Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
“Those mendicants who are deceivers and flatterers, pompous and fake, insolent and scattered: those mendicants are no followers of mine” — a plain statement that ordination alone does not make someone a genuine disciple, set directly against “those mendicants who are genuine, not flatterers, attentive, amenable, and serene: those mendicants are followers of mine.”
Disqualified by character, not by robe
What makes this discourse notable is how flatly it withholds the label “follower” (māmaka, literally “mine”) from people who are, institutionally, mendicants in good standing. The six qualities named for the disqualified group — deceivers (kuhā), flatterers (lapā), pompous (thaddhā), fake or self-important (siṅgī), insolent (unnaḷā), scattered or unconcentrated (asamāhitā) — are matters of character and inner conduct, not of doctrine or discipline as such. The text’s judgment is correspondingly severe: such mendicants “have left this teaching and training,” whatever their formal status, “and they don’t achieve growth, improvement, or maturity” in it.
The opposite six
Against this, the text sets a second list, matched trait for trait: genuine rather than deceptive, not given to flattery, attentive (or steady — the text’s “dhīrā” can carry both senses), amenable rather than insolent, and serene rather than scattered. These mendicants “haven’t left this teaching and training, and they do achieve growth, improvement, or maturity” in it. The verse that follows repeats both lists nearly word for word, changing nothing except turning the discourse’s prose claim into a chanted, memorable form — itself a kind of evidence for how central this particular distinction was meant to be.
An internal standard, not an external one
Unlike Iti 103, which redefines who counts as a true ascetic or brahmin against outsiders claiming those titles, this discourse turns the same kind of scrutiny inward, onto people already wearing the robe. Nothing here concerns lay supporters or rival teachers; the entire distinction is drawn among mendicants themselves, and the criterion is not what they know but who they are — whether their outward presentation as sincere trainees is, in fact, genuine.
Key terms
The text
§1This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
§2“Mendicants, those mendicants who are deceivers and flatterers, pompous and fake, insolent and scattered: those mendicants are no followers of mine. They’ve left this teaching and training, and they don’t achieve growth, improvement, or maturity in this teaching and training. But those mendicants who are genuine, not flatterers, attentive, amenable, and serene: those mendicants are followers of mine. They haven’t left this teaching and training, and they do achieve growth, improvement, or maturity in this teaching and training.”
The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:
§3–4“Those who are deceivers and flatterers, pompous and fake, insolent and scattered: these don’t grow in the teaching that was taught by the perfected Buddha. But those who are genuine, not flatterers, attentive, amenable, and serene: these do grow in the teaching that was taught by the perfected Buddha.”
§5This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.
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