Reading guide
Material support isn't enough
Addressing Anāthapiṇḍika and around five hundred lay followers, the Buddha acknowledges their generosity — robes, almsfood, lodgings, medicine — then tells them plainly not to be content with just this much. They should train to enter, from time to time, ‘the rapture of seclusion’ (pavivekaṁ pītiṁ) themselves.
Sāriputta's precise addition
Sāriputta praises the teaching, then adds a specific clarification: when a noble disciple dwells in this rapture of seclusion, five things are absent — but not evenly. Pain and pleasure connected with sensual pleasures are both absent; pain and pleasure connected with unskillful states are both absent; but only pain connected with skillful states is absent.
An asymmetry worth noticing
That final item is easy to read past: the pleasure connected with skillful states is not listed as absent. The rapture of seclusion excludes sensual disturbance and unskillful disturbance entirely, but doesn't exclude wholesome joy — only the distress that can accompany even skillful effort.
The Buddha's exact affirmation
Rather than simply approving in general terms, the Buddha repeats Sāriputta's five-item list back verbatim, word for word — a mark of precise agreement, not vague praise.
A companion to AN 5.180's Gavesī
Cross-ref this chapter's closing discourse, AN 5.180: the exhortation here not to be content with material support alone finds its fullest embodiment in Gavesī, a lay follower who takes exactly this advice as far as it can go, all the way to full liberation.
Key terms
The text
The Buddha's exhortation to the lay followers
§1“Householders, you have supplied the mendicant Saṅgha with robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. But you should not be content with just this much. So you should train like this: ‘How can we, from time to time, enter and dwell in the rapture of seclusion?’ That’s how you should train.”
Sāriputta's addition: what's absent
§2When he said this, Venerable Sāriputta said to the Buddha, “It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing! How well said this was by the Buddha: ‘Householders, you have supplied the mendicant Saṅgha with robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. But you should not be content with just this much. So you should train like this: “How can we, from time to time, enter and dwell in the rapture of seclusion?” That’s how you should train.’ At a time when a noble disciple enters and dwells in the rapture of seclusion, five things aren’t present in him. The pain and sadness connected with sensual pleasures. The pleasure and happiness connected with sensual pleasures. The pain and sadness connected with the unskillful. The pleasure and happiness connected with the unskillful. The pain and sadness connected with the skillful. At a time when a noble disciple enters and dwells in the rapture of seclusion, these five things aren’t present in him.”
The Buddha's affirmation
§3“Good, good, Sāriputta! At a time when a noble disciple enters and dwells in the rapture of seclusion, five things aren’t present in him. The pain and sadness connected with sensual pleasures. The pleasure and happiness connected with sensual pleasures. The pain and sadness connected with the unskillful. The pleasure and happiness connected with the unskillful. The pain and sadness connected with the skillful. At a time when a noble disciple enters and dwells in the rapture of seclusion, these five things aren’t present in him.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.