Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
A moment of any practice in the canon’s entire repertoire already counts — and here is the entire repertoire.
What the chapter actually is
This is a syllabus. Reading the section headings in the text tab is the fastest tour available of what the early canon considers to be meditation, and it is broader than most presentations suggest. Alongside the familiar — breath, body, the four absorptions, the four immeasurables, the eightfold path — it contains material that rarely appears in modern teaching at all: the eight dimensions of mastery, the eight liberations, the ten universal meditations on the elements and colors, and a set of twenty perceptions that includes the repulsiveness of food and four kinds of corpse.
The thirty-seven qualities conducive to awakening are all here, in their standard order: four kinds of mindfulness meditation, four right efforts, four bases of psychic power, five faculties, five powers, seven awakening factors, eight path factors. Anyone learning that framework can use AN 1.402–438 as its table of contents.
Then the last eighty entries do something else again: they pair each of the five faculties and five powers with each of the four absorptions and the four immeasurables in turn. That is combinatorial rather than expository, and it is the clearest surviving glimpse in the Ones of how this literature was actually generated and held in memory.
The entry requirement
Every one of the hundred and eighty-one entries ends the same way: such a mendicant is called one who does not lack absorption, who follows the Teacher’s instructions, who responds to advice, and who does not eat the country’s alms in vain — how much more so those who make much of it.
The generosity of that is easy to underestimate because it is repeated so often. The chapter includes the fourth absorption and the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, attainments the canon treats as extremely difficult; and it says of them what it says of everything else, that a finger-snap counts. There is no threshold, no minimum duration, and no qualification by attainment. The bar is set at the smallest measurable unit and then the same sentence is applied to the highest items on the list.
The closing clause keeps this from being an excuse, exactly as it did at AN 1.53. It does not say a finger-snap is enough. It says a finger-snap already counts, and that more counts more.
How to use a chapter this long
Nobody reads a hundred and eighty-one near-identical sentences straight through, and nothing is gained by pretending otherwise. Three uses are realistic.
As an index: skim the section headings, find the items you have never heard of, and go look them up. Most readers will find several. As a corrective: notice how much of the curriculum is missing from whatever you were taught, and ask whether that was a choice or an accident of lineage. And as a reassurance: the chapter is unusually good to reach for on a day when practice has consisted of ninety seconds before being interrupted.
For a class, reading four or five entries from widely separated parts of the chapter — the first absorption, a right effort, the perception of a bloated corpse, the power of wisdom with the third absorption — conveys the structure faster than reading fifty consecutive ones.
A note on the strange entries
Some of what is listed here will read as alien, and it is better to say so than to pretend the canon is uniformly modern in temperament. The universal meditations on blue, yellow, red, and white are a technology of concentration with almost no presence in contemporary practice. The four corpse perceptions — the skeleton, the worm-infested body, the livid body, the bloated body — belong to the same family as the contemplation of ugliness discussed at AN 1.16, with the same warnings attached.
Their presence is informative in itself. The canon’s repertoire was wider than what any single later tradition kept, and every tradition that came afterward selected from it. Knowing what was selected from is part of understanding what one has been given.
Key terms
The text
The four absorptions and the four immeasurables (AN 1.394–401)
§394“If, mendicants, a mendicant develops the first absorption, even as long as a finger-snap, they are called a mendicant who does not lack absorption, who follows the Teacher’s instructions, who responds to advice, and who does not eat the country’s alms in vain. How much more so those who make much of it!”
