Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A mendicant who desires material things, honor, and status, lacks conscience and prudence, and has corrupt wishes and wrong view is disliked by their spiritual companions; the seven direct opposites make a mendicant liked.
A new nipāta, opening with its full formula
Where individual chapters within the Sixes often opened straight into a bare teaching, this discourse gives the complete traditional frame — the narrator's own '“so I have heard,”' the setting, and the address to the mendicants — the standard way a new nipāta's very first discourse is presented in this literature, matching how the Sixes themselves opened at AN 6.1.
Seven items, not six
The core structure — a blocking list matched by its direct reversal — will be familiar from the entire Sixes collection just completed. What changes with this new nipāta is only the count: seven items instead of six, the numerical theme this entire book will develop discourse after discourse.
Desire for status, before any conduct is named
The list opens not with an action but with a disposition: wanting material things, honor, and status. Only after naming this underlying desire does the list turn to conscience, prudence, and finally view — suggesting the chain of what makes a mendicant disliked begins in craving before it shows up in judgment or belief.
Key terms
The text
The setting
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. There the Buddha addressed the mendicants, “Mendicants!” “Venerable sir,” they replied. The Buddha said this:
Seven qualities that make a mendicant disliked
§2“Mendicants, a mendicant with seven qualities is disliked and disapproved by their spiritual companions, not respected or admired. What seven? It’s when a mendicant desires material things, honor, and status. They lack conscience and prudence. They have corrupt wishes and wrong view. A mendicant with these seven qualities is disliked and disapproved by their spiritual companions, not respected or admired.
Seven qualities that make a mendicant liked
§3A mendicant with seven qualities is liked and approved by their spiritual companions, respected and admired. What seven? It’s when a mendicant doesn’t desire material things, honor, and status. They have conscience and prudence. They have few desires and right view. A mendicant with these seven qualities is liked and approved by their spiritual companions, respected and admired.”
Self-check quiz
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