Reading guide
A question, deflected
Ānanda asks Sāriputta how to define a mendicant who is ‘quick-witted, learns well, learns much, and doesn't forget what they've learned’ — and Sāriputta, rather than answering, redirects the question back to Ānanda, citing his own renowned learning.
Five kinds of skill
Ānanda answers with a five-part formula: being skilled in the meaning (attha), skilled in the teaching itself (dhamma), skilled in definition (byañjana), skilled in phrasing (nirutti), and skilled in sequence (pubbāpara) — five distinct dimensions of genuine command over a body of teaching, not simply memorization.
Praise in return
Sāriputta calls Ānanda's answer ‘incredible’ and ‘amazing’, then explicitly declares that these same five qualities describe Ānanda himself — turning a request for a definition into a direct compliment, grounded in the answer's own content.
A companion pair with AN 5.170
This discourse and the next form a matched pair: in each, Ānanda puts a question to a companion, who initially deflects it back to Ānanda as the more learned party, before the exchange resolves into a substantive answer.
Learning as more than retention
Read alongside AN 5.163's fivefold body of the teaching, this discourse reframes what ‘learning well’ actually requires: not simply remembering words, but commanding meaning, phrasing, and the internal order of a teaching all at once.
Key terms
The text
Ānanda's definition
§1Then Venerable Ānanda went up to Venerable Sāriputta, and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to him: “Reverend Sāriputta, how are we to define a mendicant who is quick-witted when it comes to skillful teachings, who learns well, learns much, and does not forget what they’ve learned?” “Well, Venerable Ānanda, you’re very learned. Why don’t you clarify this yourself?” “Well then, Reverend Sāriputta, listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, reverend,” Sāriputta replied. Venerable Ānanda said this: “It’s when a mendicant is skilled in the meaning, skilled in the teaching, skilled in definition, skilled in phrasing, and skilled in sequence. That is how to define a mendicant who is quick-witted when it comes to skillful teachings, who learns well, learns much, and does not forget what they’ve learned.”
Sāriputta's praise
§2“It’s incredible, it’s amazing! How well this was said by Venerable Ānanda! And we will remember Venerable Ānanda as someone who possesses these five qualities: ‘Reverend Ānanda is skilled in the meaning, skilled in the teaching, skilled in definition, skilled in phrasing, and skilled in sequence.’”
Self-check quiz
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