§395“If, mendicants, a mendicant develops the second …
§396third …
§397or fourth absorption …
§398or the heart’s release by love …
§399or the heart’s release by compassion …
§400or the heart’s release by rejoicing …
§401or the heart’s release by equanimity, even as long as a finger-snap …
The four kinds of mindfulness meditation (AN 1.402–405)
§402If a mendicant meditates by observing an aspect of the body …
§403feelings …
§404mind …
§405principles—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world, even for the time of a finger-snap …
The four right efforts (AN 1.406–409)
§406If they generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise, even for the time of a finger-snap …
§407If they generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen are given up, even for the time of a finger-snap …
§408If they generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities that have not arisen do arise, even for the time of a finger-snap …
§409If they generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities that have arisen remain, are not lost, but increase, mature, and are fulfilled by development, even for the time of a finger-snap …
The four bases of psychic power (AN 1.410–413)
§410If they develop the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to enthusiasm, and active effort …
§411the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to energy, and active effort …
§412the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to mental development, and active effort …
§413the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to inquiry, and active effort, even for the time of a finger-snap …
The five faculties and the five powers (AN 1.414–423)
§414If they develop the faculty of faith …
§415the faculty of energy …
§416the faculty of mindfulness …
§417the faculty of immersion …
§418the faculty of wisdom, even for the time of a finger-snap …
§419If they develop the power of faith …
§420the power of energy …
§421the power of mindfulness …
§422the power of immersion …
§423the power of wisdom, even for the time of a finger-snap …
The seven awakening factors (AN 1.424–430)
§424If they develop the awakening factor of mindfulness …
§425the awakening factor of investigation of principles …
§426the awakening factor of energy …
§427the awakening factor of rapture …
§428the awakening factor of tranquility …
§429the awakening factor of immersion …
§430the awakening factor of equanimity, even for the time of a finger-snap …
The noble eightfold path (AN 1.431–438)
§431If they develop right view …
§432right purpose …
§433right speech …
§434right action …
§435right livelihood …
§436right effort …
§437right mindfulness …
§438right immersion, even for the time of a finger-snap …
The eight dimensions of mastery (AN 1.439–446)
§439Perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limited, both pretty and ugly. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§440Perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limitless, both pretty and ugly. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§441Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limited, both pretty and ugly. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§442Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limitless, both pretty and ugly. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§443Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally that are blue, with blue color and blue appearance. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§444Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally that are yellow, with yellow color and yellow appearance. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§445Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally that are red, with red color and red appearance. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
§446Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally that are white, with white color and white appearance. Mastering them, they are aware that: ‘I know and see.’ …
The eight liberations (AN 1.447–454)
§447Having physical form, they see forms …
§448not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally …
§449they’re focused only on beauty …
§450going totally beyond perceptions of form, with the disappearance of perceptions of impingement, not focusing on perceptions of diversity, aware that ‘space is infinite’, they enter and remain in the dimension of infinite space …
§451going totally beyond the dimension of infinite space, aware that ‘consciousness is infinite’, they enter and remain in the dimension of infinite consciousness …
§452going totally beyond the dimension of infinite consciousness, aware that ‘there is nothing at all’, they enter and remain in the dimension of nothingness …
§453going totally beyond the dimension of nothingness, they enter and remain in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception …
§454going totally beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, they enter and remain in the cessation of perception and feeling …
The ten universal meditations (AN 1.455–464)
§455They develop the meditation on universal earth …
§456the meditation on universal water …
§457the meditation on universal fire …
§458the meditation on universal air …
§459the meditation on universal blue …
§460the meditation on universal yellow …
§461the meditation on universal red …
§462the meditation on universal white …
§463the meditation on universal space …
§464the meditation on universal consciousness …
Twenty perceptions (AN 1.465–484)
§465They develop the perception of ugliness …
§466the perception of death …
§467the perception of the repulsiveness of food …
§468the perception of dissatisfaction with the whole world …
§469the perception of impermanence …
§470the perception of suffering in impermanence …
§471the perception of not-self in suffering …
§472the perception of giving up …
§473the perception of fading away …
§474the perception of cessation …
§475They develop the perception of impermanence …
§476the perception of not-self …
§477the perception of death …
§478the perception of the repulsiveness of food …
§479the perception of dissatisfaction with the whole world …
§480the perception of a skeleton …
§481the perception of the worm-infested corpse …
§482the perception of the livid corpse …
§483the perception of the split open corpse …
§484the perception of the bloated corpse …
The ten recollections (AN 1.485–494)
§485They develop the recollection of the Buddha …
§486the recollection of the teaching …
§487the recollection of the Saṅgha …
§488the recollection of ethical conduct …
§489the recollection of generosity …
§490the recollection of the deities …
§491mindfulness of breathing …
§492the recollection of death …
§493mindfulness of the body …
§494the recollection of peace …
Faculties and powers, with each absorption and immeasurable (AN 1.495–574)
§495They develop the faculty of faith together with the first absorption …
§496the faculty of energy …
§497the faculty of mindfulness …
§498the faculty of immersion …
§499the faculty of wisdom …
§500the power of faith …
§501the power of energy …
§502the power of mindfulness …
§503the power of immersion …
§504the power of wisdom together with the first absorption …
§505–514Together with the second absorption …
§515–524the third absorption …
§525–534the fourth absorption …
§535–544love …
§545–554compassion …
§555–564rejoicing …
§565They develop the faculty of faith together with equanimity …
§566They develop the faculty of energy …
§567the faculty of mindfulness …
§568the faculty of immersion …
§569the faculty of wisdom …
§570the power of faith …
§571the power of energy …
§572the power of mindfulness …
§573the power of immersion …
§574the power of wisdom. That mendicant is called a mendicant who does not lack absorption, who follows the Teacher’s instructions, who responds to advice, and who does not eat the country’s alms in vain. How much more so those who make much of it!”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.