Reading guide
A parallel structure to SN 46.26's own
This discourse mirrors SN 46.26's own format precisely: an opening statement about a path leading somewhere, Udāyī's own precise follow-up question, and an answer moving through each of the seven awakening factors in turn — confirming this vagga's own deliberate pattern of pairing Udāyī's own questions with structurally similar answers on related but distinct outcomes.
A vivid, forceful image of breakthrough
“Penetrate and shatter” (nibbijjhitvā padāletvā) is more forceful language than most of this vagga's own other discourses use — describing not a gradual fading but a decisive breaking-through of “masses” (rāsi) of greed, hate, and delusion, imagery suggesting a dense, compacted obstruction finally broken open, rather than merely dissolved.
Key terms
The text
§1 — the opening statement and Udāyī's own question“Mendicants, I will teach you a path that helps penetration. Listen … And what is the path that helps penetration? It is the seven awakening factors. What seven? The awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity.” When he said this, Udāyī said to him: “Sir, how are the seven awakening factors developed and cultivated so as to lead to penetration?”
§2 — penetrating and shattering the three masses, mindfulness through equanimity“Udāyī, it’s when a mendicant develops the awakening factor of mindfulness, which relies on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripens as letting go. And it is abundant, expansive, limitless, and free of ill will. With a mind that has developed the awakening factor of mindfulness, they penetrate and shatter the mass of greed, the mass of hate, and the mass of delusion for the first time. … A mendicant develops the awakening factor of equanimity, which relies on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripens as letting go. And it is abundant, expansive, limitless, and free of ill will. With a mind that has developed the awakening factor of equanimity, they penetrate and shatter the mass of greed, the mass of hate, and the mass of delusion for the first time. This is how are the seven awakening factors are developed and cultivated so as to lead to penetration.”
Self-check quiz
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