Sītibhāvasutta — Sītivagga — the ninth chapter of the Sixes, continuing the Second Fifty
Setting
None stated in the source
Speakers
The Buddha alone, addressing the mendicants
Form
Two matched six-item lists, cause and its direct reversal
Length
under 1 minute to read
Northern parallel
The fourfold management of mind — restraining, exerting, encouraging, and watching with equanimity — recurs widely across the Chinese Āgamas' meditation instructions; this reading guide does not assert a specific matching sutra number
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — a fourfold technical set plus two further items, opening a new chapter
Why this discourse
Chapter 9, ‘Coolness,’ opens with its own namesake term: sītibhāva, “coolness,” the extinguishing of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion. Its blocking list names four ways of actively managing the mind — restraining it, exerting it, encouraging it, and watching it with equanimity, each “when they should” — joined by inferior conviction and relishing substantial reality.
Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Without managing the mind through restraint, exertion, encouragement, and equanimous watching as each is called for, and without excellent conviction and delight in extinguishment rather than substantial reality, supreme coolness cannot be realized.
Four techniques, applied conditionally
Each of the first four items is qualified by “when they should” (yathārahaṁ) — the discourse does not claim any one technique is always correct, but that failing to apply the right one at the right moment blocks coolness. Restraint, exertion, encouragement, and equanimous watching are treated as a toolkit requiring judgment, not a fixed sequence.
Sakkāya and nibbāna, echoing AN 6.14/6.15
The list's closing pair — delighting in substantial reality (sakkāyārāmatā) versus delighting in extinguishment (nibbānārāmatā) — repeats the identical closing terms already met at AN 6.14 and 6.15 earlier in this collection, applied here to a different, though closely related, target: not freedom from regret, but coolness itself.
Coolness as this chapter's own recurring theme
Sītibhāva, supreme coolness, does not reappear by this exact name later in the chapter, but its underlying concern — what does or does not equip a practitioner to progress — continues through AN 6.86–88's listening triplet and AN 6.89–95's stream-entry discourses that follow.
Key terms
sītibhāva — “coolness” — this chapter's own title and this discourse's target, the extinguishing of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion.
saṅgaṇhāti, padahati, ussādeti, ajjhupekkhati — “restrains, exerts, encourages, watches with equanimity” — the four techniques of mental management, each qualified by “when they should.”
hīnādhimuttika — “of inferior conviction” — the fifth blocking item.
sakkāyārāmatā, nibbānārāmatā — “delighting in substantial reality, delighting in extinguishment” — the sixth and closing pair, identical in wording to AN 6.14/6.15's closing terms earlier in this collection.
paṇītādhimuttika — “of excellent conviction” — the reversal's fifth item, the direct opposite of inferior conviction.
The text
The discourse in full: four techniques of mental management plus conviction and delight, blocking or enabling supreme coolness. Translation: Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, SuttaCentral).
Six things that block coolness
§1“Mendicants, a mendicant with six qualities can’t realize supreme coolness. What six? It’s when a mendicant doesn’t keep their mind in check when they should. They don’t exert their mind when they should. They don’t encourage the mind when they should. They don’t watch over the mind with equanimity when they should. They have inferior convictions. They delight in substantial reality. A mendicant with these six qualities can’t realize supreme coolness.
Six things that enable it
§2A mendicant with six qualities can realize supreme coolness. What six? It’s when a mendicant keeps their mind in check when they should. They exert their mind when they should. They encourage the mind when they should. They watch over the mind with equanimity when they should. They have excellent convictions. They delight in extinguishment. A mendicant with these six qualities can realize supreme coolness.”
· · ·
Self-check quiz
7 questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.
Question 1 of 7
What does this chapter's title, sītivagga, translate as, and what is this discourse's target?
Correct: B. The chapter's own namesake term, opening its first discourse.
Question 2 of 7
What four techniques of mental management open this discourse's blocking list?
Correct: B. A toolkit of four techniques, each conditionally applied rather than always correct.
Question 3 of 7
What does the qualifier 'when they should' (yathārahaṁ) imply, according to the guide?
Correct: B. Judgment in application, not a fixed sequence, is what the discourse requires.
Question 4 of 7
Where else in this collection have this discourse's closing terms — delighting in substantial reality versus extinguishment — already appeared?
Correct: B. Identical closing terms, applied to a different though related target.
Question 5 of 7
Is a setting stated for AN 6.85?
Correct: B. A bare formula, opening this new chapter.
Question 6 of 7
What does hīnādhimuttika mean?
Correct: B. The fifth blocking item, reversed in the discourse's second half.
Question 7 of 7
According to the guide, what continues this discourse's underlying concern later in the chapter?
Correct: B. A recurring concern with what equips or blocks progress, carried through the rest of the chapter.
