Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A mendicant trainee who relishes work, talk, sleep, and company, doesn't guard the sense doors, eats too much, and involves themselves in Saṅgha business better left to senior mendicants declines; the seven reversals prevent that decline.
Six items already familiar, checked against their earlier appearances
The first six items are, checked term by term, identical to AN 6.31's list of a trainee's causes of decline in the previous nipāta, and closely overlapping with AN 7.24's own four-item core earlier in this chapter — content this series has now met at least three times across two nipātas.
A new seventh item: knowing when not to step in
The seventh and only new item concerns a specific failure of deference: when Saṅgha business arises, a trainee who fails to reflect that senior mendicants “of long standing, long gone forth, responsible... will be known for taking care of this” gets needlessly involved, rather than trusting the community's existing structure of responsibility.
A return to blockage-and-reversal, after five 'non-decline' variants
Unlike AN 7.21 and 7.23–27's single positive list of principles that prevent decline, this discourse returns to the paired blockage/reversal structure familiar from the Sixes, stating both what leads to a trainee's decline and its direct opposite in full.
Key terms
The text
Seven things that lead to a trainee's decline
§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: “These seven things lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee. What seven? They relish work, talk, sleep, and company. They don’t guard the sense doors and they eat too much. And when there is Saṅgha business to be carried out, they don’t reflect: ‘There are senior mendicants in the Saṅgha of long standing, long gone forth, responsible. They’ll be known for taking care of this.’ So they get involved in that. These seven things lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee.
Seven things that don't
§2These seven things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee. What seven? They don’t relish work, talk, sleep, and company. They guard the sense doors and don’t eat too much. And when there is Saṅgha business to be carried out, they reflect: ‘There are senior mendicants in the Saṅgha of long standing, long gone forth, responsible. They’ll be known for taking care of this.’ So they don’t get involved in that. These seven things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee.”
Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.