Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
What has to be removed gets finer as you go, and the last stage is not a removal at all but a change in the material.
Three washings
The corruptions of native gold are graded. Coarse: sand, soil, and gravel. Middling: fine grit and coarse sand. Fine: fine sand and black grime. Each is washed out and the next becomes visible.
The parallel is precise and it is the most useful part of the discourse. Coarse: bad conduct of body, speech, and mind. Middling: sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts. Fine: thoughts of family, country, and status.
That third item is the one worth stopping on. After conduct and after the three unwholesome kinds of thought, what remains to be removed is thinking about where one is from, who one’s people are, and how one is regarded. Those are not vices in any ordinary sense. They are the ordinary furniture of a mind, and the discourse classes them as the last dirt in the gold.
Notice also the agent. A sincere, capable mendicant gives these up, gets rid of, eliminates, and obliterates them. Four verbs at every level, and the same person does the work throughout — there is no point at which somebody else takes over.
What is left, and why it is not enough
“When they’ve been given up and eliminated, only thoughts about the teaching are left.”
Dhammavitakka. A mind with nothing in it but thoughts about the teaching, which sounds like the destination and is not.
“That immersion is not peaceful or sublime or tranquil or unified, but is held in place by forceful suppression.”
This sentence is the reason to read the discourse. A state that has been cleared of misconduct, of sensual and cruel thinking, and even of thoughts about one’s family and standing — a state occupied entirely by the subject matter — is described as sasaṅkhāraniggayha vāritavata, held down by effort.
The canon rarely says this so plainly. Concentration produced by holding something in place is not the concentration the training is for, and the difference is not one of degree. It is the difference between a lid on a pot and a pot that has stopped boiling.
The stage that is not a removal
“But there comes a time when that mind is stilled internally; it settles, unifies, and becomes immersed in samādhi. That immersion is peaceful and sublime and tranquil and unified, not held in place by forceful suppression.”
Hoti so samayo — there comes a time, the same phrase AN 3.92 used of the crops ripening and of the mind being freed. Nothing is done to produce this; the sentence describes an arrival.
And the simile has been built to accommodate it. The three washings are subtraction and anybody can see how they work. The smelting is not: the goldsmith blows and melts and the gold is still not settled, brittle and not completely ready, and he keeps going, and then it becomes pliable, workable, and radiant.
Nothing has been taken out during the melting. The material has changed state. That is the discourse’s account of the last stage of concentration and it is a better one than any list of techniques, because it explains why continuing to do the same thing when it is not working is sometimes the correct instruction.
Pliable, workable, radiant
Mudu kammañña pabhassara — the three adjectives are used of the gold and then of the mind, and they are the same three that appear in the standard description of the mind in the fourth absorption at AN 3.58.
Kammañña, workable, is the key term and the reason the goldsmith image was chosen. Gold is not made pure so that it can be admired; it is made pure so that it can be made into something. The goldsmith then can successfully create any kind of ornament they want, whether a bracelet, earrings, a necklace, or a golden garland.
The mendicant’s equivalent is the list that closes the discourse: the psychic powers, clairaudience, knowing others’ minds, recollection of past lives, the divine eye, and the ending of defilements. Six, and each and every one is within range.
It is worth pointing out that the last of the six is the only one the rest of the collection treats as the point. AN 3.60 ranked displays of psychic power last of three demonstrations; AN 3.92 said no amount of power lets a person schedule their own release. Here the powers are listed as capacities of a workable mind, alongside the release, and no ranking is offered.
The bracelet-and-earrings list is the guide. A goldsmith with workable gold can make any of those things; which one they make is a separate question, and the discourse leaves it open.
Using it
The three-tier grading of corruptions is the practical content, and it is worth giving to a class as a sequence they can locate themselves in. Most people who are working on themselves at all are working somewhere in the coarse or middling range, and the fine range — thoughts of family, country, and status — usually comes as a surprise.
The sentence about suppression is the one to give anybody who meditates. A state held in place by force is named here, described accurately, and said to be not yet the thing — and the discourse does not tell them to try harder. It says there comes a time.
This discourse and AN 3.102 are a pair and should be taught together: this one is about what has to come out, and the next is about what to do while waiting.
