Aṅguttara Nikāya
X. Dasaka-Nipāta
VI. Sa-Citta Vagga

X. The Book of the Tens

VI: One's Own Thoughts

Sutta 56

Paṭhama Saññā Suttaṃ

Ideas (a)

[105] [71]

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, these ten ideas,
if made to grow
and made much of,
are of great fruit,
of great profit
for plunging into the deathless,¹
for ending up in the deathless.

What ten ideas?

The idea of the foul,
of death,
of the repulsiveness in food,
of distaste for all the world,
the idea of impermanence,
of [72] ill in impermanence,
of not-self in ill,
the idea of abandoning,
of fading,
of ending.

These ten ideas, monks, if made to grow
and made much of,
are of great fruit,
of great profit
for plunging into the deathless,
for ending up in the deathless.'