The Book of the Tens

Venerable Ānanda asks the Buddha about the purpose and benefit of wholesome ethical conduct. The Buddha explains gradual benefits of wholesome ethical conduct, starting with the immediate one of non-regret to the ultimate one of understanding and insight into liberation.

The Buddha illustrates how the path to liberation unfolds organically, with each wholesome quality naturally giving rise to the next without the need for forced willpower. Wholesome ethical conduct organically gives rise to non-regret, joy, and successive refined states, flowing effortlessly toward the ultimate knowledge and vision of liberation.

Ānanda asks if one can attain collectedness without perceiving the physical elements, formless dimensions, or any world, yet still perceive. The Buddha confirms this occurs when the mind perceives only the sublime peace of Nibbāna.

The Buddha explains to Mahāli that bad kamma is rooted in greed, hatred, delusion, superficial attention, and a wrongly directed mind. Good kamma stems from their opposites, including radical attention, which together distinguish unrighteous conduct from righteous conduct.

The Buddha uses the simile of checking one’s reflection in a mirror to explain how to comprehend one’s own mind. He details how to constantly review mental states and apply urgent effort to abandon harmful qualities while developing wholesome ones.

The Buddha reveals the ten foundational dynamics of all phenomena. Rooted in desire and brought into being through the steering of attention, all phenomena converge on feeling, are surpassed by wisdom, and ultimately culminate in Nibbāna.

When the monk Girimānanda becomes gravely ill, the Buddha prescribes ten profound contemplations.

While a first point of ignorance is not discerned, it can be discerned that ignorance has a supporting condition. The Buddha explains the nutriments for ignorance and the nutriments for true knowledge and liberation, along with how they are fulfilled.

The Buddha defines ten types of practitioners accomplished in view, dividing them into five who achieve final awakening in this world and five who achieve it after passing away into higher realms.

The Buddha lists ten things, along with their nutriments and obstructions, that are desirable but rarely gained in the world, including wealth, health, wisdom, and heavens.

When Migasālā questions why her celibate father and married uncle shared an identical destination in the next life, the Buddha outlines ten types of individuals based on their ethical conduct and understanding of liberation, emphasizing that only the Tathāgata can truly discern their differences, and advising against measuring or judging others.

The Buddha outlines a ten-step causal chain revealing how foundational vices like shamelessness lead to suffering, and how cultivating moral prudence and diligence systematically eliminates the root defilements to achieve final liberation.

The Buddha shares the ten grounds for resentment that lead to anger and agitation in the mind.

The Buddha shares ten ways to remove resentment by changing one’s perspective on harmful actions.

Venerable Sāriputta explains the ten strengths of a bhikkhu who has exhausted the defilements.

The Buddha explains how one can independently verify stream-entry. By subsiding the five perilous animosities through ethical restraint, establishing perfect clarity in the Triple Gem, and penetrating dependent co-arising, a disciple of the Noble Ones is assuredly bound for full awakening.

Approaching wrongness leads to failure, not success. Approaching rightness leads to success, not failure.

With wrong view, all actions lead to suffering. With right view, all actions lead to happiness. The Buddha explains this with an example of seeds.

The Buddha describes the ten bases for the wearing away of the multitude harmful, unwholesome qualities, and for the development of multitude wholesome qualities.