Reading guide
A pre-awakening reflection, as a bodhisatta
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse opens with the Buddha's own recollection: “before my awakening—when I was still unawakened but intent on awakening—I thought: 'What's the cause, what's the reason for the development of the bases of psychic power?'” — framing the entire discourse as his own personal discovery, not received instruction.
A specific method: neither lax nor tense, radiant and unenveloped
Confirmed by direct reading, the discovered method has several distinct elements for each basis: keeping the governing quality (enthusiasm, energy, mind, or inquiry) “neither too lax nor too tense,” neither “constricted internally nor scattered externally”; perceiving before and behind, above and below, day and night as uniform; and developing, “with an open and unenveloped heart,” a mind “full of radiance.”
The classic sixfold list, given in full
As general canonical background, confirmed by this discourse's own text: the six results are the many kinds of psychic power itself (multiplying the body, walking through walls, flying, touching sun and moon), clairaudience, reading others' minds (across sixteen paired states), recollecting past lives, clairvoyance into beings' rebirths according to their own deeds, and finally the ending of defilements — the classic list this project has met elsewhere describing full mastery's own furthest reach.
A structural link back to SN 51.1
This project's own observation: SN 51.1 already named “the far shore” as the fruit of the four bases without elaborating a method; this discourse now supplies, in full detail, both the specific method this vagga's own opening only gestured toward and the full range of attainments — from psychic power through arahantship — that method yields.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī. “Mendicants, before my awakening—when I was still unawakened but intent on awakening—I thought: ‘What’s the cause, what’s the reason for the development of the bases of psychic power?’ Then it occurred to me: ‘It’s when a mendicant develops the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to enthusiasm, and active effort. They think: “My enthusiasm won’t be too lax or too tense. And it’ll be neither constricted internally nor scattered externally.” And they meditate perceiving before and behind: as before, so behind; as behind, so before; as below, so above; as above, so below; as by day, so by night; as by night, so by day. And so, with an open and unenveloped heart, they develop a mind that’s full of radiance.
§2They develop the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to energy …
§3mental development …
§4inquiry, and active effort. They think: “My inquiry won’t be too lax or too tense. And it’ll be neither constricted internally nor scattered externally.” And they meditate perceiving before and behind: as before, so behind; as behind, so before; as below, so above; as above, so below; as by day, so by night; as by night, so by day. And so, with an open and unenveloped heart, they develop a mind that’s full of radiance.’
§5When the four bases of psychic power have been developed and cultivated in this way, they wield the many kinds of psychic power: multiplying themselves and becoming one again; materializing and dematerializing; going unobstructed through a wall, a rampart, or a mountain as if through space; diving in and out of the earth as if it were water; walking on water as if it were earth; flying cross-legged through the sky like a bird; touching and stroking with the hand the sun and moon, so mighty and powerful; controlling the body as far as the realm of divinity.
§6When the four bases of psychic power have been developed and cultivated in this way, with clairaudience that is purified and superhuman they hear both kinds of sounds, human and heavenly, whether near or far.
§7When the four bases of psychic power have been developed and cultivated in this way, they understand the minds of other beings and individuals, having encompassed them with their own mind. They understand mind with greed as ‘mind with greed’, and mind without greed as ‘mind without greed’. They understand mind with hate … mind without hate … mind with delusion … mind without delusion … constricted mind … scattered mind … expansive mind … unexpansive mind … mind that is not supreme … mind that is supreme … mind immersed in samādhi … mind not immersed in samādhi … freed mind … They understand unfreed mind as ‘unfreed mind’.
§8When the four bases of psychic power have been developed and cultivated in this way, they recollect many kinds of past lives. That is: one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: ‘There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.’ And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details.
§9When the four bases of psychic power have been developed and cultivated in this way, with clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, they see sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place. They understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds. ‘These dear beings did bad things by way of body, speech, and mind. They denounced the noble ones; they had wrong view; and they chose to act out of that wrong view. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. These dear beings, however, did good things by way of body, speech, and mind. They never denounced the noble ones; they had right view; and they chose to act out of that right view. When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.’ And so, with clairvoyance that is purified and superhuman, they see sentient beings passing away and being reborn—inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in a good place or a bad place. They understand how sentient beings pass on according to their deeds.
§10When the four bases of psychic power have been developed and cultivated in this way, they realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life. And they live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements.”
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