Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The seven awakening factors — mindfulness, investigation, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity — are, as a set, the fourth kind of deed: the one that ends deeds.
The seven, named for the first time in this series
Sati, dhammavicaya, vīriya, pīti, passaddhi, samādhi, upekkhā — mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity. This is the seven awakening factors’ first appearance in this series, and it is worth naming what kind of list it is before saying more: not a sequence of eight discrete factors like the path, but seven qualities that the tradition elsewhere describes as arising in a supportive chain, each strengthening the conditions for the next, and culminating in equanimity.
Two identifications, not a contradiction
That the fourth kind of deed is identified with the eightfold path at AN 4.237 and with the awakening factors here is not the discourse offering two competing answers to the same question. The bodhipakkhiyā dhammā, the qualities that contribute to awakening, traditionally include several such lists — the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, the four right efforts, the four bases of psychic power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven awakening factors, and the eightfold path — overlapping sets describing the same territory of practice from different angles. Naming two of them here as the fourth kind of deed is consistent with treating any member of that family as an equally valid answer.
Why this matters for reading the fourth kind of deed generally
Taken together, AN 4.237 and this discourse suggest that ‘the fourth kind of deed’ is not a single named practice with one correct label, but a functional category: whatever practice genuinely ends the generation of dark, bright, and mixed deeds qualifies, whether described as an eight-factored path or a seven-factored chain of qualities. The chapter is not choosing between the two; it is showing that the category admits more than one accurate description.
Key terms
The text
The four kinds of deeds
§1“Mendicants, I declare these four kinds of deeds, having realized them with my own insight…. And what are dark deeds with dark results? It’s when someone makes hurtful choices by way of body, speech, and mind. These are called dark deeds with dark results.
The first three, briefly
§2And what are bright deeds with bright results? It’s when someone makes pleasing choices by way of body, speech, and mind. These are called bright deeds with bright results. And what are dark and bright deeds with dark and bright results? It’s when someone makes both hurtful and pleasing choices by way of body, speech, and mind. These are called dark and bright deeds with dark and bright results.
The fourth: the awakening factors
§3And what are neither dark nor bright deeds with neither dark nor bright results, which lead to the ending of deeds? The awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity. These are called neither dark nor bright deeds with neither dark nor bright results, which lead to the ending of deeds. These are the four kinds of deeds that I declare, having realized them with my own insight.”
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