[97] Bhikkhus, possessed of ten qualities a bhikkhu is worthy of gifts (āhuneyya), worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation, the incomparable field of merit for the world. Of what ten?
Here, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu is virtuous; he dwells restrained by the restraint of the Pātimokkha, accomplished in conduct and resort, seeing danger in the slightest faults; having undertaken them, he trains in the training rules.
He is learned, a retainer of what has been heard, an accumulator of learning: those teachings that are good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, which with meaning and with phrasing proclaim the holy life that is entirely complete and pure — such teachings he has learned much of, retained, recited verbally, examined with the mind, and well penetrated by view.
He has good friends, good companions, good comrades.
He is of right view, possessed of right vision.
He wields the various kinds of supernormal power (iddhividha): having been one, he becomes many; having been many, he becomes one; he appears and vanishes; he goes unhindered through a wall, through a rampart, through a mountain, as though through space; he dives in and out of the earth as though it were water; he walks on water without breaking its surface as though on earth; seated cross-legged, he travels through space like a winged bird; with his hand he touches and strokes even the moon and the sun, so mighty and so powerful; and he exercises mastery with the body as far even as the Brahmā world.
With the divine ear element, purified and surpassing the human, he hears both kinds of sounds, divine and human, those that are far as well as near.
He understands the minds of other beings, of other persons, having encompassed them with his own mind: a mind (citta) with lust he understands as 'a mind with lust'; a mind without lust he understands as 'a mind without lust'; a mind with hatred … a mind without hatred … a mind with delusion … a mind without delusion … a contracted mind … a distracted mind … an exalted mind … an unexalted mind … a surpassable mind … an unsurpassable mind … a concentrated mind … an unconcentrated mind … a liberated mind … an unliberated mind he understands as 'an unliberated mind.'
He recollects his manifold past abodes, that is: one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many aeons of world-contraction, many aeons of world-expansion, many aeons of world-contraction and expansion: 'There I was so named, of such a clan, of such an appearance; such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the limit of my life-span; passing away from there, I arose elsewhere; and there too I was so named, of such a clan, of such an appearance; such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the limit of my life-span; passing away from there, I arose here.' Thus, with its aspects and particulars, he recollects his manifold past abodes.
With the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, he sees beings passing away and being reborn — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate — and he understands beings as faring according to their kamma: 'These beings, alas, possessed of bodily misconduct, possessed of verbal misconduct, possessed of mental misconduct, revilers of the noble ones, holding wrong view, undertaking action based on wrong view — with the breakup of the body, after death, they have arisen in a state of deprivation, a bad destination, the nether world, hell. But these beings, possessed of bodily good conduct, possessed of verbal good conduct, possessed of mental good conduct, not revilers of the noble ones, holding right view, undertaking action based on right view — with the breakup of the body, after death, they have arisen in a good destination, a heavenly world.' Thus with the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human, he sees beings passing away and being reborn — inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate — and he understands beings as faring according to their kamma.
With the destruction of the taints (āsava), he realizes for himself with direct knowledge, in this very life, the taintless liberation of mind and liberation by wisdom, and having entered upon it, he dwells therein.
Possessed of these ten qualities, bhikkhus, a bhikkhu is worthy of gifts, worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation, the incomparable field of merit for the world.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.