Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Six qualities lead to a mendicant's decline: relishing work, talk, and sleep (reported by a deity), and enjoying company, being hard to admonish, and having bad friends (added by the Buddha).
A deity as the initial teacher
It is the deity, not the Buddha, who first names the three qualities of decline — a structure this series has not yet met. The Buddha's role in that first exchange is only to approve: “that's what that deity said, and the teacher approved.” Only afterward, addressing the mendicants directly, does he add content of his own, framing the deity's report as essentially correct but incomplete.
A familiar trio, extended by three more
Work, talk, and sleep are exactly the three items opening the longer six-item list of AN 6.14 and 6.15 (work, talk, sleep, company, closeness, proliferation). Here the Buddha's three additions — enjoyment of company, being hard to admonish, and having bad friends — move from personal habits to relational ones, rounding the list out to six causes of decline that span both an individual's conduct and their choice of company.
A stern opening line
The Buddha's response to the deity's report is notably blunt: “It's unfortunate for those of you who even the deities know are declining in skillful qualities.” The line implies these six qualities of decline were visible enough, in at least some of the assembled mendicants, for a passing deity to notice and report on — a rare moment in this series where an outside observer's judgment prompts the teaching, rather than a question or a bare formula.
Setting up the chapter's second discourse
AN 6.22, immediately following, restates this same six-item structure in its positive form — not what causes decline, but what prevents it — without the narrative frame of a deity's visit. Read together, the two discourses form another brief pairing of stated-negative and stated-positive, a pattern with precedent already in AN 6.11/6.12.
Key terms
The text
At Sāma Village: a deity's visit
§1At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans near the little village of Sāma, by a lotus pond. Then, late at night, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire lotus pond, went up to the Buddha, bowed, stood to one side, and said to him, “Sir, three qualities lead to the decline of a mendicant. What three? Relishing work, talk, and sleep. These three qualities lead to the decline of a mendicant.” That’s what that deity said, and the teacher approved. Then that deity, knowing that the teacher approved, bowed, and respectfully circled the Buddha, keeping him on his right, before vanishing right there.
The Buddha's three further qualities
§2Then, when the night had passed, the Buddha told the mendicants all that had happened, adding: “It’s unfortunate for those of you who even the deities know are declining in skillful qualities. I will teach you three more qualities that lead to decline. Listen and apply your mind well, I will speak.” “Yes, sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this: “And what, mendicants, are three qualities that lead to decline? Enjoyment of company, being hard to admonish, and having bad friends. These three qualities lead to decline. Whether in the past, future, or present, all those who decline in skillful qualities do so because of these six qualities.”
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