“A mendicant with eight factors is worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods, worthy of hospitality, worthy of a teacher’s offering, worthy of veneration with joined palms, and is a supreme field of merit for the world. What eight? It’s when a mendicant is ethical, restrained in the code of conduct, and has appropriate behavior and means of collecting alms. Seeing danger in the slightest flaw, they keep the rules they’ve undertaken. They’re learned, remembering and keeping what they’ve learned. These teachings are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, meaningful and well-phrased, describing a spiritual practice that’s totally full and pure. They are very learned in such teachings, remembering them, reciting them, mentally scrutinizing them, and understanding them with right view. They live with energy roused up for giving up unskillful qualities and gaining skillful qualities. They’re strong, firmly applied, not slacking off when it comes to developing skillful qualities. They live in the wilderness, in remote lodgings. They prevail over desire and discontent, and live having mastered desire and discontent whenever they arose. They prevail over fear and terror, and live having mastered fear and terror whenever they arose. They get the four absorptions—blissful meditations in the present life that belong to the higher mind—when they want, without trouble or difficulty. They realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life. And they live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. A mendicant with these eight factors is worthy of offerings dedicated to the gods, worthy of hospitality, worthy of a teacher’s offering, worthy of veneration with joined palms, and is a supreme field of merit for the world.”