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SN 28.9PTS SN 3.2381 min read

The Attainment of Cessation

Nirodhasamāpattisutta

Sāriputta goes to Mirkwood for meditation, and afterwards Ānanda asks why his face is so radiant. Sāriputta replies that he was practicing the attainment of cessation without any thought of self.

Translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · Pāli: Mahāsaṅgīti Tipiṭaka · Public domain (CC0) via SuttaCentral

  • 0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 28.9Linked Discourses 28.9
  • 0.21. Sāriputtavagga1. With Sāriputta

0.3NirodhasamāpattisuttaThe Attainment of Cessation

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2Atha kho āyasmā sāriputto …pe….Venerable Ānanda saw Venerable Sāriputta …

1.3“Idhāhaṁ, āvuso, sabbaso nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṁ samatikkamma saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ upasampajja viharāmi.“Reverend, going totally beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, I entered and remained in the cessation of perception and feeling.11.4Tassa mayhaṁ, āvuso, na evaṁ hoti:But it didn’t occur to me:1.5‘ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ samāpajjāmī’ti vā ‘ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ samāpanno’ti vā ‘ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhā vuṭṭhito’ti vā”ti.‘I am entering the cessation of perception and feeling’ or ‘I have entered the cessation of perception and feeling’ or ‘I am emerging from the cessation of perception and feeling’.”

1.6Tathā hi panāyasmato sāriputtassa dīgharattaṁ ahaṅkāramamaṅkāramānānusayā susamūhatā.“That must be because Venerable Sāriputta has long ago totally eradicated I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit.1.7Tasmā āyasmato sāriputtassa na evaṁ hoti:That’s why it didn’t occur to you:1.8“‘ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ samāpajjāmī’ti vā ‘ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ samāpanno’ti vā ‘ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhā vuṭṭhito’ti vā”ti.‘I am entering the cessation of perception and feeling’ or ‘I have entered the cessation of perception and feeling’ or ‘I am emerging from the cessation of perception and feeling’.”

1.9Navamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

  1. The “cessation of perception and feeling” (saññāvedayitanirodha) is a culminating meditation state of supreme subtlety that often leads directly to awakening (but see AN 5.166). The state itself, like all meditation states, is temporary, but afterwards the defilements can be eliminated forever. This liberating insight is the consequence of the balanced development of all eight factors of the path.

    ↩ sn28.9:1.3