Vipattisutta — Vajjisattakavagga — the third chapter of the Sevens
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
The identical content as AN 7.29, compressed to a bare title-change via Pāli ellipsis — the second of three near-identical discourses
Length
under 15 seconds to read
Northern parallel
The pairing of 'failure' (vipatti) and 'accomplishment' (sampadā) as a technical vocabulary pair recurs across the Chinese Āgamas' treatment of lay conduct; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — almost entirely elided, pointing back to AN 7.29 for its full content
Why this discourse
AN 7.30 restates AN 7.29's identical seven-item content on a lay follower's spiritual condition, but under an entirely different technical vocabulary: vipatti, “failure,” and its reversal sampadā, “accomplishment,” rather than parihāni, “decline,” and aparihāni, “non-decline.” The source compresses the entire discourse to almost nothing, assuming AN 7.29's full content throughout.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
There are seven failures for a lay follower, and seven accomplishments — the identical seven items already given in full at AN 7.29, now under different technical names.
A vocabulary shift, not a content shift
Checked against AN 7.29, this discourse's content is unchanged; only the governing terms differ. Vipatti and sampadā are a standard paired vocabulary in this literature's ethical analysis, distinct from parihāni and aparihāni but describing, in this instance, exactly the same seven-item reality.
Almost total compression
The source text gives only the bare announcement — “these seven failures for a lay follower... these seven accomplishments for a lay follower” — before eliding everything else with “…,” trusting a reader who has just read AN 7.29 to supply the entire remaining content without difficulty.
The second of three, with one more restatement to come
AN 7.31, immediately following, will restate this identical content a third time under yet another title, this time spelled out again in full rather than elided — completing a genre pattern already met at AN 6.89–91 in the previous nipāta, where one identical list was restated three times under three different governing verbs or terms.
Key terms
vipatti — “failure” — this discourse's own title term, replacing AN 7.29's parihāni, decline, though naming the identical seven-item content.
sampadā — “accomplishment” — the reversal's governing term, replacing AN 7.29's aparihāni, non-decline.
…pe… — the Pāli ellipsis mark, standing in here for the entirety of AN 7.29's seven-item content on both sides, blocking and enabling.
upāsaka — “lay follower” — the same subject as AN 7.29, unchanged across this vocabulary shift.
aparihāni — “non-decline” — AN 7.29's own governing term for the same content this discourse instead calls sampadā.
The text
The formula exactly as the source compresses it: the identical content as AN 7.29, under new technical names. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
The compressed formula
§1“Mendicants, there are these seven failures for a lay follower … There are these seven accomplishments for a lay follower …”
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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 does this discourse's content compare to AN 7.29's, checked against the source?
Correct: B. A vocabulary shift, not a content shift.
Question 2 of 6
What two terms govern this discourse's blocking and enabling halves?
Correct: B. A standard paired vocabulary distinct from AN 7.29's own terms.
Question 3 of 6
How compressed is this discourse's own text?
Correct: B. A reader who has just read AN 7.29 can supply the entire remaining content.
Question 4 of 6
What earlier discourse trio in this series does the guide compare this pattern to?
Correct: B. A genre convention already met once before in the previous nipāta.
Question 5 of 6
Is a setting stated for AN 7.30?
Correct: B. A bare formula, as compressed as the rest of this discourse.
Question 6 of 6
What comes next in this three-discourse family, according to the guide?
Correct: B. One further restatement completes this three-part family.
