Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Aṅguttara Nikāya · Discourses 3.156–162

Three Practices

Acelakavagga — the sixteenth chapter of the Threes

Setting
None stated; the discourse continues from AN 3.1, whose setting at Sāvatthī is understood to hold
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Seven discourses compressed into one page: the first defines three practices in full, the next six redefine the third practice by successive doctrinal lists
Length
~8 minutes to read
Northern parallel
The rejection of both self-indulgence and self-mortification in favor of a middle way is foundational across the Chinese Āgamas; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — the ascetic catalogue is vivid and specific; the later discourses require recognizing the thirty-seven qualities that support awakening

Why this discourse

AN 3.156 defines three practices: the addicted practice, indulging without limit in sensual pleasure; the scorching practice, a catalogue of self-mortification so specific it names the exact plants eaten and the exact materials worn; and the middle practice, defined here as the four kinds of mindfulness meditation. Then something unusual happens. AN 3.157 through 3.162 each restate the identical three-practice frame, abbreviate the first two practices to a phrase, and redefine the middle practice as a different item from the classical list of thirty-seven qualities that support awakening — the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven awakening factors, and the noble eightfold path. Seven ways of naming the middle way, in one chapter.

Reading guide

The teaching in one sentence

Between the addicted practice and the scorching practice lies the middle practice, and this chapter names it seven different ways, each one a genuine and complete answer rather than an approximation of the others.

The addicted practice, stated briefly

The addicted practice is given the least space of the three: someone holds the view that there is nothing wrong with sensual pleasures and throws themselves in without restraint. No catalogue follows, because none is needed — the reader already knows what unrestrained sensual indulgence looks like. The discourse's attention is reserved for the practice it takes more effort to reject.

The scorching practice, catalogued in exhausting detail

Going naked; licking one's hands instead of using them properly; refusing food brought or specially prepared; eating only from one to seven houses, one to seven mouthfuls, one to seven saucers a day; fasting for up to a fortnight; eating grass, cow dung, and fallen fruit; wearing hemp, corpse-cloth, bark, or owls' wings; tearing out hair and beard; refusing to sit; squatting permanently; sleeping on thorns; bathing three times daily including after dark. The list is long on purpose. This is not a vague gesture toward “ascetics who go too far”; it is the same kind of practice the Buddha describes trying and rejecting in his own words in MN 12, told there in the first person rather than catalogued in the third.

Why both extremes get the identical closing formula

“This is called the addicted practice” and “this is called the scorching practice” use the same verb, vuccati, is called — neither is condemned in the sentence that defines it. The condemnation is structural: both are named and then set aside in favor of a third option that gets the last word and the most doctrinal weight in every one of the seven discourses that follow.

Seven definitions of the middle, none reducible to the others

AN 3.156 defines the middle practice as the four kinds of mindfulness meditation (satipaṭṭhāna): body, feelings, mind, and principles. AN 3.157 redefines it as the four right efforts. AN 3.158, the four bases of psychic power. AN 3.159, the five spiritual faculties. AN 3.160, the five spiritual powers. AN 3.161, the seven awakening factors. AN 3.162, the noble eightfold path. Together these seven lists are the traditional thirty-seven qualities that support awakening, bodhipakkhiyā dhammā, and this chapter is arguably the most economical place in the entire canon where all thirty-seven appear, each one independently offered as a complete and sufficient answer to the same question: what is the middle practice?

Reading the whole set as one argument

No single one of the seven definitions is presented as more correct than the others. A reader tempted to ask which is the “real” middle practice is asking a question this chapter is built to refuse: the four right efforts and the noble eightfold path are not competing summaries where one must be chosen over the rest. They are seven cross-sections of a single, larger practice, each complete when taken on its own terms.

Key terms

āgāḷhā paṭipadā, nijjhāmā paṭipadā, majjhimā paṭipadā — “the addicted practice, the scorching practice, the middle practice” — the chapter’s organizing triad, restated in all seven discourses.
acelaka — “unclothed, naked” — the practice named in the vagga’s own title, the opening item of the scorching catalogue.
bodhipakkhiyā dhammā — “the qualities that support awakening” — the thirty-seven qualities traditionally grouped into seven sets, all seven of which appear across this chapter as successive definitions of the middle practice.
satipaṭṭhāna — “the establishments of mindfulness” — body, feelings, mind, and principles, the middle practice’s first definition in AN 3.156.
sammappadhāna — “the right efforts” — preventing, abandoning, developing, and maintaining, the middle practice’s second definition in AN 3.157.

The text

All seven discourses, in order: the full definition of the three practices, and the middle practice redefined six more times. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).

Three practices, and the addicted practice

§1“Mendicants, there are three practices. What three? The addicted practice, the scorching practice, and the middle practice. And what’s the addicted practice? It’s when someone has this doctrine and view: ‘There’s nothing wrong with sensual pleasures’; so they throw themselves into sensual pleasures. This is called the addicted practice.

