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Dhammatalk SearchAṅguttara Nikāya
VIII. Aṭṭhaka Nipāta
VII. Bhūmi-Cāla Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
VIII. The Book of the Eights
Chapter VII: On Earthquakes
Sutta 66
The Deliverances
Translated from the Pali by E.M. Hare.
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Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Sāvatthī.
There the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
"Yes, lord," they replied, and the Exalted One said:
"Monks, there are these eight deliverances.[1]
What eight?
Conscious of body, he sees forms.
This is the first deliverance.
■
Personally unconscious of body,
he sees forms exterior to himself.
This is the second deliverance.
■
He applies himself to the thought:
'It is fair.'
This is the third deliverance.
■
Passing wholly beyond all perception of form,
by the disap- [204] pearance of the perception of the sensory reactions,
unattentive to the perception of the manifold,[2]
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite space,
thinking:
'Space is infinite.'
This is the fourth deliverance.
■
By passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite space,
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite consciousness,
thinking:
'Consciousness is infinite.'
This is the fifth deliverance.
■
By passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite consciousness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of nothingness,
thinking:
'There is nothing.'
This is the sixth deliverance.
■
By passing wholly beyond the sphere of nothingness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception.
This is the seventh deliverance.
■
By passing wholly beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception,
he enters and abides in the ending of perception and feeling.
This is the eighth deliverance.[3]
Monks, these are the eight deliverances.'
[1] See DhS. trsl., §§ 235-247; Dial. ii, 119; iii, 242. [Ed.: But also see: iii. 262]
[2] The text reads mānatta-saññānaṁ for nānatta-.
[3] Cf. below, p. 276.
