8.
The Discourse on the Elder
98.
"Monks, an elder monk possessed of ten qualities, in whatever direction he dwells, dwells at ease.
Which ten?
He is an elder of long standing, long gone forth; he is virtuous, etc.
having accepted the training rules he trains in them; he is very learned, etc.
well penetrated by view; and both Pātimokkhas are well learnt by him in detail, well divided, well recited, well determined, by rule and by feature; he is skilled in the arising and appeasement of legal cases; he is a lover of the Teaching, of amiable conversation, having great gladness in the higher teaching and higher discipline; he is content with any requisites of robes, almsfood, lodging and medicine for the sick; he is pleasing, well-restrained in going forward and returning, in sitting in an inhabited area; he is one who obtains at will, obtains without difficulty, obtains without trouble, the four meditative absorptions pertaining to the higher mind, which are pleasant abidings in the present life; and through the elimination of the mental corruptions, realises by his own direct knowledge, in this very life, the liberation of mind and the liberation by wisdom that are free from mental corruptions and, having entered upon them, dwells in them.
Monks, an elder monk possessed of these ten qualities, in whatever direction he dwells, dwells at ease."
The eighth.