Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, and the training, being easy to admonish, and good friendship together prevent a mendicant's decline, and each is fulfilled not merely by holding it privately but by practicing it, encouraging others toward it, and praising others who already have it.
Another variant of a formula this series has now met several times
A near-identical six-item respect formula — for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, and the training, plus two further items — was already met three times earlier in this chapter's First Fifty, at AN 6.32, 6.33, and 6.40, with a different fifth-and-sixth pair each time (diligence and hospitality; conscience and prudence; diligence and hospitality again, applied to all four assemblies). Checked in Pāli, this discourse's own fifth and sixth items are sovacassatā (being easy to admonish) and kalyāṇamittatā (good friendship) — a fourth distinct pairing, not a repeat of any of the three before it.
A brief statement, given three full retellings
The deity states its six items once to the Buddha; the Buddha restates them verbatim to the mendicants the next morning; and the discourse's core formula for how each item is fulfilled — personally holding it, encouraging others toward it, and praising others who have it — is then given twice more, once by Sāriputta and once again by the Buddha confirming it word for word. Four full statements of essentially the same six-item content sit inside one discourse.
Three parts to fulfilling each item
Sāriputta's explanation gives each of the six items the identical treatment: a mendicant personally holds it, praises holding it, encourages other mendicants who lack it to take it up, and praises those who already have it “at the right time, truthfully and correctly.” Respect, on this reading, is not simply a private disposition but something actively modeled, taught, and publicly recognized in others.
The Buddha's confirmation, not correction
When the Buddha responds to Sāriputta's explanation, he does not add, subtract, or revise a single item — he repeats it in full and calls it “good, good.” The discourse ends not on new content but on an exact echo, a structure this series has also met with Ānanda and Mahākaccāna in earlier explanation-discourses of the Sixes.
Key terms
The text
A deity's nighttime visit
§1Then, late at night, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, went up to the Buddha, bowed, stood to one side, and said to him: “Sir, these six things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant. What six? Respect for the Teacher, for the teaching, for the Saṅgha, for the training; being easy to admonish, and good friendship. These six things don’t 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 retells it to the mendicants
§2Then, when the night had passed, the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “Tonight, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, came to me, bowed, stood to one side, and said to me: ‘Sir, these six things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant. What six? Respect for the Teacher, for the teaching, for the Saṅgha, for the training; being easy to admonish, and good friendship. These six things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant.’ That is what that deity said. Then he bowed and respectfully circled me, keeping me on his right side, before vanishing right there.”
Sāriputta's detailed explanation
§3When he said this, Venerable Sāriputta said to the Buddha: “Sir, this is how I understand the detailed meaning of the Buddha’s brief statement. It’s when a mendicant personally respects the Teacher and praises such respect. And they encourage other mendicants who lack such respect to respect the Teacher. And they praise other mendicants who respect the Teacher at the right time, truthfully and correctly. They personally respect the teaching … They personally respect the Saṅgha … They personally respect the training … They are personally easy to admonish … They personally have good friends, and praise such friendship. And they encourage other mendicants who lack good friends to develop good friendship. And they praise other mendicants who have good friends at the right time, truthfully and correctly. That’s how I understand the detailed meaning of the Buddha’s brief statement.”
The Buddha's confirmation, restated in full
§4“Good, good, Sāriputta! It’s good that you understand the detailed meaning of what I’ve said in brief like this. It’s when a mendicant personally respects the Teacher … They personally respect the teaching … They personally respect the Saṅgha … They personally respect the training … They are personally easy to admonish … They personally have good friends, and praise such friendship. And they encourage other mendicants who lack good friends to develop good friendship. And they praise other mendicants who have good friends at the right time, truthfully and correctly. This is how to understand the detailed meaning of what I said in brief.”
Self-check quiz
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