Untitled in the source — Rāgapeyyāla — the abbreviated texts beginning with greed, closing this nipāta
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Eleven things that should be developed for insight into greed, named in full
Length
~1 minute to read; a single discourse
Opening this nipāta's final structure
This page opens the Rāgapeyyāla, the last of the two peyyāla this project has met bearing this name (the other closed AN 9 and AN 10)
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a short, concrete list, easy to hold in mind
Why this discourse
For insight into greed, eleven things should be developed: the four absorptions, the four divine abodes of love, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity, and the dimensions of infinite space, infinite consciousness, and nothingness — the same eleven-item list already met in full at AN 11.16, now opening this nipāta's own closing peyyāla.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Eleven meditative attainments — the four absorptions, the four divine abodes, and the three lower formless dimensions — should be developed for insight (abhiññā) into greed, opening a peyyāla that will apply the same list, crossed against ten verbs and seventeen defilements, all the way to the close of this entire project.
A list already met, now put to new work
This same eleven-item list — the four absorptions, the four divine abodes of love, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity, and the three lower formless attainments — was already met in full at AN 11.16, there framed as doors to the deathless, each seen through as impermanent once attained. Here, the framing shifts: the same eleven things are simply what should be developed ‘for insight into greed’, without repeating the earlier discourse's reflection on impermanence at all.
A second Rāgapeyyāla in this project
This is the second peyyāla in this project to bear the name Rāgapeyyāla, ‘abbreviated texts beginning with greed’: the first closed the Book of the Nines at AN 9.113–432 and the Book of the Tens at AN 10.237–746, both built from sixteen defilements crossed against ten verbs and either two or three ten-item lists. This one, closing the Book of the Elevens, uses a single fixed eleven-item list instead — simpler in structure, though the underlying seventeen-defilement roster (adding greed itself to the familiar sixteen) is unchanged.
What this single discourse opens
AN 11.982 covers only the first of ten verbs (insight, abhiññā) applied to greed alone. The next page supplies greed's remaining nine verbs, and the page after that extends the full ten-verb treatment to the sixteen further defilements already familiar from this project's two earlier Rāgapeyyāla, closing not only this nipāta but the entire 1,408-discourse project.
Key terms
rāgassa abhiññāya — “for insight into greed” — this discourse's own opening phrase, naming both its subject and the first of ten verbs this peyyāla will apply throughout.
cattāri jhānāni — “the four absorptions” — the first four of the eleven things to be developed.
mettācetovimutti, karuṇācetovimutti, muditācetovimutti, upekkhācetovimutti — “the heart's releases by love, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity” — the four divine abodes, items five through eight.
ākāsānañcāyatana, viññāṇañcāyatana, ākiñcaññāyatana — “the dimensions of infinite space, infinite consciousness, and nothingness” — the three lower formless attainments, items nine through eleven, stopping short of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
Rāgapeyyāla — “abbreviated texts beginning with greed” — this section's own name in the source, shared with the two earlier peyyāla of the same name closing AN 9 and AN 10.
The text
The discourse in full: eleven things to be developed for insight into greed. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Eleven things, for insight into greed
§1“For insight into greed, eleven things should be developed. What eleven? The first, second, third, and fourth absorptions; the heart’s releases by love, compassion, rejoicing, and equanimity; the dimensions of infinite space, infinite consciousness, and nothingness. For insight into greed, these eleven things should be developed.”
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Self-check quiz
6 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 6
What eleven things does this discourse say should be developed for insight into greed?
Correct: B. The same fixed list already met in full at AN 11.16.
Question 2 of 6
Where did this project first meet this identical eleven-item list?
Correct: B. There framed as doors to the deathless; here, as developments for insight into greed.
Question 3 of 6
How many Rāgapeyyāla has this project now met, including this one?
Correct: C. AN 9.113–432, AN 10.237–746, and now this one closing AN 11.
Question 4 of 6
How does this Rāgapeyyāla's underlying list structure differ from the earlier two, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Simpler in structure, though the seventeen-defilement roster carries over unchanged.
Question 5 of 6
What does this single discourse cover, according to the guide?
Correct: B. The next page supplies greed's remaining nine verbs.
Question 6 of 6
Where is this discourse set?
Correct: B. No location is given for this compressed passage.
