The Eight Worldly Conditions: what they are, the list, and how to keep the mind steady

The eight worldly conditions are gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain: what everyone meets, and how not to let them take over the mind

The eight worldly conditions are eight things that happen to everyone living in the world: gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain. They come in four pairs, and in each pair one side is wanted and the other is not. In the Worldly Conditions discourse (AN 8.6) the Buddha says the eight worldly conditions turn around the world, and the world turns around them. No one can avoid them: ordinary people and those who have practised until they are noble disciples meet them alike. The difference lies in how the mind responds. This page explains what the eight worldly conditions are and lists them, in the words of the sutta and of the Navakovada, what they are meant to remind us of, with examples from daily life and ways to respond when they strike.

What are the eight worldly conditions, and what does the term mean?

The word lokadhamma is made of loka, the world, and dhamma, a condition or state, so it means 'conditions of the world': the states that come with living in the world. Whoever we are, rich or poor, with a position or without one, we meet all eight of these in turn. The sutta opens like this:

Aṭṭhime, bhikkhave, lokadhammā lokaṁ anuparivattanti,
loko ca aṭṭha lokadhamme anuparivattati.
Katame aṭṭha?
Lābho ca, alābho ca, yaso ca, ayaso ca,
nindā ca, pasaṁsā ca, sukhañca, dukkhañca.

Monks, these eight worldly conditions turn around the world, and the world turns around these eight worldly conditions. What eight? Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain.

AN 8.6

The Navakovada, the basic Dhamma textbook for the first level of Dhamma studies, defines the worldly conditions in its section on lists of teachings. Its wording is: 'The things that overwhelm the beings of the world, and that the beings of the world go along with, are called the worldly conditions.' That is the direct answer to what the eight worldly conditions mean: eight states that overwhelm people's minds, and that people live by, glad when they gain and sad when they lose.

What are the eight worldly conditions? The list

The Navakovada lists the eight as follows (its own wording, in our translation):

1. Having gain
2. Having no gain
3. Having rank
4. Having no rank
5. Blame
6. Praise
7. Happiness
8. Suffering

The words in common use today are gain and loss of gain, rank and loss of rank, blame, praise, pleasure and pain; the meaning is the same. Here is each pair of the eight worldly conditions in more detail:

• Gain and loss (lābha, alābha): getting and losing wealth, money, belongings and opportunities, such as a pay rise or a profit in trade, or the opposite, a loss, something stolen, losing a job.
• Fame and disgrace (yasa, ayasa): in Pali, yasa covers reputation, standing and the people around you. Gaining it means a position, respect, a following; losing it means losing these, being demoted, or seeing the people around you leave.
• Blame and praise (nindā, pasaṁsā): being criticised and being praised, to your face, behind your back or online. Criticism may be partly true or not true at all, and so may praise.
• Pleasure and pain (sukha, dukkha): comfort and pain, of body and of mind, such as good health and rest, or illness, exhaustion and sadness.

Notice that fame and blame-and-praise are different things. Fame is about standing and the people around you; blame and praise are about what others say. Someone of high rank can still be blamed, and someone with no position at all can still be praised.

The wanted side and the unwanted side

The eight worldly conditions fall into two sides. The side people want is gain, fame, praise and pleasure; the side they do not want is loss, disgrace, blame and pain. Thai teaching often calls the first iṭṭhārammaṇa, 'desirable objects', and the second aniṭṭhārammaṇa, 'undesirable objects'. The verses at the end of the sutta use the same pair of words, iṭṭha and aniṭṭha.

What is worth noticing is that the sutta does not say the first side is good and the second bad. It says all eight share the same nature: impermanent, suffering and bound to change. The gain of today does not last; today's praise may be tomorrow's blame; and even pleasure is suffering in the sense of the three marks of existence, because it has to change. Someone who holds tightly to the side they like is hurt all the more when it turns into the side they do not.

How an ordinary person and a noble disciple differ

The heart of the Worldly Conditions discourse is this question. The Buddha says that both the unlearned ordinary person and the learned noble disciple meet gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain alike. So where is the difference?

When an ordinary person meets gain, they do not reflect that it is impermanent, suffering and bound to change; they do not know it as it really is. So the eight worldly conditions take over the mind. They welcome gain, fame, praise and pleasure, and resent loss, disgrace, blame and pain. The Buddha says that someone caught up in welcoming and resenting like this is not freed from birth, ageing, death, sorrow and all suffering.

A noble disciple who meets gain reflects like this:

uppanno kho me ayaṁ lābho;
so ca kho anicco dukkho vipariṇāmadhammo.

This gain has come to me. But it is impermanent, suffering, and bound to change.

AN 8.6

When this reflection is made about every one of them, pain included ('this pain has come to me, but it too is impermanent and will change'), the worldly conditions no longer take over the mind: no excess delight in gaining, no resentment in losing. The sutta calls these two reactions anurodha, welcoming, and virodha, resisting. Of one who has given up both, the Buddha says: they are freed from suffering.

The Navakovada sums this teaching up as a practice, in these words: 'When any one of these eight worldly conditions arises, one should reflect: this has come to me, but it is impermanent, suffering, and subject to change. One should know it as it really is and not let it overwhelm the mind; that is, not delight in the part one wishes for, and not resent the part one does not.'

