Dutiyatajjhānasutta — Devatāvagga — the seventh chapter of the Sixes, continuing the Second Fifty
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
A named six-item list — three kinds of thought, three kinds of perception — stated once as blocking the first absorption and once as its reversal
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The threefold thought/perception pairing (sensual, malicious, cruel) recurs across the Chinese Āgamas' treatment of right thought; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★☆☆☆☆ — brief and tightly patterned, closing the chapter on a compact six-item list
Why this discourse
AN 6.74 closes both this chapter and the pair it forms with AN 6.73: sharing the exact same title and the same target attainment, the first absorption, it names an entirely different six things — three kinds of thought (sensual, malicious, cruel) and the matching three kinds of perception — as what must be given up. As with AN 6.65/6.66 earlier in this chapter, a shared title and target here mask genuinely different content.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Without giving up sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts, and sensual, malicious, and cruel perceptions, the first absorption cannot be entered; giving up all six makes it attainable.
Thought and perception, paired three by three
The list is built from two matched triads rather than six independent items: kāmavitakka, byāpādavitakka, vihiṁsāvitakka (sensual, malicious, and cruel thought) and their perceptual counterparts kāmasaññā, byāpādasaññā, vihiṁsāsaññā. The structure suggests thought and perception are treated here as two layers of the same three underlying tendencies, not six unrelated items.
No wisdom clause, unlike AN 6.73
Where AN 6.73 closed its list of hindrances with an explicit sixth requirement — seeing sensual pleasure's drawbacks with wisdom — this discourse's six items are symmetrical throughout, three thoughts and three perceptions, with no separate wisdom clause appended. The two discourses reach the same target attainment by different routes, one ending on an explicit insight requirement, the other on a purely structural threefold-times-two list.
Thought as the coarser register, perception as the subtler
Vitakka (thought) is elsewhere in the canon the more active, verbal register of mental activity, while saññā (perception) names the more basic act of recognizing or labeling experience. Naming both registers together implies that giving up sensual, malicious, and cruel tendencies at the level of active thought is not sufficient on its own if the same three tendencies persist at the more basic level of how experience is perceived and labeled.
Closing the chapter, and opening onto Arahattavagga
AN 6.74 is this chapter's tenth and final discourse. The Sixes continue immediately with Chapter 8, Arahattavagga (AN 6.75–84), not yet built in this series; this page's own navigation, following the earlier pattern set at the close of Mahāvagga, points ahead to the nearest already-published page beyond the Sixes until that chapter is written.
Key terms
kāmavitakka, byāpādavitakka, vihiṁsāvitakka — “sensual, malicious, and cruel thought” — the first triad in this discourse's list, the more active, verbal register of mental activity.
kāmasaññā, byāpādasaññā, vihiṁsāsaññā — “sensual, malicious, and cruel perception” — the matching triad, naming the same three tendencies at the more basic level of recognizing and labeling experience.
vitakka — “thought,” applied thought — also the first factor of the very absorption this discourse concerns, though this list's three thoughts are what must be given up, not that factor itself.
saññā — “perception” — one of the five aggregates, here specified in three unwholesome forms to be relinquished.
paṭhamaṁ jhānaṁ — “the first absorption” — the same target attainment named in AN 6.73's title, reached here by a structurally different six-item list.
The text
The discourse in full: three kinds of thought and three matching kinds of perception, given up to enter the first absorption. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Without giving up six qualities
§1“Mendicants, without giving up these six qualities you can’t enter and remain in the first absorption. What six? Sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts; and sensual, malicious, and cruel perceptions. Without giving up these six qualities you can’t enter and remain in the first absorption.
After giving up six qualities
§2But after giving up these six qualities you can enter and remain in the first absorption. What six? Sensual, malicious, and cruel thoughts; and sensual, malicious, and cruel perceptions. After giving up these six qualities you can enter and remain in the first absorption.”
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Self-check quiz
Nine questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 9
What six things does AN 6.74 name as blocking the first absorption?
Correct: B. An entirely different list from AN 6.73's, despite sharing the same title and target attainment.
Question 2 of 9
How does the guide describe the list's internal structure?
Correct: B. Thought and perception as two layers of the same three tendencies, not six unrelated items.
Question 3 of 9
How does this discourse's list differ from AN 6.73's in structure, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Two different routes to the same target attainment.
Question 4 of 9
What does the guide say vitakka (thought) and saññā (perception) represent, read together in this list?
Correct: B. Giving up unwholesome tendencies at the level of thought alone is not sufficient if the same tendencies persist at the level of perception.
Question 5 of 9
What chapter does the Sixes continue with immediately after this one, according to the guide?
Correct: B. This chapter's tenth and final discourse, closing Devatāvagga.
Question 6 of 9
Is a setting stated for AN 6.74?
Correct: B. A bare formula, matching this chapter's other list-form discourses.
Question 7 of 9
What does vihiṁsāvitakka mean?
Correct: C. The third of the three kinds of thought named in this discourse's list.
Question 8 of 9
What familiar role does vitakka (thought) play elsewhere, beyond this discourse's list of things to give up?
Correct: B. A term doing double duty — named as an obstacle here, and as a jhāna factor elsewhere.
Question 9 of 9
What connects AN 6.65/6.66 earlier in this chapter to AN 6.73/6.74 at its close, according to the guide's overall pattern?
Correct: B. A recurring shape across this chapter: shared surface, different underlying content, checked term by term rather than assumed.
