Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Deities who, as humans, fell short of fully receiving visiting renunciates — failing to rise, to bow, to offer a seat, to share, to listen to and engage with the teaching — report being reborn in a lesser realm out of remorse, while those who fulfilled every step of the duty were reborn in a superior one.
Four reports, each one step further
The discourse structures its teaching through four successive groups of deities, not through a single abstract list: the first group failed at the very first gesture (rising but not bowing), the second failed one step later (bowing but not offering a seat), the third failed much further along (going through the physical courtesies but never truly engaging with the teaching itself), and the fourth succeeded at every step.
From physical courtesy to genuine engagement
The full graduated sequence moves from bodily politeness — rising, bowing, offering a seat, sharing — into an entirely different register: sitting nearby to listen, actively listening, memorizing the teachings, examining their meaning, and finally practicing in line with what has been understood. Politeness alone, the discourse implies, is only the beginning.
Overlapping with, but distinct from, AN 9.17
This graduated list of duties shares its opening gestures — rising, bowing, offering a seat — with AN 9.17's nine factors for a family worth visiting, but is a longer and differently structured sequence, told here as deities' own testimony about their past lives rather than as a bare double list. The Buddha's closing exhortation — practice absorption, don't be negligent, don't regret it later like these deities — has no counterpart in AN 9.17 at all.
Key terms
The text
The first group: rose, but did not bow
§1“Mendicants, tonight, several glorious deities, lighting up the entire Jeta’s Grove, came to me, bowed, stood to one side, and said to me: ‘Sir, formerly when we were human beings, renunciates came to our homes. We politely rose for them, but we didn’t bow. And so, having not fulfilled our duty, full of remorse and regret, we were reborn in a lesser realm.’
The second group: bowed, but did not offer a seat
§2Then several other deities came to me and said: ‘Sir, formerly when we were human beings, renunciates came to our homes. We politely rose for them and bowed, but we didn’t offer a seat. And so, having not fulfilled our duty, full of remorse and regret, we were reborn in a lesser realm.’
The third group: courteous, but did not engage with the teaching
§3Then several other deities came to me and said: ‘Sir, formerly when we were human beings, renunciates came to our homes. We politely rose for them, bowed, and offered a seat, but we didn’t share as best we could. …’ ‘… we didn’t sit nearby to listen to the teachings. …’ ‘… we didn’t actively listen to the teachings. …’ ‘… we didn’t memorize the teachings. …’ ‘… we didn’t examine the meaning of teachings we’d memorized. …’ ‘… not having understood the meaning and the teaching, we didn’t practice in line with the teaching. And so, having not fulfilled our duty, full of remorse and regret, we were reborn in a lesser realm.’
The fourth group: fulfilled every step
§4Then several other deities came to me and said: ‘Sir, formerly when we were human beings, renunciates came to our homes. We politely rose, bowed, and offered them a seat. We shared as best we could. We sat nearby to listen to the teachings, lent an ear, memorized them, and examined their meaning. Understanding the teaching and the meaning we practiced in line with the teaching. And so, having fulfilled our duty, free of remorse and regret, we were reborn in a superior realm.’ Here, mendicants, are these roots of trees, and here are these empty huts. Practice absorption, mendicants! Don’t be negligent! Don’t regret it later, like those former deities.”
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