Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
When a mendicant obstructs a layperson's material support, harms or insults them, divides laypeople against each other, criticizes the three refuges, or breaks a legitimate promise made to a layperson, the Saṅgha may formally require that mendicant to pursue reconciliation, revoking the requirement once they keep their promise and stop the offending conduct.
A remedy aimed at repair, not merely withdrawal
Where AN 8.87 and AN 8.88 both describe forms of formal withdrawal — the Saṅgha boycotting a layperson, laypeople withdrawing confidence in a mendicant — this discourse's formal act moves in the opposite direction: it actively compels the mendicant to go and repair a specific relationship, not simply to stop the offending behavior.
A new item: keeping legitimate promises
This discourse adds a ground not found in either AN 8.87 or AN 8.88: not keeping a legitimate promise made to a layperson. This item shifts the register slightly from pure hostility toward a breach of trust and reliability, a distinct kind of harm to the lay relationship.
The third of four related procedural discourses
Read alongside AN 8.87, 8.88, and AN 8.90 immediately following, this discourse forms part of a deliberate cluster closing this chapter with concrete institutional machinery — different formal responses (boycott, withdrawn confidence, compelled reconciliation, and restricted standing) matched to different situations in the relationship between the Saṅgha and its lay supporters.
Key terms
The text
Eight grounds for requiring reconciliation
§1“Mendicants, the Saṅgha may, if it wishes, perform an act requiring that a mendicant who has eight qualities should pursue reconciliation. What eight? They try to prevent laypeople from getting material things. They try to harm laypeople. They insult and abuse lay people. They divide laypeople against each other. They criticize the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha. They don’t keep a legitimate promise made to a layperson. The Saṅgha may, if it wishes, perform an act requiring that a mendicant who has eight qualities should pursue reconciliation.
Eight grounds for revoking the requirement
§2The Saṅgha may, if it wishes, revoke the act requiring that a mendicant who has eight qualities should pursue reconciliation. What eight? They don’t try to prevent the 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 keep a legitimate promise made to a layperson. The Saṅgha may, if it wishes, revoke the act requiring that a mendicant who has eight qualities should pursue reconciliation.”
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