Key terms
The text
Washing, and then smelting
§1“Native gold has coarse corruptions: sand, soil, and gravel. A panner or their apprentice pours it into a pan, where they wash, rinse, and clean it. When that’s been eliminated, there are medium corruptions in the native gold: fine grit and coarse sand. The panner washes it again. When that’s been eliminated, there are fine corruptions in the native gold: fine sand and black grime. The panner washes it again. When that’s been eliminated, only golden flecks remain. A goldsmith or their apprentice places the native gold in a crucible where they blow, melt, and smelt it. Still the native gold is not settled and the dross is not totally gone. It’s not pliable, workable, or radiant, but is brittle and not completely ready for working. But the goldsmith keeps on blowing, melting, and smelting it. The native gold becomes pliable, workable, and radiant, not brittle, and ready to be worked. Then the goldsmith can successfully create any kind of ornament they want, whether a bracelet, earrings, a necklace, or a golden garland.
Coarse, middling, fine
§2In the same way, a mendicant who is committed to the higher mind has coarse corruptions: bad bodily, verbal, and mental conduct. A sincere, capable mendicant gives these up, gets rid of, eliminates, and obliterates them. When they’ve been given up and eliminated, there are middling corruptions: sensual, malicious, or cruel thoughts. A sincere, capable mendicant gives these up, gets rid of, eliminates, and obliterates them. When they’ve been given up and eliminated, there are fine corruptions: thoughts of family, country, and status. A sincere, capable mendicant gives these up, gets rid of, eliminates, and obliterates them. When they’ve been given up and eliminated, only thoughts about the teaching are left. That immersion is not peaceful or sublime or tranquil or unified, but is held in place by forceful suppression. But there comes a time when that mind is stilled internally; it settles, unifies, and becomes immersed in samādhi. That immersion is peaceful and sublime and tranquil and unified, not held in place by forceful suppression. They extend the mind to realize by insight each and every thing that can be realized by insight; and they are capable of realizing those things, since each and every one is within range.
Within range
§3If they wish: ‘May I wield the many kinds of psychic power: multiplying myself and becoming one again; materializing and dematerializing; going unobstructed through a wall, a rampart, or a mountain as if through space; diving in and out of the earth as if it were water; walking on water as if it were earth; flying cross-legged through the sky like a bird; touching and stroking with my hand the sun and moon, so mighty and powerful; controlling my body as far as the realm of divinity.’ They are capable of realizing these things, since each and every one is within range.
§4If they wish: ‘With clairaudience that is purified and superhuman, may I hear both kinds of sounds, human and heavenly, whether near or far.’ They are capable of realizing these things, since each and every one is within range.
§5If they wish: ‘May I understand the minds of other beings and individuals, having encompassed them with my mind. May I understand mind with greed as “mind with greed”, and mind without greed as “mind without greed”; mind with hate as “mind with hate”, and mind without hate as “mind without hate”; mind with delusion as “mind with delusion”, and mind without delusion as “mind without delusion”; constricted mind as “constricted mind”, and scattered mind as “scattered mind”; expansive mind as “expansive mind”, and unexpansive mind as “unexpansive mind”; mind that is not supreme as “mind that is not supreme”, and mind that is supreme as “mind that is supreme”; mind immersed in samādhi as “mind immersed in samādhi”, and mind not immersed in samādhi as “mind not immersed in samādhi”; freed mind as “freed mind”, and unfreed mind as “unfreed mind”.’ They are capable of realizing these things, since each and every one is within range.
§6If they wish: ‘May I recollect many kinds of past lives. That is: one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. May I remember: “There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.” May I recollect my many past lives, with features and details.’ They are capable of realizing these things, since each and every one is within range.
§7If they wish: ‘With clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, may I see sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place—and understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds: “These dear beings did bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. They denounced the noble ones; they had wrong view; and they chose to act out of that wrong view. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. These dear beings, however, did good things by way of body, speech, and mind. They never denounced the noble ones; they had right view; and they chose to act out of that right view. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.” And so, with clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, may I see sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place. And may I understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds.’ They are capable of realizing these things, since each and every one is within range.
§8If they wish: ‘May I realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with my own insight due to the ending of defilements.’ They are capable of realizing these things, since each and every one is within range.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.