Indriyasutta — Āhuneyyavagga — the first chapter of the Sixes
Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 6.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The worthiness formula attached to the five faculties plus liberation, named as one bundle of ‘six’
Length
~1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The five-faculty list (indriya) recurs constantly across the Chinese Āgamas and Abhidharma literature as part of the thirty-seven aids to awakening; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — a short formula, but one carrying real technical weight in the wider canon
Why this discourse
AN 5.1, at the head of the Fives, mentioned in passing that its own five-item list of a trainee’s powers shares three terms — faith, energy, wisdom — with “the much better known five faculties and five powers,” without giving that better-known pair a discourse of its own. AN 6.3 is where that pair — faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, wisdom, as indriya, faculties — finally gets named in full, folded into this chapter’s worthiness formula as a bundle of six alongside liberation itself.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A mendicant who has the five faculties — faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom — and who has, through them, reached the ending of defilements and full liberation, is worthy of offerings.
The list flagged three discourses back
AN 5.1’s reading guide already anticipated this pair, warning readers not to confuse its own five powers of a trainee (faith, conscience, prudence, energy, wisdom) with the standard five faculties and five powers (faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, wisdom). AN 6.3 is the discourse where that standard list, under the name indriya, receives its own dedicated statement in this series for the first time.
Faculties, powers, and one further ingredient
The five terms named here — saddhindriya, vīriyindriya, satindriya, samādhindriya, paññindriya — are elsewhere in the canon paired with an identical five-item list called bala, powers, differing only in grammatical form and emphasis: a faculty is a capacity that can be developed or left undeveloped; a power is that same capacity once it has become unshakeable. AN 6.4, immediately following, states the power-version of this same list.
Six qualities, five named plus liberation
The discourse is careful to count six qualities even though only five are named as indriya: the passage closes each of the five with “and they realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom … due to the ending of defilements” — the same closing clause that ended the sixth superhuman knowledge at AN 6.2. Liberation itself is the sixth item, not merely a decorative flourish added to five faculties.
Faculties as the root, not the crown
Where AN 6.2 crowned the worthiness formula with the most dramatic attainments the canon describes, AN 6.3 grounds it instead in five ordinary capacities every practitioner is asked to cultivate from the outset. Read together, the two discourses suggest that the same worthiness the tradition praises can be reached either by naming its most spectacular expression or by naming the plain faculties that make any progress toward it possible at all.
Key terms
indriya — “faculty” — a capacity that governs and directs practice; the term this discourse uses for the five-item list, and the discourse’s own title.
saddhindriya — the faculty of faith (saddhā + indriya) — the first of the five, confidence directed toward the Buddha’s awakening.
vīriyindriya — the faculty of energy — sustained effort in practice, the second of the five.
samādhindriya — the faculty of immersion — unification and steadiness of mind, the fourth of the five.
paññindriya — the faculty of wisdom — discernment of things as they are, the fifth of the five and the one the whole set is said to culminate in.
The text
The discourse in full: the five faculties and liberation, closing the worthiness formula. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The formula, and the five faculties
§1“Mendicants, a mendicant with six qualities is worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods, worthy of hospitality, worthy of a religious donation, worthy of veneration with cupped palms, and is the supreme field of merit for the world. What six? The faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom. And they realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. A mendicant with these six qualities is worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods, worthy of hospitality, worthy of a religious donation, worthy of veneration with cupped palms, and is the supreme field of merit for the world.”
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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 five qualities does AN 6.3 name as indriya, faculties?
Correct: B. Saddhindriya, vīriyindriya, satindriya, samādhindriya, paññindriya.
Question 2 of 10
How did AN 5.1's reading guide already anticipate this discourse?
Correct: B. AN 6.3 is where that anticipated, better-known list finally gets its own page.
Question 3 of 10
How many qualities does AN 6.3 actually count toward the worthiness formula?
Correct: B. The closing clause adds liberation as the sixth item, matching AN 6.2's structure.
Question 4 of 10
What is the relationship between a faculty (indriya) and a power (bala) in this same five-item list?
Correct: B. AN 6.4, immediately following, restates the identical list as bala.
Question 5 of 10
Which faculty is said to be the one the whole set culminates in?
Correct: D. Paññindriya, wisdom, closes the list and directs the other four.
Question 6 of 10
What does AN 6.3 ground the worthiness formula in, compared to AN 6.2?
Correct: B. AN 6.2 crowns the formula with the highest attainments; AN 6.3 grounds it in plain faculties.
Question 7 of 10
Is AN 6.3 set at a newly stated location?
Correct: B. A bare continuation, as with AN 6.2.
Question 8 of 10
What does vīriyindriya mean?
Correct: B. Vīriya, energy or sustained effort, plus indriya, faculty.
Question 9 of 10
How does AN 6.4 relate to AN 6.3?
Correct: B. Same five terms, recast in the bala grammatical form — the next discourse.
Question 10 of 10
What broader canonical structure does this five-item list belong to?
Correct: B. As AN 5.1's guide already noted, this is 'the much better known five faculties and five powers.'
