Reading guide
The teaching in one sentence
Sentient beings inhabit nine abodes: diverse in body and perception (humans and some gods); diverse in body, unified in perception; unified in body, diverse in perception; unified in both; non-percipient beings who experience nothing; and the four formless dimensions culminating in neither perception nor non-perception.
This chapter's own namesake
As with every chapter opener elsewhere in this project, this discourse lends its own subject — sattāvāsa, abodes of sentient beings — to the chapter's name, Sattāvāsavagga, though it falls fourth rather than first within the chapter itself.
Four abodes built from a crossed pair of qualities
The first four abodes are generated by crossing two binary qualities, diversity or unity of body and of perception: humans and some gods are diverse in both; the gods of the Divinity's host reborn through the first absorption are diverse in body but unified in perception; the gods of streaming radiance are unified in body but diverse in perception; and the gods of universal beauty are unified in both.
Extending AN 7.44's seven stations by two
This discourse's first four abodes plus its final four formless dimensions match AN 7.44's seven stations of consciousness almost exactly — but AN 7.44 covered only seven, omitting the non-percipient beings and the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. This discourse's ninefold scheme restores both, giving a fuller and more complete cosmological catalogue than the sevenfold version met earlier in this project.
Key terms
The text
Nine abodes
§1“Mendicants, there are nine abodes of sentient beings. What nine? There are sentient beings that are diverse in body and diverse in perception, such as human beings, some gods, and some beings in the underworld. This is the first abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that are diverse in body and unified in perception, such as the gods reborn in the Divinity’s host through the first absorption. This is the second abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that are unified in body and diverse in perception, such as the gods of streaming radiance. This is the third abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that are unified in body and unified in perception, such as the gods of universal beauty. This is the fourth abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that are non-percipient and do not experience anything, such as the gods who are non-percipient beings. This is the fifth abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that have gone totally beyond perceptions of form. With the disappearance of perceptions of impingement, not focusing on perceptions of diversity, aware that ‘space is infinite’, they have been reborn in the dimension of infinite space. This is the sixth abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that have gone totally beyond the dimension of infinite space. Aware that ‘consciousness is infinite’, they have been reborn in the dimension of infinite consciousness. This is the seventh abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that have gone totally beyond the dimension of infinite consciousness. Aware that ‘there is nothing at all’, they have been reborn in the dimension of nothingness. This is the eighth abode of sentient beings. There are sentient beings that have gone totally beyond the dimension of nothingness. They have been reborn in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. This is the ninth abode of sentient beings. These are the nine abodes of sentient beings.”
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