Reading guide
Character, closing a run of abstractions
Where SN 45.21–24 named a way, qualities, and twice a practice, this discourse names a kind of person — confirmed by reading all five discourses together, the identical eight-factor content is now applied to who someone is rather than what they do or follow.
Sappurisa, a term this project has met before
“A true person” (sappurisa, sometimes rendered “a good person” or “a superior person”) is a term this project has encountered in other contexts; here it is defined narrowly and specifically as someone possessing the eightfold path's own eight right factors, not left as a vaguer moral category.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, I will teach you an untrue person and a true person. Listen … And what is an untrue person? It’s someone who has wrong view, wrong purpose, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong immersion. This is called an untrue person. And what is a true person? It’s someone who has right view, right purpose, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right immersion. This is called a true person.”
Self-check quiz
3 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.