Aṇguttara Nikāya
VIII. Aṭṭhaka Nipāta
VI. Gotamī Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
VIII. The Book of the Eights
VI: The Gotamid
Sutta 52
Bhikkhun-Ovādaka Suttaṃ
He Who May Advise
Translated from the Pali by E.M. Hare.
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[1] THUS have I heard:
Once, while the Exalted One was staying at the Gabled Hall in Mahāvana near Vesālī,
the venerable Ānanda came to him
and saluted
and sat down at one side.
So seated, he spoke thus [186] to the Exalted One:
'Lord, how many qualities must a monk have
to be considered the spiritual adviser[1] of nuns?
'A monk, Ānanda, must have eight qualities
to be considered the spiritual adviser of nuns.
What eight?
■
Herein, Ānanda, a monk is virtuous
and lives restrained
by the restraint of the Obligations;
he is perfect in conduct and habit,
seeing danger in the smallest fault;
he undertakes and trains himself in the precepts.
■
He is learned
with memory retentive
and well stored.
■
Those tenets,
lovely in the beginning,
lovely in the middle
and lively in the end,
which set forth in spirit
and in letter
the godly life of purity,
perfect in its entirety -
even those are fully mastered by him,
resolved upon,
familiarized by speech,
pondered over in mind,
fully understood in theory[2]
■
To him both Obligations have been properly and fully handed down,
sectioned,
regulated
and resolved into sutta
and into detail.[3]
■
He has a pleasant voice,
his enunciation is good,
his speech is urbane,
distinct,
free from hoarseness
and informative.[4]
■
He is able to instruct,
incite,
rouse
and gladden the Order of the nuns
with religious discourse.
■
Generally, he is dear to
and liked by the nuns.
■
Previous to his taking this Exalted One
as his authority for going forth,
for donning the yellow robe,
he has been guilty of no serious crime.
■
He has been ordained twenty years or more.
A monk, Ānanda, must have these eight qualities
to be considered a spiritual adviser of nuns.'
[1] The text prints bhikkhuno'vādako, a monk's adviser; but the sense requires bhikkhun-ovādako, a nun's adviser.
[4] This passage recurs at D. i, 115 (see D.A. i, 282); A. ii, 97; iii, 114; v, 155 and passim.
