Pāḷi English Dictionary
Sutta SearchSaṃyutta Nikāya
4. Saḷāyatana Vagga
43. Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta
1. Paṭhama Vagga
Sutta 2
Samatha-Vipassanā Suttaṃ
Calm and Insight
Translated from the Pāḷi by Michael M. Olds
Once upon a time The Lucky Man,
Savatthi-town revisiting.
There then, The Lucky Man, said this to the beggars gathered round:
"Beggars!".
"Elder!"
said the beggars in response to The Lucky Man.
The Lucky Man said this to them:
"I will explain
the not own-made[1] to you, beggars, and
the way to go to the not own-made.
Listen carefully!
And what, beggars,
is the not own-made?
Whatever, beggars, is
lust's destruction,[2]
anger's destruction,[3]
confusion's destruction.[4]
This, beggars,
is what is called
"the not own-made".
And what, beggars,
is the Way to go
to the not own-made?
This is what is called
'the way to go
to the not own-made'.
This, then, beggars,
is my explanation to you of
the not own-made, and
the way to go to the not own-made.
Whatever, beggars,
ought to be done
for his students
by a kindly master,
out of compassion,
with compassion,
that I have done.
These, beggars,
are the roots of trees,
these are empty huts.
Meditate, beggars,
do not be careless,
do not provide grounds for later regret.
This then is my advice."
[1] Asaṅkhata. PED: "past participle of saṅkharoti;... (but see saṅkhāra] 1. put together, compound; conditioned, produced ..." But the PED definition neglects to point out that the making is the making of that which is later termed "Me" or "Mine". What saṅkhara is is the identification with that which is created by the individual through acts of thought, word and deed with the intent of creating sense experience for himself. Mistranslation of this term (and it is so mistranslated at this time (Thursday, April 16, 2026 8:09 AM) by virtually all the other translators) becomes of vital concern when it is given as "conditioned" because the Buddha tells us that Nibbāna is asaṅkhāra (not own-made, not unconditioned (paccaya)). Nibbāna is conditioned by following the Magga, but it is not own-made. Following the Magga is not-doing or letting go of that which prevents one from attaining it. Not-doing a wrong thing does not create anything. For more on this see "Is Nibbāna Conditioned?" in the Forum.
[2] Rāga. Excitement, passion.
[3] Dosa. Anger, ill-will, evil intention, wickedness, corruption, malice, hatred.
[4] Moha. Stupidity, dullness of mind and soul, delusion, bewilderment, infatuation.
[5] Samatha. To be practiced in conjunction with vipassana (see next). PED: calm, quietude of heart. Samatha is popularly associated with the jhānas, so "calm" is understood this way:
Here, beggars, a beggar
separating himself from sense pleasures,
separating himself from unskillful things,
with thinking,
with pondering
isolation-born pleasurable-enthusiasm
rises up into and
makes a habitat of
The First Knowledge.
Again, beggars, deeper than that,
a beggar,
dissolving thought and pondering,
internally self-pacified,
become whole-heartedly single minded,
without thinking,
without pondering,
rises up into and
makes a habitat of
The Second Knowledge.
Again, beggars, deeper than that,
a beggar,
with the vanishing of enthusiasm, and
living detached,
minding,
self-aware, and
pleased,
experiencing in his own body
that of which the Aristocrats speak
when they say:
'Detached, minding, he lives pleasantly'
rises up into and makes a habitat of
The Third Knowledge.
Again, beggars, deeper than that,
a beggar,
letting go of pleasures,
letting go of pains,
settling down the antecedent mental ease and mental pain,
without pain, but
without pleasure,
detached,
recollected,
surpassingly pure,
rises up into and makes a habitat of
The Fourth Knowledge.
Another popular approach is to be found in the Cūḷa Suññata Suttaṃ, A Little Spell of Emptiness where by focusing on each higher step as one goes along to the exclusion of all the previous steps one ends up with the perception of the Arahant:
'This way there is only this that disturbs the emptiness:
that is,
the six sense-realms bound to this body
responding to life.'
"Jhāna" is really only a set of words describing the mechanism of action of many equivalent methods of attaining calm, tranquillity, stillness of the heart. In this Dhamma calm and stillness are a matter of less and less of that which disturbs the stillness. Another way of putting this would be to say that attaining perfect stillness of heart is the only way to experience Nibbāna. What needs to be driven into consciousness is the idea that stillness cannot be got by activity (of thought, word or deed): it is got by not-doing or letting go. Of course there are degrees, but anything less than perfect stillness of heart, that is the detachment from all that which has come into existence, no matter how high, is seen as a failure to attain the goal.
[6] Vipassanā. To be practiced in conjunction with samatha (see above). Much much more than the 'mindfulness' that is taught in the first of the first sections of the Satipaṭṭana Suttanta insight covers the whole of the Dhamma, from seeing that the first truth is the sure way to see the basic nature of everything that has come to be to actually seeing what it means to perceive:
'This is it!
This is the culmination!
That is, the calming of all own-making,
the resolution of all involvements,
the withering away of thirst,
dispassion,
extinction,
Nibbāna.'
— AN 11.7 and many others.
