Reading guide
Three comforts, one pattern
The first three perils share an identical template: a preference for nice robes, then nice almsfood, then nice lodgings, each leading to neglect of the corresponding austere practice (rag-robes, alms-walking, dwelling at the root of a tree), abandonment of remote wilderness lodgings for towns and cities, and ‘many kinds of improper solicitation’ for the item in question.
Mixing closely with nuns, trainee nuns, and novice nuns
The fourth peril predicts that mendicants who mix closely with the women's monastic orders can be expected to end up dissatisfied with the spiritual life, to commit a corrupt offense, or to disrobe. This is a Vinaya-adjacent concern about boundary-keeping between the orders, stated plainly here without further claims about women generally.
Mixing closely with monastery attendants and novices
The fifth peril predicts mendicants who mix closely with lay attendants (ārāmika) and novices will store up goods for personal use and make ‘obvious hints’ about digging earth and cutting plants — a specific reference to Vinaya training rules that forbid mendicants themselves from damaging living plants or turned soil, worked around here by hinting at attendants and novices, who are not bound by the same rule, to do it for them.
What's different from AN 5.79
This discourse drops AN 5.79's two-way corruption refrain entirely; the chapter's final pair of discourses instead separates two distinct tracks of predicted decline — institutional and doctrinal at AN 5.79, material and relational here.
The chapter's close
The colophon Dasamaṁ. Yodhājīvavaggo tatiyo — the tenth discourse, closing the third Yodhājīvavagga — follows the same mechanism explained in full at AN 5.10 and not repeated here.
The uddāna's opening line
The chapter's mnemonic verse opens by naming its own discourse-pairs: two on freedom of heart as fruit (AN 5.71–72), and two on one who lives by the teaching (AN 5.73–74), continuing on to name the warriors (AN 5.75–76) before the verse's remaining lines are left, as elsewhere in this collection, untranslated in the source.
Key terms
The text
Nice robes
§1What five? In a future time there will be mendicants who like nice robes. They will neglect the practice of wearing rag robes and the practice of frequenting remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. They will come down to the villages, towns, and capital cities and make their homes there. And they will employ many kinds of improper solicitation for the sake of a robe. This is the first future peril that has not currently arisen, but will arise in the future …
Nice almsfood
§2Furthermore, in a future time there will be mendicants who like nice almsfood. They will neglect the practice of walking for almsfood and the practice of frequenting remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. They will come down to the villages, towns, and capital cities and make their homes there. And they will employ many kinds of improper solicitation for the sake of almsfood. This is the second future peril that has not currently arisen, but will arise in the future …
Nice lodgings
§3Furthermore, in a future time there will be mendicants who like nice lodgings. They will neglect the practice of staying at the root of a tree and the practice of frequenting remote lodgings in the wilderness and the forest. They will come down to the villages, towns, and capital cities and make their homes there. And they will employ many kinds of improper solicitation for the sake of lodgings. This is the third future peril that has not currently arisen, but will arise in the future …
Mixing closely with nuns
§4Furthermore, in a future time there will be mendicants who mix closely with nuns, trainee nuns, and novice nuns. In such conditions, it can be expected that they will lead the spiritual life dissatisfied, or commit one of the corrupt offenses, or disavow the training and return to a lesser life. This is the fourth future peril that has not currently arisen, but will arise in the future …
Mixing closely with monastery attendants
§5Furthermore, in a future time there will be mendicants who mix closely with monastery attendants and novices. In such conditions it can be expected that they will engage in storing up goods for their own use, and making obvious hints about digging the earth and cutting plants. This is the fifth future peril that has not currently arisen, but will arise in the future …
The close, and the chapter's colophon
§6These are the five future perils that have not currently arisen, but will arise in the future. You should look out for them and try to give them up.”
§7
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.