Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A mendicant worthy of offerings has given up defilements by six distinct methods — restraint of the sense faculties, rational use of requisites, endurance of discomfort, avoidance of danger, actively getting rid of arisen bad thoughts, and developing the awakening factors — each method suited to a different kind of defilement.
Restraint: preventing before contact
The first method, restraining the six sense faculties through rational reflection, addresses defilements before they arise at all — the “distressing and feverish defilements that might arise” in someone without restraint simply do not arise when restraint is present. This is prevention, not response.
Using: reframing necessity through reflection
The second method does not describe abstaining from robes, food, lodging, or medicine, but using them with rational reflection on their actual purpose — robes only against cold, heat, and insects; food only to sustain the body and support practice, explicitly not for “fun, indulgence, adornment, or decoration.” The defilement addressed here is not the use of requisites but the unreflective attachment that can attach to their use.
Enduring, avoiding, and getting rid: three different postures toward difficulty
Enduring concerns discomforts that must simply be borne — cold, heat, hunger, physical pain, harsh criticism. Avoiding concerns dangers better sidestepped entirely — wild animals, dangerous terrain, bad company. Getting rid concerns thoughts already arisen — sensual, malicious, or cruel thoughts — that must be actively eliminated rather than endured or avoided. The discourse keeps these three methods distinct rather than treating “dealing with difficulty” as one undifferentiated response.
Developing: the constructive method closing the list
Where the first five methods are largely protective or corrective, the sixth — developing the seven awakening factors, from mindfulness through equanimity — is purely constructive, cultivating qualities that rely on “seclusion, fading away, and cessation” and ripen as letting go. The list closes not on defense but on active cultivation.
Key terms
The text
The worthiness formula, and the six methods named
§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? It’s a mendicant who, by restraint, has given up the defilements that should be given up by restraint. By using, they’ve given up the defilements that should be given up by using. By enduring, they’ve given up the defilements that should be given up by enduring. By avoiding, they’ve given up the defilements that should be given up by avoiding. By getting rid, they’ve given up the defilements that should be given up by getting rid. By developing, they’ve given up the defilements that should be given up by developing.
Restraint and using
§2And what are the defilements that should be given up by restraint? Take a mendicant who, reflecting rationally, lives restraining the eye faculty. For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without restraint of the eye faculty do not arise when there is such restraint. Reflecting rationally, they live restraining the ear faculty … the nose faculty … the tongue faculty … the body faculty … the mind faculty. For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without restraint of the mind faculty do not arise when there is such restraint. These are called the defilements that should be given up by restraint. And what are the defilements that should be given up by using? Take a mendicant who, reflecting rationally, makes use of robes: ‘Only for the sake of warding off cold and heat; for warding off the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and reptiles; and for covering up the private parts.’ Reflecting rationally, they make use of almsfood: ‘Not for fun, indulgence, adornment, or decoration, but only to sustain this body, to avoid harm, and to support spiritual practice. In this way, I shall put an end to old discomfort and not give rise to new discomfort, and I will have the means to keep going, blamelessness, and a comfortable abiding.’ Reflecting rationally, they make use of lodgings: ‘Only for the sake of warding off cold and heat; for warding off the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and reptiles; to shelter from harsh weather and to enjoy retreat.’ Reflecting rationally, they make use of medicines and supplies for the sick: ‘Only for the sake of warding off the pains of illness and to promote good health.’ For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without using these things do not arise when they are used. These are called the defilements that should be given up by using.
Enduring, avoiding, and getting rid
§3And what are the defilements that should be given up by enduring? Take a mendicant who, reflecting rationally, endures cold, heat, hunger, and thirst. They endure the touch of flies, mosquitoes, wind, sun, and reptiles. They endure rude and unwelcome criticism. And they put up with physical pain—sharp, severe, acute, unpleasant, disagreeable, and life-threatening. For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without enduring these things do not arise when they are endured. These are called the defilements that should be given up by enduring. And what are the defilements that should be given up by avoiding? Take a mendicant who, reflecting rationally, avoids a wild elephant, a wild horse, a wild ox, a wild dog, a snake, a stump, thorny ground, a pit, a cliff, a swamp, and a sewer. Reflecting rationally, they avoid sitting on inappropriate seats, walking in inappropriate neighborhoods, and mixing with bad friends—whatever sensible spiritual companions would believe to be a bad setting. For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without avoiding these things do not arise when they are avoided. These are called the defilements that should be given up by avoiding. And what are the defilements that should be given up by getting rid? Take a mendicant who, reflecting rationally, doesn’t tolerate a sensual, malicious, or cruel thought that has arisen. They don’t tolerate any bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen, but give them up, get rid of them, eliminate them, and obliterate them. For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without getting rid of these things do not arise when they are gotten rid of. These are called the defilements that should be given up by getting rid.
Developing, and the conclusion
§4And what are the defilements that should be given up by developing? Take a mendicant who, reflecting rationally, develops the awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. For the distressing and feverish defilements that might arise in someone who lives without developing these things do not arise when they are developed. These are called the defilements that should be given up by developing. 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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