SN 34.5PTS SN 3.2661 min read

Supports For Immersion

Samādhimūlakaārammaṇasutta

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

0.1Saṁyutta Nikāya 34.5Linked Discourses 34.5
0.21. Jhānavagga1. Absorption

0.3SamādhimūlakaārammaṇasuttaSupports For Immersion

1.1Sāvatthinidānaṁ.At Sāvatthī.

1.2“Cattārome, bhikkhave, jhāyī.“Mendicants, there are these four meditators.1.3Katame cattāro?What four?

1.4Idha, bhikkhave, ekacco jhāyī samādhismiṁ samādhikusalo hoti, na samādhismiṁ ārammaṇakusalo.One meditator is skilled in immersion but not in the supports for immersion. …”¹1.5Idha pana, bhikkhave, ekacco jhāyī samādhismiṁ ārammaṇakusalo hoti, na samādhismiṁ samādhikusalo.1.6Idha pana, bhikkhave, ekacco jhāyī neva samādhismiṁ samādhikusalo hoti, na ca samādhismiṁ ārammaṇakusalo.1.7Idha pana, bhikkhave, ekacco jhāyī samādhismiṁ samādhikusalo ca hoti, samādhismiṁ ārammaṇakusalo ca.1.8Tatra, bhikkhave, yvāyaṁ jhāyī samādhismiṁ samādhikusalo ca hoti samādhismiṁ ārammaṇakusalo ca ayaṁ imesaṁ catunnaṁ jhāyīnaṁ aggo ca seṭṭho ca mokkho ca uttamo ca pavaro ca.1.9Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, gavā khīraṁ …pe…1.10pavaro cā”ti.

1.11Pañcamaṁ.

Translator’s notes

“Support” is ārammaṇa, namely the different subjects of meditation. This is the only term in this list that does not appear elsewhere in the early canon. It does not mean “object”, which is exclusively a later sense, derived from the (again later) use of the kasiṇa as a physical “object” or “disk” on which to focus attention (for the Sutta usage, see MN 77:24.11). An “object” is something that has an “objective” reality independent of the observer. But for the Suttas, meditations like the breath, or love, or an inner reflection on mortality are dimensions of living experience that change and grow through and with the course of meditation. The meditation subject is not something at which the mind is directed, it is something with which the mind grows.
↩ sn34.5:1.4