Sikkhāsutta — 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
Two mirror-image cases — someone who disrobes, and someone who perseveres in visible distress — each assessed against the same five qualities
Length
~2 minutes to read
Northern parallel
Formal grounds for criticism and praise of monastics attached to fixed criteria recur across Vinaya-adjacent literature broadly; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — the first discourse in the chapter to picture ordinary monastic life without softening it
Why this discourse
This discourse does something the three before it did not: it admits, without flinching, that the full and pure spiritual life can be lived in pain and sadness, weeping, with tearful face. That is not a description of failure. It is the discourse’s picture of someone who deserves praise on five legitimate grounds. AN 5.5 is worth reading slowly for that reason alone: it refuses to make endurance look easy, and refuses equally to let disrobing look like a private matter with no legitimate commentary attached.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A monk or nun who disavows the training deserves rebuttal and criticism on five legitimate grounds — having lacked faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom; one who lives the full and pure spiritual life through pain and tears deserves praise on the same five grounds, for having had them.
What ‘legitimate grounds’ means here
Sahadhammikā vādānupātā, legitimate grounds for criticism, is a specific, bounded claim. The discourse is not licensing any criticism a mendicant feels like making; it names exactly what the criticism may consist of — the five qualities — and nothing else. A community that took this discourse seriously would have a narrower, not a wider, license to comment on someone who has left the training than one that had not read it.
The unflattering half, stated plainly
The second case is the one worth pausing on. Sujato’s translation keeps the detail intact: in pain and sadness, weeping, with tearful face. This is not rhetorical exaggeration to make endurance sound impressive; nothing in the passage suggests the weeping is anything but real distress, genuinely felt.
The discourse does not resolve this into something more comfortable. It simply says that a person who has all five of these qualities and lives this way, with the difficulty fully present, deserves praise on five legitimate grounds. Difficulty and worth are not presented as opposites here; the discourse holds both without smoothing either one away.
Grounds, not outcomes
Notice what is and is not being judged. The discourse assesses whether the five qualities were present, not whether the person’s life turned out well or badly by some external measure. Two people could disrobe under very different circumstances; what this discourse licenses commentary on is only whether faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom were there to begin with.
Where this fits the chapter so far
AN 5.3 and 5.4 gave cosmic consequences — a present condition and a future rebirth, then hell or heaven pictured as delivery. AN 5.5 is the first to bring the same five qualities down to the scale of a single human decision and a single human community’s legitimate response to it. The stakes have not shrunk; they have become immediate.
Key terms
sikkhaṁ paccakkhāya — “disavowing the training” — the formal act of leaving monastic life, named directly in this discourse’s title and opening line.
hīnāyāvattati — “returns to a lesser life” — the standard phrase for returning to lay life after ordination, carrying an explicit value judgment in the word ‘lesser’.
sahadhammikā vādānupātā — “legitimate grounds for criticism” — a bounded, specific license, naming exactly the five qualities and nothing beyond them.
pāsaṁsā ṭhānā — “grounds for praise” — the positive counterpart, attached to the same five qualities in someone who endures rather than disrobes.
assumukho rudamāno — “weeping, with tearful face” — the discourse’s unsoftened picture of what enduring the holy life can actually look like.
The text
The discourse in full: legitimate grounds for criticizing one who disavows the training, and legitimate grounds for praising one who endures it in visible distress. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Disavowing the training
§1“Mendicants, any monk or nun who disavows the training and returns to a lesser life deserves rebuttal and criticism on five legitimate grounds in this very life. What five? ‘You had no faith, conscience, prudence, energy, or wisdom regarding skillful qualities.’ Any monk or nun who disavows the training and returns to a lesser life deserves rebuttal and criticism on these five legitimate grounds in this very life.
Enduring the holy life
§2Any monk or nun who lives the full and pure spiritual life in pain and sadness, weeping, with tearful face, deserves praise on five legitimate grounds in this very life. What five? ‘You had faith, conscience, prudence, energy, and wisdom regarding skillful qualities.’ Any monk or nun who lives the full and pure spiritual life in pain and sadness, weeping, with tearful face, deserves praise on these five legitimate grounds in this very life.”
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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 does AN 5.5 say deserves criticism on five legitimate grounds?
Correct: B. The discourse addresses both monks and nuns equally, and names exactly five bounded grounds.
Question 2 of 10
What does 'sahadhammikā vādānupātā' (legitimate grounds for criticism) actually license, according to the guide?
Correct: B. A narrower license than unrestricted commentary, not a wider one.
Question 3 of 10
How does the discourse describe someone who perseveres in the holy life and deserves praise?
Correct: B. The guide reads this as an honest, unflattering picture rather than exaggeration.
Question 4 of 10
What does the guide say about how the discourse handles difficulty and worth together?
Correct: B. Neither the weeping nor the praise is minimized to make the other easier to accept.
Question 5 of 10
What exactly is being judged by the five grounds, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Grounds, not outcomes — a distinction the guide draws explicitly.
Question 6 of 10
How does AN 5.5's scale compare to AN 5.3 and 5.4's?
Correct: B. The stakes shift from cosmic to immediate, without shrinking.
Question 7 of 10
What does 'hīnāyāvattati' mean, and what does its wording carry?
Correct: A. The word 'lesser' is part of the standard phrase itself, not an added commentary.
Question 8 of 10
Does AN 5.5 address monks and nuns equally?
Correct: C. Both halves name both explicitly.
Question 9 of 10
What are the same five qualities used throughout this discourse?
Correct: B. The sekhabala list, unchanged since AN 5.1.
Question 10 of 10
Where is AN 5.5 set?
Correct: B. Consistent with every discourse in this chapter after the first.
