Reading guide
The subtlest attainment, defined by absence alone
Unlike every other attainment in this sequence, this dimension's own definition offers no positive description at all — only that it goes entirely beyond the dimension of nothingness — matching its own reputation as the most refined of the eight numbered attainments.
Eight attainments, one pattern, now complete
With this discourse, the residue pattern has held across all eight numbered attainments (four absorptions, four formless dimensions) without exception — SN 40.9 will apply a related but distinct pattern to a ninth attainment that stands outside this numbered sequence entirely.
Key terms
The text
§1“They speak of this thing called the ‘dimension of neither perception nor non-perception’. What is the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception? It occurred to me: ‘It’s when a mendicant, going totally beyond the dimension of nothingness, enters and remains in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. This is called the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.’ And so … I was entering and remaining in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. While I was in that meditation, perception and focus accompanied by the dimension of nothingness beset me.
§2Then the Buddha came up to me with his psychic power and said, ‘Moggallāna, Moggallāna! Don’t neglect the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, brahmin! Settle your mind in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; unify your mind and immerse it in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.’ And so, after some time … I entered and remained in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. So if anyone should be rightly called a disciple who attained to great direct knowledge with help from the Teacher, it’s me.”
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