Tatiyasattakasutta — Vajjisattakavagga — the third chapter of the Sevens
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A single seven-item list of personal qualities, the third variant in this chapter's mendicant series
Length
under 30 seconds to read
Northern parallel
Faith, conscience, prudence, learning, energy, mindfulness, and wisdom as a fixed positive set recur widely across the Chinese Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief, echoing but not duplicating AN 7.5's seven kinds of wealth
Why this discourse
AN 7.25 names seven personal qualities — faithful, conscientious, prudent, learned, energetic, mindful, and wise — six of which match AN 7.5's seven kinds of wealth almost exactly, differing only in that this list drops generosity and ethics, replacing them with mindfulness, and reframes the remaining items as qualities of character rather than kinds of wealth.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
As long as mendicants are faithful, conscientious, prudent, learned, energetic, mindful, and wise, they can expect growth, not decline.
Close to, but not identical to, AN 7.5's seven kinds of wealth
Checked term by term against AN 7.5's list — faith, ethics, conscience, prudence, learning, generosity, wisdom — this discourse shares five items exactly (faith, conscience, prudence, learning, wisdom) but drops ethics and generosity, adding mindfulness and energy in their place: a close relative, not a restatement.
Wealth reframed as character, and decline as its opposite
AN 7.5 framed these qualities as forms of wealth, prosperity a person possesses. This discourse instead frames the same core cluster as what prevents decline — the identical inward qualities read once as possession and once as protection, depending on which discourse's frame is applied.
The third of five variants, continuing this chapter's pattern
Following AN 7.23's political-template adaptation and AN 7.24's familiar four-item-core expansion, this discourse offers yet a third distinct approach to the same “principles that prevent decline” framing — a set of personal virtues rather than communal procedures or specific conduct.
Key terms
saddha, hirimā, ottappī — “faithful, conscientious, prudent” — the first three qualities, matching AN 7.5's wealth list exactly.
bahussuta — “learned” — the fourth quality, matching AN 7.5's “learning” (suta).
āraddhavīriya, satimā, paññavā — “energetic, mindful, wise” — the fifth, sixth, and seventh qualities, with energy and mindfulness new to this list compared to AN 7.5.
sīla, cāga — “ethics, generosity” — two of AN 7.5's seven kinds of wealth, absent from this discourse's version.
aparihāniyā dhammā — “principles that prevent decline” — this discourse's own framing, distinct from AN 7.5's framing of the same core cluster as wealth.
The text
The discourse in full: seven personal qualities that prevent a mendicant's decline. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The seven qualities
§1“Mendicants, I will teach you seven principles that prevent decline. Listen and apply your mind well … And what are the seven principles that prevent decline? As long as the mendicants are faithful … conscientious … prudent … learned … energetic … mindful … wise, they can expect growth, not decline. As long as these seven principles that prevent decline last among the mendicants, and as long as the mendicants are seen following them, they can expect growth, not decline.”
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Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 6
How many of this discourse's seven items match AN 7.5's seven kinds of wealth exactly?
Correct: B. A close relative of AN 7.5's list, not a restatement.
Question 2 of 6
What two items does this discourse drop from AN 7.5's list, and what replaces them?
Correct: B. A genuine, checked difference despite the strong overlap.
Question 3 of 6
How does this discourse's framing differ from AN 7.5's, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Possession versus protection, two frames for closely related qualities.
Question 4 of 6
What position does this discourse occupy in this chapter's series of mendicant non-decline variants?
Correct: B. A third distinct approach to the shared 'non-decline' framing.
Question 5 of 6
Is a setting stated for AN 7.25?
Correct: B. A bare formula, following AN 7.24 immediately before it.
Question 6 of 6
What does bahussuta mean?
Correct: B. The fourth quality, matching AN 7.5's 'learning' item exactly.
