AN4_7: Sobhanasutta

Sobhanasutta - translated by Bhikkhu Bodhi

“Bhikkhus, these four kinds of persons who are competent, disciplined, self-confident, learned, experts on the Dhamma, practicing in accordance with the Dhamma, adorn the Saṅgha. What four?

(1) “A bhikkhu who is competent, disciplined, self-confident, learned, an expert on the Dhamma, practicing in accordance with the Dhamma, adorns the Saṅgha. (2) A bhikkhunī who is competent … (3) A male lay follower who is competent … (4) A female lay follower who is competent, disciplined, self-confident, learned, an expert on the Dhamma, practicing in accordance with the Dhamma, adorns the Saṅgha.

“Bhikkhus, these four kinds of persons who are competent, disciplined, self-confident, learned, upholders of the Dhamma, practicing in accordance with the Dhamma, adorn the Saṅgha.”

One who is competent and self-confident,
learned, an expert on the Dhamma,
practicing in accord with the Dhamma,
is called an adornment of the Saṅgha.

A bhikkhu accomplished in virtue,
a learned bhikkhunī,
a male lay follower endowed with faith,
a female lay follower endowed with faith:
these are the ones that adorn the Saṅgha;
these are the Saṅgha’s adornments.

© Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha (Wisdom Publications, 2012)

This excerpt from The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha by Bhikkhu Bodhi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Based on the work The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha at Wisdom Publications.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Wisdom Publications.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Blake Walsh.