'Not delighting' does not mean never being glad, and 'not resenting' does not mean pretending to feel nothing. Feelings arise naturally. What is trained is not letting them grip the mind until we decide badly, or sink into them for long. Seeing in time that this has come and will go is what lets the mind find its footing again quickly.

What do the eight worldly conditions remind us of?

This question often comes up in school exams on Buddhism. The short answer is that the eight worldly conditions remind us that gain and loss, praise and blame, happiness and suffering are impermanent, happen to everyone, and should not be allowed to overwhelm the mind: do not get carried away when you gain, and do not lose heart when you lose. In more detail, the eight worldly conditions remind us of three things:

1. Impermanence: what we gain does not stay forever, and what we lose is not the end. All of it changes as its causes change.
2. Self-worth: a person's worth is not measured by gain, rank or praise, but by their actions. Someone who measures themselves by the worldly conditions rises and falls with other people's words all the time.
3. Conduct: many people do wrong to get gain or rank, or to escape blame and hardship. Bias from desire, anger, delusion or fear, the four kinds of bias, often starts here. Someone unshaken by the worldly conditions decides more fairly.

A mind that stands firm like this is equanimity (upekkhā), the last of the four divine abidings. Equanimity is not indifference or not caring about anyone. It is a steadiness of mind that still does its duty fully, whether the result turns out to be gain or loss.

Examples of the eight worldly conditions in daily life

• At work: being promoted and slipping into thinking you are above others, or being moved to another job and feeling your life is ruined. Both are the worldly condition of rank taking over the mind. Reflecting that a position comes and can go helps you keep working steadily.
• With money: making a profit and spending beyond your means, or making a loss and worrying until you cannot sleep. Gain and loss can lead to bad decisions either way.
• Online: a post with many likes lifts the mind, while a single nasty comment goes round in your head all day. This is praise and blame in a new form. Notice how often you check the likes.
• With health: while the body is strong we tend to forget that one day we will be ill, and when we are ill, mental distress adds to the bodily pain. Bodily pain cannot be avoided, but the distress we add to it can be lessened by reflection.
• In the family: parents are proud when a child wins a prize and disappointed when the child fails an exam. Love should not rise and fall with exam results; seeing the worldly conditions for what they are helps love stay steadier.

How to respond when the worldly conditions strike

1. Know what has arrived. Name it clearly in the mind: this is blame, this is loss. Naming it lets the mind step back and look.
2. Use the sutta's sentence: this has come to me, but it is impermanent and will change. Say it slowly to yourself, on the days you gain and the days you lose.
3. Take one slow breath before you react. Words and decisions that come out while the mind is overwhelmed are often the ones you have to put right later.
4. If it is criticism, hear it out. If part of it is true, use it to improve; if not, put it down. It need not stay in the mind all day.
5. If it is gain or praise, enjoy it and share it, but do not use it to measure your own worth.
6. Practise mindfulness regularly. When you have watched pleasant and painful feelings, liking and disliking, arise and pass while sitting in meditation, you notice them faster in real life. Watching feelings like this is the section on feelings in the four foundations of mindfulness.

Two verses of the Dhammapada fit this well. One reminds us that this is an old story, not something new today: people blame the one who sits silent, they blame the one who talks a lot, they blame even the one who speaks in moderation; there is no one in the world who is never blamed (Dhp 227). The other says that just as a solid mass of rock is not shaken by the wind, the wise are not moved by blame and praise (Dhp 81).

The closing verses: a mind that does not shake

The Worldly Conditions discourse ends with verses that sum up the whole teaching:

Lābho alābho ca yasāyaso ca,
Nindā pasaṁsā ca sukhaṁ dukhañca;
Ete aniccā manujesu dhammā,
Asassatā vipariṇāmadhammā.
Ete ca ñatvā satimā sumedho,
Avekkhati vipariṇāmadhamme;
Iṭṭhassa dhammā na mathenti cittaṁ,
Aniṭṭhato no paṭighātameti.

Gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame and praise, pleasure and pain: these conditions among people are impermanent, not lasting, bound to change. A mindful, wise person knows them and sees that they change. Desirable things do not churn up the mind, nor is it repelled by the undesirable.

AN 8.6

In the Mangala Sutta the Buddha also counts a mind like this among the highest blessings:

Phuṭṭhassa lokadhammehi,
Cittaṁ yassa na kampati;
Asokaṁ virajaṁ khemaṁ,
Etaṁ maṅgalamuttamaṁ.

When touched by the worldly conditions, a mind that does not shake, free of sorrow, free of dust, secure: this is the highest blessing.

Snp 2.4

The eight worldly conditions in summary

• The eight worldly conditions are gain, loss, fame, disgrace, blame, praise, pleasure and pain: four wanted and four unwanted.
• Everyone meets the eight worldly conditions, ordinary people and practitioners alike; the difference lies in reflection.
• All eight are impermanent, suffering and bound to change.
• The practice is to know them as they are, not to delight too much in the wanted side, and not to resent the unwanted side.
• A mind unshaken by the eight worldly conditions is one of the highest blessings, and it can be trained with mindfulness in daily life.

Based on: Dutiyalokadhamma Sutta (AN 8.6) · Navakovada (public domain) · Maṅgala Sutta (Snp 2.4) · Dhammapada, verse 227 (Dhp 227) · Dhammapada, verse 81 (Dhp 81)