Reading guide
The chapter's title discourse
Named Therasutta, sharing its title directly with Theravagga itself, this discourse asks what a senior mendicant's accumulated standing is actually used for.
Four shared qualities, one crucial difference
Both the harmful and the beneficial senior mendicant share four identical qualities: long-standing (rattaññū, cirapabbajita), well-known and famous with a large following of both laypeople and renunciates, receiving robes, almsfood, lodging, and medicine, and being very learned. Only the fifth quality differs: wrong view and a distorted perspective, versus right view and an undistorted perspective.
Why this structure matters
None of the four shared qualities is itself the problem. Seniority, fame, material support, and learning are exactly what a genuinely beneficial senior mendicant also has. The entire difference in outcome for ‘many people’ — even, the discourse says, for gods and humans — turns on the fifth quality alone.
Imitation, named explicitly again
As at AN 5.79, the mechanism of harm or benefit is generational imitation: people follow the example (diṭṭhānugati) set by what the senior mendicant is known for, in each of the four shared categories, reinforcing whichever view underlies it.
The stakes named explicitly
The discourse states plainly that a senior mendicant with wrong view ‘acts for the detriment and suffering of the people… of gods and humans’ — among the strongest language used anywhere in this chapter for what is, structurally, a doctrinal rather than a disciplinary failure.
A figure for AN 5.79's warning
This discourse restates and personifies the institutional-decline warning given in the abstract at AN 5.79, now embodied in a single influential figure whose ordinary, respectable qualities are exactly what makes the influence, for good or ill, effective.
Key terms
The text
The harmful senior mendicant
§1“Mendicants, a senior mendicant who has five qualities is acting for the detriment and suffering of the people, against the people, for the harm, detriment, and suffering of of gods and humans. What five? They are long standing and have long gone forth. They’re well-known, famous, with a large following that includes both laypeople and renunciates. They receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. They’re very learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. These teachings are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased, describing a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. They are very learned in such teachings, remembering them, rehearsing them, mentally scrutinizing them, and penetrating them theoretically. But they have wrong view and distorted perspective. They draw many people away from the true teaching and establish them in false teachings. People follow their example, thinking that the senior mendicant is long standing and has long gone forth. Or that they’re well-known, famous, with a large following that includes both laypeople and renunciates. Or that they receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. Or that they’re very learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. A senior mendicant who possesses these five qualities is acting for the detriment and suffering of the people, against the people, for the harm, detriment, and suffering of gods and humans.
The beneficial senior mendicant
§2A senior mendicant who has five qualities is acting for the welfare and happiness of the people, for the people, for the benefit, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans. What five? They are long standing and have long gone forth. They’re well-known, famous, with a large following, including both laypeople and renunciates. They receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. They’re very learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. These teachings are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased, describing a spiritual practice that’s entirely full and pure. They are very learned in such teachings, remembering them, rehearsing them, mentally scrutinizing them, and penetrating them theoretically. And they have right view and an undistorted perspective. They draw many people away from false teachings and establish them in the true teaching. People follow their example, thinking that the senior mendicant is long standing and has long gone forth. Or that they’re well-known, famous, with a large following that includes both laypeople and renunciates. Or that they receive robes, almsfood, lodgings, and medicines and supplies for the sick. Or that they’re very learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. A senior mendicant who possesses these five qualities is acting for the welfare and happiness of the people, for the people, for the benefit, welfare, and happiness of gods and humans.”
Self-check quiz
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