Reading guide
The carer's side of the relationship
Where AN 5.123 assessed the patient, this discourse assesses the carer, completing a matched pair on the whole nursing relationship.
Five incompetent qualities
Unable to prepare medicine; unable to tell suitable from unsuitable, so supplying the wrong one and removing the right one; caring for material benefit rather than out of love; disgusted by removing feces, urine, vomit, or spit; and unable to educate, encourage, and inspire the patient with Dhamma talk from time to time.
A frank acknowledgment of what care actually involves
The discourse names bodily fluids directly and without euphemism — being disgusted by them is treated plainly as a genuine disqualification, not merely an understandable squeamishness. Real nursing care is described as requiring willingness to do exactly this.
Motivation named explicitly
The distinction between caring ‘for material benefit’ and caring ‘out of love’ (mettacitta) is stated as a moral criterion in its own right, not merely a matter of competence.
The mirrored positive
Able to prepare medicine, correctly distinguishing suitable from unsuitable, motivated by love rather than gain, undisgusted by bodily fluids, and able to give genuinely inspiring Dhamma talks.
What comes next
AN 5.125 shifts from the specific relationship of patient and carer to a broader question: what factors, in general, impede or promote a long life.
Key terms
The text
Not competent to care for a patient
§1“Mendicants, a carer with five qualities is not competent to care for a patient. What five? They’re unable to prepare medicine. They don’t know what is suitable and unsuitable, so they supply what is unsuitable and remove what is suitable. They care for the sick for the sake of material benefits, not out of love. They’re disgusted to remove feces, urine, vomit, or spit. They’re unable to educate, encourage, fire up, and inspire the patient with a Dhamma talk from time to time. A carer with these five qualities is not competent to care for a patient.
Competent to care for a patient
§2A carer with five qualities is competent to care for a patient. What five? They’re able to prepare medicine. They know what is suitable and unsuitable, so they remove what is unsuitable and supply what is suitable. They care for the sick out of love, not for the sake of material benefits. They’re not disgusted to remove feces, urine, vomit, or spit. They’re able to educate, encourage, fire up, and inspire the patient with a Dhamma talk from time to time. A carer with these five qualities is competent to care for a patient.”
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