Reading guide
The puzzle resolved: twelve, not ten
This project's own confirmation: SN 51.30's own “Dasamaṁ” was correct as a plain ordinal — it genuinely was the vagga's own tenth discourse — but this project was right not to assume it meant the vagga's own last discourse, since this vagga's own true close, confirmed here, comes two discourses later at SN 51.32, marked “Dvādasamaṁ” (“twelfth”).
The Buddha's own power, asked about directly
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse mirrors SN 51.31 exactly in structure — the Buddha asks the mendicants what he himself has “developed and cultivated so as to have such power and might,” they defer with the same formula, and the Buddha answers his own question — but now the subject is the Buddha himself (“tathāgato”), not Moggallāna.
Twelve titles, confirmed item by item
This project's own count, matching the uddāna's own twelve-item list directly against the discourses themselves: Magga (51.21), Ayoguḷa (51.22), Bhikkhu (51.23), Suddhika (51.24), the two Fruits discourses (51.25-26), the two Ānanda discourses (51.27-28), the two Several-Mendicants discourses (51.29-30), Moggallāna (51.31), and Tathāgata (51.32) — twelve titles for twelve discourses, exactly.
The six direct knowledges, cross-referenced once more
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse closes with the same bracketed translator's cross-reference already met at SN 51.21: “(The six direct knowledges should be told in full.)” — pointing back to SN 51.11's own complete account rather than repeating it here.
Key terms
The text
§1There the Buddha addressed the mendicants: “What do you think, mendicants? What things has the Realized One developed and cultivated so as to have such power and might?”
§2“Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. …” “The Realized One has become so powerful and mighty by developing and cultivating the four bases of psychic power.
§3What four? It’s when a mendicant develops the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to enthusiasm, and active effort. He thinks: ‘My enthusiasm won’t be too lax or too tense. And it’ll be neither constricted internally nor scattered externally.’ And he meditates 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, he develops a mind that’s full of radiance. He develops the basis of psychic power that has immersion due to energy … mental development … inquiry, and active effort. He thinks: ‘My inquiry won’t be too lax or too tense. And it’ll be neither constricted internally nor scattered externally.’ And he meditates 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, he develops a mind that’s full of radiance. The Realized One has become so powerful and mighty by developing and cultivating these four bases of psychic power.
§4And by developing and cultivating these four bases of psychic power, the Realized One wields the many kinds of psychic power: multiplying himself and becoming one again … controlling the body as far as the realm of divinity. And by developing and cultivating these four bases of psychic power, the Realized One realizes the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life. And he lives having realized it with his own insight due to the ending of defilements.”
§5(The six direct knowledges should be told in full.)
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