Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, the training, and immersion, together with diligence and hospitality, prevents a mendicant trainee's decline.
A fifth variant of a formula already met four times
This chapter's own reading guides will trace this “respect” formula's core — Teacher, teaching, Saṅgha, training — through four prior appearances at AN 6.32, 6.33, 6.40, and 6.69 in the previous nipāta, each with a different fifth-and-sixth pair. This discourse both extends the four-item core to five (adding immersion) and closes on a genuinely new pair: diligence (appamāda) and hospitality (pāricariyā), matching neither of the four Sixes variants.
A five-item core, not four, in this nipāta
Where every appearance of this formula in the Sixes kept its core at four items (Teacher, teaching, Saṅgha, training), this discourse and its three companions in this chapter (AN 7.33–35) all extend that core to five by adding immersion — a structural shift specific to how this formula recurs in the Sevens.
The deity's approval, and the Buddha's own added verse
As at AN 6.69, the deity's statement earns only the Buddha's silent approval before it departs; here the Buddha adds something AN 6.69 did not, closing his retelling to the mendicants with an original verse restating the same seven items and adding a further claim: a mendicant who respects all seven “has drawn near to extinguishment.”
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 seven things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee. What seven? Respect for the Teacher, for the teaching, for the Saṅgha, for the training, for immersion, for diligence, and for hospitality. These seven things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee.” 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's retelling, with a closing verse
§2Then, when the night had passed, the Buddha told the mendicants all that had happened, adding: “Respect for the Teacher and the teaching, and keen respect for the Saṅgha; respect for immersion, being energetic, and keen respect for the training. A mendicant who respects diligence and hospitality can’t decline, and has drawn near to extinguishment.”
Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.