Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
The eight dimensions of mastery over perceived form — internal or absent internal perception crossed with limited or limitless external forms, and the four pure colors, blue, yellow, red, white — are named here, word for word as at AN 8.65, as the second of three eightfold lists this closing chapter develops for insight into greed.
The identical content as AN 8.65, compressed internally
This discourse's own text spells out the first dimension and the eighth in full, compressing the six dimensions between them by internal ellipsis — a self-abbreviation within a single discourse, distinct from the chapter-level peyyāla compression that follows in AN 8.121–147 and 8.148–627.
The second of three foundational lists
Alongside AN 8.118's noble eightfold path and AN 8.120's eight liberations, this discourse's eight dimensions of mastery complete the set of three eightfold structures this chapter's enormous closing peyyāla will run against sixteen further defilements in the pages immediately following.
Mastery as a vehicle for insight into greed specifically
Applying the eight dimensions of mastery — a meditation topic concerned with active control over perceived form — specifically to insight into greed makes a quiet point: the same disciplined mastery that lets a meditator control what they perceive can be turned directly toward understanding and dismantling the defilement of greed itself.
Key terms
The text
The eight dimensions of mastery, for insight into greed
§1“For insight into greed, eight things should be developed. What eight? Perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limited, both pretty and ugly. Mastering them, they perceive: ‘I know and see.’ Perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limitless, both pretty and ugly. … Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limited, both pretty and ugly. … Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, limitless, both pretty and ugly. … Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, blue, with blue color and blue appearance. … yellow … red … Not perceiving form internally, they see forms externally, white, with white color and white appearance. Mastering them, they perceive: ‘I know and see.’ For insight into greed, these eight things should be developed.”
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