Reading guide
The five practices, once more
The opening list is exactly AN 5.69 and 5.70's five practices: observing the body's ugliness, perceiving food's repulsiveness, perceiving dissatisfaction with the whole world, observing the impermanence of all conditions, and having well established the perception of one's own death. Their fruit here is named as cetovimutti and paññāvimutti — freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom — the same twin outcome AN 5.69's seven-term chain and AN 5.70's single term both ultimately named.
A fortress, not a chain
Where AN 5.69–70 described an unfolding sequence, this discourse switches images entirely: a mendicant who has this twofold freedom is called, all at once, one who has lifted the cross-bar, filled in the moat, pulled up the pillar, become unimpeded, and lowered the banner while dropping the burden and becoming detached — five names for a single fortified position that has stopped needing its own defenses.
Lifted the cross-bar, filled in the moat
The cross-bar (paligha) that once barred the gate stands for ignorance (avijjā); the moat (parikha) that once encircled the fortress, keeping the siege going indefinitely, stands for transmigration through future births (ponobhavika jātisaṁsāra). Both are described as given up by the same formula used throughout this collection for a fully eradicated quality: cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated, unable to arise again.
Pulled up the pillar, unimpeded
The pillar (esikā), a fortification's load-bearing post, stands for craving (taṇhā) — pull it out and the whole structure it was holding up no longer stands. To be unimpeded (niraggaḷa, without a bolt or bar) is to have given up the five lower fetters, the bindings that tie a person to the sensual realm and its lower rebirths: identity view, doubt, misapprehension of precepts and observances, sensual desire, and ill will.
Banner lowered, burden dropped, detached
The final epithet describes a noble one (ariya) with banner lowered, burden dropped, and detached — given up here as the conceit ‘I am’ (asmimāna). This is traditionally the last and subtlest residue of self-reference to fall away, surviving even after the coarser fetters are gone; naming it last, after four other eradications, matches how gradually and how late this particular conceit is said to loosen its grip.
A pair to come
AN 5.72 immediately follows with the identical fruit and the identical five fortress epithets, but reaches them through an entirely different, progressive five-step perception chain rather than this discourse's static five-topic list — two different routes into the same standing-open fortress.
Key terms
The text
The five practices, and their fruit
§1“Mendicants, these five things, when developed and cultivated, have freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom as their fruit and benefit. What five? A mendicant meditates observing the ugliness of the body, perceives the repulsiveness of food, perceives dissatisfaction with the whole world, observes the impermanence of all conditions, and has well established the perception of their own death. These five things, when developed and cultivated, have freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom as their fruit and benefit. When a mendicant has freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom, such a mendicant is one who is called ‘one who has lifted the cross-bar’, ‘one who has filled in the moat’, ‘one who has pulled up the pillar’, ‘one who is unimpeded’, and also ‘a noble one with banner lowered and burden dropped, detached’.
Lifted the cross-bar
§2And how has a mendicant lifted the cross-bar? It’s when a mendicant has given up ignorance, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant has lifted the cross-bar.
Filled in the moat
§3And how has a mendicant filled in the moat? It’s when a mendicant has given up transmigrating through births in future lives, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant has filled in the moat.
Pulled up the pillar
§4And how has a mendicant pulled up the pillar? It’s when a mendicant has given up craving, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant has pulled up the pillar.
Unimpeded
§5And how is a mendicant unimpeded? It’s when a mendicant has given up the five lower fetters, cut them off at the root, made them like a palm stump, obliterated them, so they’re unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant is unimpeded.
Banner lowered, burden dropped, detached
§6And how is a mendicant a noble one with with banner lowered and burden dropped, detached? It’s when a mendicant has given up the conceit ‘I am’, cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, obliterated it, so it’s unable to arise in the future. That’s how a mendicant is a noble one with banner lowered and burden dropped, detached.”
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