Pāḷi English Dictionary
Sutta SearchAṇguttara 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.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved
For details see Terms of Use.
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-saññānaṃ for nānatta-.
[3] Cf. below, p. 276.
