Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Respect for the Teacher, the teaching, the Saṅgha, the training, and immersion, together with conscience and prudence, prevents a mendicant trainee's decline.
The same core, a different closing pair than its immediate predecessor
Checked term by term against AN 7.32, this discourse's first five items are identical; only the sixth and seventh change, from diligence and hospitality to conscience (hiri) and prudence (ottappa) — a substitution that matches AN 6.33's closing pair from the Sixes exactly, though applied here to the extended five-item core rather than the Sixes' four-item one.
A sixth documented variant of this recurring formula
Counting AN 6.32, 6.33, 6.40, and 6.69 from the previous nipāta, plus AN 7.32 immediately before this discourse, this is the sixth time this series has met some version of the “respect” formula, each requiring individual verification of its closing pair rather than assumption from the shared opening.
No original closing verse this time
Unlike AN 7.32, which added an original closing verse with the phrase “drawn near to extinguishment,” this discourse's verse simply restates the seven items in poetic form without that additional claim, closing on “it is impossible for them to decline; they have drawn near to extinguishment” — in fact repeating the same phrase, but as part of the verse's direct restatement rather than an added original flourish.
Key terms
The text
The Buddha retells the deity's visit
§1“Mendicants, tonight, a glorious deity, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, came to me, bowed, stood to one side, and said to me: ‘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 conscience, and for prudence. These seven things don’t lead to the decline of a mendicant trainee.’ That is what that deity said. Then he bowed and respectfully circled me, keeping me on his right side, before vanishing right there. One respectful of the Teacher and the teaching, keenly respecting the Saṅgha; respecting immersion, being energetic, and keenly respecting the training;
The closing verse
§2endowed with conscience and prudence, reverential and respectful—it is impossible for them to decline; they have drawn near to extinguishment.”
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