Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Laypeople may formally proclaim no confidence in a mendicant who obstructs their material support, harms or insults them, divides them against each other, criticizes the three refuges, or begs in an inappropriate place — and may restore confidence once the mendicant stops behaving in these eight ways.
A power granted to laypeople, mirroring AN 8.87
This discourse and AN 8.87, immediately preceding it, form a deliberate reciprocal pair: the Saṅgha can formally withdraw from a hostile layperson, and laypeople can formally withdraw their confidence from a hostile mendicant — neither side holds unilateral, unchecked authority over the relationship.
Overlapping grounds, one genuinely new item
Six of the eight grounds closely parallel AN 8.87's own list — obstructing material support, causing harm, insulting, dividing, and criticizing the three refuges — but this discourse adds one item with no equivalent in AN 8.87: being seen begging for alms at an inappropriate place, a specifically monastic-conduct concern that wouldn't apply to a layperson.
Confidence as something earned continuously, not assumed
By naming specific, concrete grounds for withdrawing and restoring confidence, this discourse frames a mendicant's standing with the lay community as something maintained through ongoing conduct, not a status granted once at ordination and held automatically thereafter.
Key terms
The text
Eight grounds for a proclamation of no confidence
§1“Mendicants, the lay followers may, if they wish, make a proclamation of no confidence in a mendicant who has eight qualities. What eight? They try to prevent laypeople from getting material things. They try to harm laypeople. They insult and abuse laypeople. They divide lay people against each other. They criticize the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha. They’re seen at an inappropriate place for collecting alms. The lay followers may, if they wish, make a proclamation of no confidence in a mendicant who possesses these eight qualities.
Eight grounds for a proclamation of confidence
§2The lay followers may, if they wish, make a proclamation of confidence in a mendicant who has eight qualities. What eight? They don’t try to prevent laypeople from getting material things. They don’t try to harm laypeople. They don’t insult and abuse laypeople. They don’t divide laypeople against each other. They don’t criticize the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha. They’re not seen at an inappropriate place for collecting alms. The lay followers may, if they wish, make a proclamation of confidence in a mendicant who possesses these eight qualities.”
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