Seventy-Two Things, Sorted Every Way

The seventy-two kinds of entities, each with its own characteristic, have been spoken of. Now I shall tell of their categories, each in its fitting way.

The compendium of categories should be understood as fourfold: the compendium of the unwholesome, the compendium of mixed categories, the compendium of the requisites of enlightenment, and the compendium of the whole.

How? First, in the compendium of the unwholesome, there are four taints: the taint of sensual desire, of existence, of views, of ignorance.

Four floods: of sensual desire, of existence, of views, of ignorance.

Four bonds: of sensual desire, of existence, of views, of ignorance.

Four bodily knots: the bodily knot of covetousness, of ill will, of adherence to rites and ceremonies, of the dogmatic clinging that "this alone is true."

Four clingings: clinging to sense pleasures, to views, to rites and ceremonies, to a doctrine of self.

Six hindrances: the hindrance of sensual desire, of ill will, of sloth-and-torpor, of restlessness-and-worry, of doubt, of ignorance.

Seven latent dispositions: to sensual lust, to attachment to existence, to resistance, to conceit, to views, to doubt, to ignorance.

Ten fetters, according to the Suttanta method: to sensual lust, to attachment to fine-material existence, to attachment to immaterial existence, to resistance, to conceit, to views, to adherence to rites and ceremonies, to doubt, to restlessness, to ignorance.

A further ten fetters, according to the Abhidhamma method: to sensual lust, to attachment to existence, to resistance, to conceit, to views, to adherence to rites and ceremonies, to doubt, to envy, to avarice, to ignorance.

Ten defilements: greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, wrong view, doubt, sloth, restlessness, shamelessness, fearlessness of wrongdoing.

By way of entity, the taints, floods, bonds, and knots are threefold. The clingings are said to be twofold; the hindrances, eightfold. The latent dispositions are only six; the fetters are held to be nine. The defilements are ten. Thus this compendium of evil is stated as ninefold.

In the compendium of mixed categories, there are six roots: greed, hatred, delusion, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion.

Seven jhāna factors: initial application, sustained application, zest, one-pointedness, joy, displeasure, equanimity.

Twelve path factors: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration; wrong view, wrong intention, wrong effort, wrong concentration.

Twenty-two faculties: the eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, femininity, masculinity, life, mind, pleasure, pain, joy, displeasure, and equanimity faculties; the faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom; the faculty "I shall know the unknown," the faculty of final knowledge, and the faculty of one who has final knowledge.

Nine powers: the powers of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, shame, and fear of wrongdoing; the powers of shamelessness and fearlessness of wrongdoing.

Four predominants: the predominance of desire, of energy, of consciousness, of investigation.

Four nutriments: edible food; contact, second; mental volition, third; consciousness, fourth.

The jhāna factors are not found in the fivefold sense-consciousness; the powers, not in those [cittas] without energy; the path factors, not in the rootless. Likewise, in the citta accompanied by doubt, one-pointedness does not attain the status of a path factor, faculty, or power. Only a single predominant is obtained, according to circumstance, and only in javanas with two or three roots.

By way of entity, six roots, five jhāna factors, nine path factors, and sixteen faculties have been told; nine powers have likewise been declared. Four predominants have been stated, and likewise the four nutriments. Thus the compendium of mixed categories — a mixture of wholesome and other states — has been stated in seven ways.

In the compendium of the requisites of enlightenment, there are four foundations of mindfulness: the foundation of mindfulness in contemplating the body, feelings, consciousness, and mental objects.

Four supreme efforts: the effort to abandon arisen evil states, the effort to prevent unarisen evil states from arising, the effort to develop unarisen wholesome states, the effort to increase arisen wholesome states.

Four means to accomplishment: the means consisting in desire, in energy, in consciousness, in investigation.

Five faculties: of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom.

Five powers: of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom.

Seven enlightenment factors: mindfulness, investigation-of-states, energy, zest, tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity, as factors of enlightenment.

Eight path factors: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

Here, by the four foundations of mindfulness, right mindfulness alone is meant; likewise by the four supreme efforts, right effort alone.

Desire, consciousness, equanimity, faith, tranquillity, zest, right view, intention, effort, the three abstinences, right mindfulness, and concentration: these fourteen, by way of intrinsic nature, compose the sevenfold compendium of the thirty-seven factors.

Intention, tranquillity, zest, and equanimity; desire, consciousness, and the three abstinences — these nine occur only once each. Energy occurs nine times; mindfulness, eight; concentration, four; wisdom, five; faith, twice. This is the excellent analysis of these thirty-seven states.

All occur in the supramundane, except that intention and zest sometimes do not. In the mundane too, they occur according to circumstance, in the course of the sixfold purification.

In the compendium of the whole, there are five aggregates: the aggregates of materiality, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

Five aggregates of clinging: the clinging-aggregates of materiality, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness.

Twelve sense bases: the eye base, ear base, nose base, tongue base, body base, mind base, visible-form base, sound base, smell base, taste base, tangible base, and mental-object base.

Eighteen elements: the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body elements; the visible-form, sound, smell, taste, and tangible elements; the eye-, ear-, nose-, tongue-, and body-consciousness elements; the mind element, the mental-object element, and the mind-consciousness element.

The Four Noble Truths: the noble truth of suffering, of the origin of suffering, of the cessation of suffering, and of the path leading to the cessation of suffering.

Herein, sixty-nine states — the cetasikas, the subtle matter, and Nibbāna — are reckoned as the mental-object base and the mental-object element. The mind base itself divides, by way of the seven consciousness-elements.

Matter, feeling, perception, the remaining mental factors, and consciousness — these five, thus, are declared the five aggregates. The same states, confined to the three mundane planes, are held to be the five aggregates of clinging. Having no such differentiation, Nibbāna falls outside the compendium of aggregates.

By the distinction of door and object, the sense bases come to be; by the distinction of door, object, and the consciousness arisen in dependence on them, the elements.

The round, confined to the three planes, is suffering; craving is its origin; cessation is called Nibbāna; the path is held to be supramundane. The cittas conjoined with the path, and the fruits, both fall outside the Four Truths. Thus the compendium of the whole has been told in five ways.

Thus ends, in the Compendium of the Things Contained in the Abhidhamma, the seventh chapter, called the Compendium of Categories.