Reading guide
The chapter's title discourse, positioned early
Unlike most other chapters in this nipāta, where the title discourse closes the chapter, this one appears fourth. Andhakavinda, in the land of the Magadhans, is a real, specific location named nowhere else so far in this project, and gives the whole chapter its name.
Direct instructions for newcomers
Five things junior mendicants should be ‘encouraged, supported, and established in’, each given as an exact quoted exhortation: monastic restraint, sense restraint, limited speech, wilderness retreat, and right view.
Five familiar qualities, restated as direct speech
Each of the five has already appeared elsewhere in this collection in descriptive form — monastic restraint and wilderness dwelling at several points, sense restraint at AN 5.76. What's new here is the explicit script: not just what these qualities are, but the actual words a senior mendicant is told to speak to a newcomer.
Limiting speech, the one genuinely new element
Among the five, limiting speech — ‘please speak little, put a limit on your speech’ — hasn't appeared in quite this form elsewhere in this nipāta, worth noting as advice suited specifically to someone still learning, rather than framed as a general monastic ideal.
A three-part verb formula, repeated five times
Each of the five instructions is introduced with the identical triple verb — ‘encouraged, supported, and established’ (samādapetabbā nivesetabbā patiṭṭhāpetabbā) — giving the whole discourse a formal, almost ceremonial structure around otherwise practical advice.
What comes next
AN 5.115 shifts entirely, opening a run of six consecutive discourses addressed specifically to nuns.
Key terms
The text
Ānanda's visit
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Magadhans at Andhakavinda. Then Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, and sat down to one side. The Buddha said to him: “Ānanda, those mendicants who are junior, recently gone forth, newly come to this teaching and training should be encouraged, supported, and established in five things. What five?
Restraint in the monastic code
§2They should be encouraged, supported, and established in restraint in the monastic code: ‘Reverends, please be ethical. Live restrained in the monastic code, conducting yourselves well and resorting for alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, keep the rules you’ve undertaken.’
Sense restraint
§3They should be encouraged, supported, and established in sense restraint: ‘Reverends, please live with sense doors guarded, mindfully alert and on guard, with protected mind, having a heart protected by mindfulness.’
Limiting speech
§4They should be encouraged, supported, and established in limiting their speech: ‘Reverends, please speak little. Put a limit on your speech.’
Retreat
§5They should be encouraged, supported, and established in retreat: ‘Reverends, please live in the wilderness. Frequent remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest.’
Right perspective
§6They should be encouraged, supported, and established in right perspective: ‘Reverends, please hold right view and have right perspective.’ Those mendicants who are junior, recently gone forth, newly come to this teaching and training should be encouraged, supported, and established by you in these five things.”
Self-check quiz
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