Reading guide
The four jhānas, defined in full
Confirmed by direct reading, this file opens with the complete classic formula for all four absorptions: the first (rapture and bliss born of seclusion, with placed and sustained thought), the second (rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity), the third (equanimous, mindful, personally experiencing bliss), and the fourth (neither pleasure nor pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness) — the same formula this project has already met describing meditative attainment throughout this book.
A sixth occurrence of the river simile
Confirmed by direct comparison, the simile itself is identical each time: “the Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east” is mirrored by a mendicant who develops a given quality “slanting, sloping, and inclining to extinguishment” — now, for the first time in this book, illustrating the four jhānas rather than the eightfold path, five faculties, four right efforts, five powers, or four bases of psychic power.
Twelve discourses, one worked example
Confirmed by direct reading of this file's own closing colophon (“Dvādasamaṁ,” “Gaṅgāpeyyālavaggo paṭhamo”) and its own uddāna (“six on slanting to the east, and six on slanting to the ocean—these two sixes make twelve”), this single file covers all twelve variant discourses (SN 53.1-12) through one full worked example.
Key terms
The text
§1At Sāvatthī.
§2“Mendicants, there are these four absorptions. What four? It’s when a mendicant, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected. As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, they enter and remain in the second absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of immersion, with internal clarity and mind at one, without placing the mind and keeping it connected. And with the fading away of rapture, they enter and remain in the third absorption, where they meditate with equanimity, mindful and aware, personally experiencing the bliss of which the noble ones declare, ‘Equanimous and mindful, one meditates in bliss.’ With the giving up of pleasure and pain and the disappearance of former happiness and sadness, they enter and remain in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. These are the four absorptions.
§3The Ganges river slants, slopes, and inclines to the east. In the same way, a mendicant who develops and cultivates the four absorptions slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment. And how does a mendicant who develops and cultivates the four absorptions slant, slope, and incline to extinguishment? It’s when a mendicant, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption, which has the rapture and bliss born of seclusion, while placing the mind and keeping it connected. As the placing of the mind and keeping it connected are stilled, they enter and remain in the second absorption … third absorption … fourth absorption. That’s how a mendicant who develops and cultivates the four absorptions slants, slopes, and inclines to extinguishment.”
UddānaSix on slanting to the east, and six on slanting to the ocean; these two sixes make twelve, and that’s how this chapter is recited.
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