Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The same eight individuals as AN 8.59 — four pairs spanning stream-entry through perfection, each combining attainment with active practice — are restated here, closing this chapter with a slightly different closing verse.
The prose, identical
The prose portion of this discourse matches AN 8.59 word for word: the same four pairs, the same standing description of worthiness, the same closing statement naming all eight together as worthy of offerings, hospitality, religious donation, and veneration.
The verses, genuinely different
Where AN 8.59's closing verse calls this group “the upright Saṅgha, with wisdom, ethics, and immersion,” this discourse's verse instead calls it “the exalted Saṅgha, the eight individuals among sentient beings” — a real variation in wording and emphasis, not simply a repeated line.
Closing this chapter on a note of worthiness
This discourse closes Gotamīvagga on a discourse type this chapter has returned to twice already (AN 8.57, 8.58): identifying who or what is worthy of the highest offerings — here landing on the noble Saṅgha itself as a collective, rather than on any single mendicant's composite qualities.
Key terms
The text
Eight individuals, four pairs
§1“Mendicants, these eight individuals are worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods, worthy of hospitality, worthy of a religious donation, worthy of greeting with cupped palms, and are the supreme field of merit for the world. What eight? The stream-enterer and the one practicing to realize the fruit of stream-entry. The once-returner and the one practicing to realize the fruit of once-return. The non-returner and the one practicing to realize the fruit of non-return. The perfected one, and the one practicing for perfection. These are the eight individuals who are worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods, worthy of hospitality, worthy of a religious donation, worthy of greeting with cupped palms, and are the supreme field of merit for the world.
Closing verses
§2Four practicing the path, and four established in the fruit. This is the exalted Saṅgha, the eight individuals among sentient beings. For humans, those merit-seeking creatures, who sponsor sacrifices, making worldly merit, what’s given here is very fruitful.”
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