Aṅguttara Nikāya
VIII. Aṭṭhaka Nipāta
VII. Bhūmi-Cāla Vagga

VIII. The Book of the Eights

Chapter VII: On Earthquakes

Sutta 66

The Deliverances

 

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[203]

Thus have I heard:

Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Sāvatthī.

There the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:

"Monks."

"Yes, lord," they replied, and the Exalted One said:

"Monks, there are these eight deliverances.¹

What eight?

Conscious of body, he sees forms.

This is the first deliverance.

■

Personally unconscious of body,
he sees forms exterior to himself.

This is the second deliverance.

■

He applies himself to the thought:

'It is fair.'

This is the third deliverance.

■

Passing wholly beyond all perception of form,
by the disappearance [204] of the perception of the sensory reactions,
unattentive to the perception of the manifold,²
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite space,
thinking:

'Space is infinite.'

This is the fourth deliverance.

■

By passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite space,
he enters and abides in the sphere of infinite consciousness,
thinking:

'Consciousness is infinite.'

This is the fifth deliverance.

■

By passing wholly beyond the sphere of infinite consciousness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of nothingness,
thinking:

'There is nothing.'

This is the sixth deliverance.

■

By passing wholly beyond the sphere of nothingness,
he enters and abides in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception.

This is the seventh deliverance.

■

By passing wholly beyond the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception,
he enters and abides in the ending of perception and feeling.

This is the eighth deliverance.³

Monks, these are the eight deliverances.'

 

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¹ See DhS. trsl., §§ 235-247; Dial. ii, 119; iii, 242. [Ed.: But also see: iii. 262]

² The text reads mānatta-saññānaṃ for nānatta-.

³ Cf. below, p. 276.