Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Asked how many topics for recollection there are, Udāyī answers wrongly with only one (recollection of past lives); Ānanda then correctly names five — the absorptions, the perception of light, contemplation of the body's parts, contemplation of a decaying corpse, and the fourth absorption — and the Buddha adds a sixth: mindful attention to ordinary activity.
Why this list is not the six recollections met earlier
This is worth stating as plainly as possible, having checked the Pāli directly: the term anussatiṭṭhāna is shared with AN 6.9, 6.10, 6.25, and 6.26, but the content named here shares nothing with that list. Where the earlier four discourses concerned recollecting the Triple Gem, one's own ethics and generosity, and the deities, this discourse concerns meditative techniques — absorption states, a light-based perception practice, body contemplation, and charnel-ground reflection. The canon uses one general term, “subject for recollection,” for more than one specific enumerated list, and this discourse and AN 6.9/6.10/6.25/6.26 should not be read as variants of a single fixed teaching.
Udāyī's mistake, and the Buddha's sharp response
Asked the question three times, Udāyī stays silent twice, then finally answers with only past-life recollection — itself a real recollection practice, but not what the Buddha's question was probing for, and offered as if it were a complete answer rather than one item among several. The Buddha's response is uncharacteristically blunt: he tells Ānanda directly, in Udāyī's hearing, that “this futile man Udāyī is not committed to the higher mind,” before turning to Ānanda for the actual answer.
Ānanda's five, and the Buddha's addition of a sixth
Ānanda names five topics, each closing with a stated outcome: the first three absorptions, leading to blissful meditation in this life; the perception of light, leading to knowledge and vision; contemplation of the body's parts, leading to giving up sensual desire; contemplation of a corpse's stages of decay, leading to uprooting the conceit “I am”; and the fourth absorption, leading to penetration of the elements. The Buddha praises this answer and adds a sixth himself: mindfully going, returning, standing, sitting, lying down, and working, leading to mindfulness and situational awareness in ordinary activity.
A caution this guide applies to itself, again
Encountering a discourse whose title and central term match earlier pages so closely, the temptation is to summarize it as “another version of the six recollections” and move on. Direct comparison of the actual content shows that would be wrong. This is the same caution already applied at AN 6.25, restated here because the resemblance in this case is closer — identical title, identical central term — and so the risk of conflating them without checking is correspondingly greater.
Key terms
The text
The Buddha's question, and Udāyī's silence
§1Then the Buddha said to Udāyī, “Udāyī, how many topics for recollection are there?” When he said this, Udāyī kept silent. And a second time … and a third time, the Buddha said to him, “Udāyī, how many topics for recollection are there?” And a second time and a third time Udāyī kept silent.
Ānanda intervenes; Udāyī's mistaken answer
§2Then Venerable Ānanda said to Venerable Udāyī, “Reverend Udāyī, the teacher is addressing you.” “Reverend Ānanda, I hear the Buddha. It’s when a mendicant recollects 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. They 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.’ And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details. This is a topic for recollection.”
The Buddha's rebuke, and Ānanda's five topics
§3Then the Buddha said to Venerable Ānanda: “Ānanda, I know that this futile man Udāyī is not committed to the higher mind. Ānanda, how many topics for recollection are there?” “Sir, there are five topics for recollection. What five? Firstly, a mendicant, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption … second absorption … third absorption. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to blissful meditation in this very life. Furthermore, a mendicant focuses on the perception of light, focusing on the perception of day regardless of whether it’s night or day. And so, with an open and unenveloped heart, they develop a mind that’s full of radiance. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to knowledge and vision. Furthermore, a mendicant examines their own body up from the soles of the feet and down from the tips of the hairs, wrapped in skin and full of many kinds of filth. ‘In this body there is head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, undigested food, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, snot, synovial fluid, urine.’ When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to giving up sensual desire. Furthermore, suppose a mendicant were to see a corpse thrown in a charnel ground. And it had been dead for one, two, or three days, bloated, livid, and festering. They’d compare it with their own body: ‘This body is also of that same nature, that same kind, and cannot go beyond that.’ Or suppose they were to see a corpse thrown in a charnel ground being devoured by crows, hawks, vultures, hounds, jackals, and many kinds of little creatures. They’d compare it with their own body: ‘This body is also of that same nature, that same kind, and cannot go beyond that.’ Furthermore, suppose they were to see a corpse thrown in a charnel ground, a skeleton with flesh and blood, held together by sinews … A skeleton without flesh but smeared with blood, and held together by sinews … A skeleton rid of flesh and blood, held together by sinews … Bones rid of sinews scattered in every direction. Here a hand-bone, there a foot-bone, here a shin-bone, there a thigh-bone, here a hip-bone, there a rib-bone, here a back-bone, there an arm-bone, here a neck-bone, there a jaw-bone, here a tooth, there the skull … White bones, the color of shells … Decrepit bones, heaped in a pile … Bones rotted and crumbled to powder. They’d compare it with their own body: ‘This body is also of that same nature, that same kind, and cannot go beyond that.’ When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to uprooting the conceit ‘I am’. Furthermore, a mendicant, with the giving up of pleasure and pain and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, enters and remains in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to the penetration of many elements. These are the five topics for recollection.”
The Buddha adds a sixth
§4“Good, good, Ānanda. Well then, Ānanda, you should also remember this sixth topic for recollection. In this case, a mendicant goes out mindfully, returns mindfully, stands mindfully, sits mindfully, lies down mindfully, and focuses on work mindfully. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to mindfulness and situational awareness.”
Self-check quiz
Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.