The scorching practice

§2And what’s the scorching practice? It’s when someone goes naked, ignoring conventions. They lick their hands, and don’t come or wait when called. They don’t consent to food brought to them, or food prepared on their behalf, or an invitation for a meal. They don’t receive anything from a pot or bowl; or from someone who keeps sheep, or who has a weapon or a shovel in their home; or where a couple is eating; or where there is a woman who is pregnant, breastfeeding, or who lives with a man; or where there’s a hound waiting or flies buzzing. They accept no fish or meat or beer or wine, and drink no fermented gruel. They go to just one house for alms, taking just one mouthful, or two houses and two mouthfuls, up to seven houses and seven mouthfuls. They feed on one saucer a day, two saucers a day, up to seven saucers a day. They eat once a day, once every second day, up to once a week, and so on, even up to once a fortnight. They live pursuing the practice of eating food at set intervals. They eat herbs, millet, wild rice, poor rice, water lettuce, rice bran, scum from boiling rice, sesame flour, grass, or cow dung. They survive on forest roots and fruits, or eating fallen fruit. They wear robes of sunn hemp, mixed hemp, corpse-wrapping cloth, rags, lodh tree bark, antelope hide (whole or in strips), kusa grass, bark, wood-chips, human hair, horse-tail hair, or owls’ wings. They tear out their hair and beard, committed to this practice. They constantly stand, turning down seats. They squat, committed to the endeavor of squatting. They lie on a mat of thorns, making a mat of thorns their bed. They’re devoted to ritual bathing three times a day, including at dusk. And so they live pursuing these various ways of mortifying and tormenting the body. This is called the scorching practice.

The middle practice: the four establishments of mindfulness (AN 3.156)

§3And what’s the middle practice? It’s when a mendicant meditates by observing an aspect of the body—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. They meditate observing an aspect of feelings … They meditate observing an aspect of the mind … They meditate observing an aspect of principles—keen, aware, and mindful, rid of covetousness and displeasure for the world. This is called the middle practice. These are the three practices.

The middle practice: the four right efforts (AN 3.157)

§4Mendicants, there are three practices. What three? The addicted practice, the scorching practice, the middle practice. And what’s the addicted practice? … This is called the addicted practice. And what is the scorching practice? … This is called the scorching practice. And what’s the middle practice? It’s when a mendicant generates enthusiasm, tries, makes an effort, exerts the mind, and strives so that bad, unskillful qualities don’t arise. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that bad, unskillful qualities that have arisen are given up. They generate enthusiasm, try, make an effort, exert the mind, and strive so that skillful qualities arise. 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 completed by development. …

The middle practice: the four bases of psychic power (AN 3.158)

§5They develop the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to enthusiasm, and active effort. They develop the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to energy, and active effort. They develop the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to mental development, and active effort. They develop the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to inquiry, and active effort. …

The middle practice: the five faculties (AN 3.159)

§6They develop the faculty of faith … energy … mindfulness … immersion … wisdom …

The middle practice: the five powers (AN 3.160)

§7They develop the power of faith … energy … mindfulness … immersion … wisdom …

The middle practice: the seven awakening factors (AN 3.161)

§8They develop the awakening factor of mindfulness … investigation of principles … energy … rapture … tranquility … immersion … equanimity …

The middle practice: the noble eightfold path (AN 3.162)

§9They develop right view … right purpose … right speech … right action … right livelihood … right effort … right mindfulness … right immersion … This is called the middle practice. These are the three practices.”

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Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10
What three practices does AN 3.156 define?
Correct: B. The organizing triad restated across all seven discourses in this chapter.
Question 2 of 10
How much detail does the discourse give the addicted practice, compared to the scorching practice?
Correct: B. The discourse's attention is reserved for the practice that takes more effort to reject.
Question 3 of 10
What does the scorching practice's catalogue include?
Correct: B. An unusually long and specific list, matched in the canon by the Buddha's own autobiographical account in MN 12.
Question 4 of 10
Where else in this site's collection does a similar catalogue of extreme austerity appear?
Correct: B. The same kind of practice, told there in the first person rather than catalogued in the third.
Question 5 of 10
What verb does the discourse use to close both the addicted and scorching practice definitions?
Correct: B. Both extremes are named and then set aside in favor of the middle practice, which gets the last word each time.
Question 6 of 10
How many times is the middle practice redefined across this chapter, and by what?
Correct: B. Together these seven lists make up the traditional thirty-seven qualities that support awakening.
Question 7 of 10
What collective name do these seven lists share in the tradition?
Correct: B. This chapter is arguably the canon's most economical presentation of all thirty-seven at once.
Question 8 of 10
Does the chapter present one of the seven definitions of the middle practice as more correct than the others?
Correct: B. Seven cross-sections of one larger practice, none reducible to the others.
Question 9 of 10
What is the vagga's own title, and what does it refer to?
Correct: B. Named for the first and most visually striking item in the scorching practice's list.
Question 10 of 10
How does the guide characterize a reader's temptation to ask which of the seven is the "real" middle practice?
Correct: B. The four right efforts and the eightfold path are not competing summaries where one must be chosen.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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