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Aṅguttara Nikāya · Discourse 8.5

Worldly Conditions (1st)

Paṭhamalokadhammasutta — Mettāvagga — the first chapter of the Eights

Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A bare eight-item list in four opposed pairs, followed by two verses on how a wise person meets them
Length
under 1 minute to read
One of the tradition's best-known teachings
The eight worldly conditions (aṭṭha lokadhammā) named here are among the most widely cited teachings in this literature, recurring across many genres and settings beyond this pair of discourses
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief and purely descriptive, no blocking-and-reversal shape this time

Why this discourse

AN 8.5 names the eight worldly conditions that revolve around the world — gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain — as impermanent and perishable, then closes with two verses on how an intelligent, mindful person meets them without being disturbed by the desirable or repelled by the undesirable.

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

The eight worldly conditions — gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain — revolve around the world just as the world revolves around them; they are impermanent and perishable, and the wise meet them without being disturbed.

Four pairs, not a blocking-and-reversal list

Unlike most of this chapter's discourses so far, this one is not structured as a blocking list matched by its reversal. It simply names four pairs of opposites — gain/loss, fame/disgrace, blame/praise, pleasure/pain — as the fixed conditions every being in the world encounters.

Encountered by everyone, met differently

The discourse doesn't claim the eight worldly conditions can be avoided. Its closing verses instead describe how a person who understands their impermanent, perishable nature meets them: undisturbed by what's desirable, unrepelled by what's undesirable, with both favoring and opposing cleared away.

The brief half of a matched pair

This is the first of two discourses on the same eight conditions, following this chapter's established Paṭhama/Dutiya pattern. AN 8.6, immediately following, expands the same material with a full dialogue and detailed contrast between learned and unlearned responses.

Key terms

aṭṭha lokadhammā — “the eight worldly conditions” — this discourse's own title-phrase, and one of the most widely cited short lists in the tradition.
lābho ca alābho ca, yaso ca ayaso ca — “gain and loss, fame and disgrace” — the first two of the four opposed pairs.
nindā ca pasaṁsā ca, sukhañca dukkhañca — “blame and praise, pleasure and pain” — the third and fourth pairs, closing the list of eight.
aniccā, addhuvā, vipariṇāmadhammā — “impermanent, transient, and perishable” — the verses' own description of all eight conditions, the basis for how a wise person is said to meet them.
nābhijjhā na paṭighā — “not disturbed by the desirable, nor repelled by the undesirable” — the intelligent, mindful person's response, described in the closing verses.

The text

The discourse in full: the eight worldly conditions, and two verses on how the wise meet them. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

The eight worldly conditions

§1“Mendicants, the eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around the eight worldly conditions. What eight? Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain. These eight worldly conditions revolve around the world, and the world revolves around these eight worldly conditions.

Verses: impermanent, and met by the wise

§2Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, and pleasure and pain. These qualities among mankind are impermanent, transient, and perishable.

§3An intelligent and mindful person knows these things, seeing that they’re perishable. Desirable things don’t disturb their mind, nor are they repelled by the undesirable.

§4Both favoring and opposing are cleared and disappeared, they are no more. Knowing the stainless, sorrowless state, they who have gone beyond rebirth understand rightly.”

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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
What are the eight worldly conditions named in this discourse?
Correct: B. Four opposed pairs, among the tradition's most widely cited short lists.
Question 2 of 6
How is this discourse structured, compared to most of this chapter's earlier discourses?
Correct: B. Four fixed pairs every being encounters, not a blocking list.
Question 3 of 6
According to the closing verses, how does an intelligent, mindful person meet the eight worldly conditions?
Correct: B. Not avoidance, but an undisturbed relationship to conditions everyone encounters.
Question 4 of 6
What quality do the verses attribute to all eight worldly conditions?
Correct: B. Their impermanent nature is the basis for the wise person's undisturbed response.
Question 5 of 6
How does this discourse relate to AN 8.6, which follows it?
Correct: B. A Paṭhama/Dutiya pair, brief followed by detailed.
Question 6 of 6
Is a setting given for this discourse?
Correct: C. A bare formula, like several other discourses in this chapter.
Answered 0 of 6 · Correct 0

Further reading

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