless can’t achieve growth, improvement, or maturity in this teaching and training. A disrespectful and irreverent mendicant with these five qualities can’t achieve growth, improvement, or maturity in this teaching and training.
Respectful, able to grow
§2A respectful and reverent mendicant with five qualities can achieve growth, improvement, and maturity in this teaching and training. What five? A respectful and reverent mendicant who is faithful … conscientious … prudent … energetic … wise can achieve growth, improvement, and maturity in this teaching and training. A respectful and reverent mendicant with these five qualities can achieve growth, improvement, and maturity in this teaching and training.”
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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 image does AN 5.10 use in place of AN 5.8 and 5.9's falling/standing image?
Correct: B. A third variation on the formula inherited from AN 5.8.
Question 2 of 10
Does AN 5.10 keep AN 5.9's 'disrespectful and irreverent' qualifier?
Correct: B. AN 5.10 inherits AN 5.9's addition and adds a further change of its own.
Question 3 of 10
What is the object of the growth this discourse describes — what is said to grow or stall?
Correct: B. A broader claim than any earlier discourse in the chapter — whole participation, not one quality.
Question 4 of 10
What is an 'uddāna', as explained in this discourse's guide?
Correct: B. The collection's own built-in index, left untranslated by Sujato.
Question 5 of 10
Why does Sujato leave the uddāna verse untranslated in the English edition?
Correct: B. The reading guide follows Sujato's choice rather than inventing a translation not in the source.
Question 6 of 10
How does the guide say later vaggas in the Fives will handle this same closing colophon?
Correct: B. Explained fully once here, referenced briefly from then on.
Question 7 of 10
What is the name given to this closing chapter itself, per the colophon?
Correct: B. Matching the chapter's own opening name from AN 5.1's glossary.
Question 8 of 10
What chapter follows immediately after this one, and what does the guide note about its name?
Correct: A. A reader who has read this chapter in full will recognize the terrain at AN 5.11.
Question 9 of 10
Are the three growth-words vuddhi, virūḷhi, and vepulla merged into one English term, or kept distinct?
Correct: B. A pattern the chapter favors at its more consequential moments.
Question 10 of 10
Where is AN 5.10 set?
Correct: B. Consistent with every discourse in this chapter after the first.
