Reading guide
A familiar grounding image, a new list
The “grounded on ethics” phrase and its own earth-based imagery already appeared throughout SN 45's own Balakaraṇīyavagga (Hard Work, Seeds, Dragons); this discourse extends the same underlying claim — that ethics is the necessary foundation — to the seven awakening factors rather than the eightfold path, confirming this vagga's own continuity with earlier grounding language even while opening new content.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, whatever living creatures engage in the four postures—sometimes walking, sometimes standing, sometimes sitting, sometimes lying down—all do so depending on the earth and grounded on the earth. In the same way, a mendicant develops and cultivates the seven awakening factors depending on and grounded on ethics. And how does a mendicant develop the seven awakening factors depending on and grounded on ethics? It’s when a mendicant develops the awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. That’s how a mendicant develops and cultivates the seven awakening factors depending on and grounded on ethics.”
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