Aṅguttara Nikāya
VIII. Navaka Nipāta
IV. Mahā Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
VIII. The Book of the Nines
Chapter IV: The Great Chapter
Sutta 32
Anupubba-Vihāra Suttaɱ
The Abidings (a)
Translated from the Pali by E.M. Hare.
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[1] Thus have I heard:
Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Savatthī, at Jeta Grove, in Anāthapiṇḍika's Park
there the Exalted One addressed the Monks, saying:
"Monks."
"Lord" they replied.
And the Exalted One said:
[2][than] "Monks, there are these nine gradual abidings.[1]
What nine?
Herein, monks, a monk,
aloof from sense desires,
aloof from evil ideas,
enters and abides in the first musing,
wherein applied and sustained thought works,
which is born of solitude
and is full of zest and ease.
■
Suppressing applied and sustained thought,
he enters and abides in the second musing,
which is self-evolved,
born of concentration,
full of zest and ease,
free from applied and sustained thought,
wherein the mind becomes calm and one-pointed.
■
Free from the fervour of zest,
mindful and self-possessed,
he enters and abides in the third musing,
and experiences in his being
that ease whereof the Ariyans declare:
'He that is tranquil and mindful dwells at ease.'
■
By putting away ease and by putting away ill,
by the passing away of happiness and misery he was wont to feel,
he enters and abides in the fourth musing,
which is utter purity of mindfulness and poise
and is free of ease and ill.
■
By passing wholly beyond perceptions of form,
by the passing away of the perceptions of sense-reactions,
unattentive to the perceptions of the manifold,
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite space, thinking:
'Space is infinite'.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite space,
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite consciousness, thinking:
'Consciousness is infinite'.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite consciousness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of nothingness, thinking:
'There is nothing'.
■
[277] Passing wholly beyond the sphere of nothingness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception.
■
Passing wholly beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception,
he enters and abides in the ending of perception and feeling.
Verily, monks, these are the nine gradual abidings.'
[1] See DhS., § 160 ff. and § 265 ff.
