Reading guide
The same template, generalized
As at AN 5.77, each reflection repeats an identical shape, but the addressee widens from wilderness-dwellers specifically to any mendicant, and the content shifts from external threats to predictable changes in one's own life and community.
Old age and sickness
The first two perils are the ordinary bodily changes every practitioner can expect: old age, and sickness. Both follow the identical warning — that focusing on the Buddha's instructions, and frequenting remote wilderness lodgings, become harder once either has taken hold.
Famine and civil unrest
The third and fourth perils — famine and civil unrest — share a single consequence: people move toward safety or sustenance and end up living crowded and cramped together (saṅgaṇikavihāra), which itself becomes an obstacle to focused practice. This material closely parallels AN 5.54, which named famine and unrest among its own list of times unfavorable for meditation.
Schism in the Saṅgha
The fifth and gravest peril is schism within the monastic community itself — named last, as the deepest disruption to the shared conditions that otherwise support practice.
Motivation, not fear
As at AN 5.77, each reflection closes not with resignation but with a resolve to preempt the coming difficulty by practicing now, specifically so that when old age, sickness, famine, unrest, or schism eventually arrives, one can live comfortably even so.
A third companion to come
AN 5.79 shifts register entirely, from personal and circumstantial change to institutional and doctrinal decline — the corruption of teaching and training themselves, rather than external or bodily hardship.
Key terms
The text
The five future perils, generalized
§1“Mendicants, seeing these five future perils is quite enough for a mendicant to meditate diligently, keenly, and resolutely for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. What five?
Old age
§2A mendicant reflects: ‘Currently I’m a youth, young, with pristine black hair, blessed with youth, in the prime of life. But there will come a time when this body is struck with old age. When you’re old, overcome by old age, it’s not easy to focus on the instructions of the Buddhas, and it’s not easy to frequent remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. Before that unlikable, undesirable, and disagreeable thing happens, I’d better preempt it by rousing up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. That way, when it happens, I’ll live comfortably even though I’m old.’ This is the first future peril …
Sickness
§3Furthermore, a mendicant reflects: ‘Currently, I’m rarely ill or unwell. My stomach digests well, being neither too hot nor too cold, but just right, and fit for meditation. But there will come a time when this body is struck with sickness. When you’re sick, overcome by sickness, it’s not easy to focus on the instructions of the Buddhas, and it’s not easy to frequent remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. Before that unlikable, undesirable, and disagreeable thing happens, I’d better preempt it by rousing up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. That way, when it happens, I’ll live comfortably even though I’m sick.’ This is the second future peril …
Famine
§4Furthermore, a mendicant reflects: ‘Currently, there’s plenty of food, a good harvest, so it’s easy to get almsfood, and easy to keep going by collecting alms. But there will come a time of famine, a bad harvest, when it’s hard to get almsfood, and not easy to keep going by collecting alms. In a time of famine, people move to where there’s plenty of food, where they live crowded and cramped together. When you live crowded and cramped together, it’s not easy to focus on the instructions of the Buddhas, and it’s not easy to frequent remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. Before that unlikable, undesirable, and disagreeable thing happens, I’d better preempt it by rousing up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. That way, when it happens, I’ll live comfortably even though there’s a famine.’ This is the third future peril …
Civil unrest
§5Furthermore, a mendicant reflects: ‘Currently, people live in harmony, appreciating each other, without dispute, blending like milk and water, and regarding each other with kindly eyes. But there will come a time of peril due to turmoil in the wilds, so the countryfolk mount their vehicles and flee everywhere. In a time of peril, people move to where there’s sanctuary, where they live crowded and cramped together. When you live crowded and cramped together, it’s not easy to focus on the instructions of the Buddhas, and it’s not easy to frequent remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. Before that unlikable, undesirable, and disagreeable thing happens, I’d better preempt it by rousing up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. That way, when it happens, I’ll live comfortably even in a time of peril.’ This is the fourth future peril …
Schism in the Saṅgha
§6Furthermore, a mendicant reflects: ‘Currently, the Saṅgha lives comfortably, in harmony, appreciating each other, without dispute, with one recitation. But there will come a time of schism in the Saṅgha. When there is schism in the Saṅgha, it’s not easy to focus on the instructions of the Buddhas, and it’s not easy to frequent remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. Before that unlikable, undesirable, and disagreeable thing happens, I’d better preempt it by rousing up energy for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized. That way, when it happens, I’ll live comfortably even though there’s schism in the Saṅgha.’ This is the fifth future peril …
The close
§7These are the five future perils, seeing which is quite enough for a mendicant to meditate diligently, keenly, and resolutely for attaining the unattained, achieving the unachieved, and realizing the unrealized.”
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