§ 48. “For a monk practicing the Dhamma in accordance with the
Dhamma,
this is what accords with the Dhamma: that he keep cultivating
disenchantment
with regard to form, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with
regard to
feeling, that he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to
perception, that
he keep cultivating disenchantment with regard to fabrications,
that he keep
cultivating disenchantment with regard to consciousness. As he
keeps cultivating
disenchantment with regard to form… feeling… perception…
fabrications…
consciousness, he comprehends form… feeling… perception…
fabrications…
consciousness. As he comprehends form… feeling… perception…
fabrications…
consciousness, he is totally released from form… feeling…
perception…
fabrications… consciousness. He is totally released from sorrows,
lamentations,
pains, distresses, & despairs. He is totally released, I tell
you, from suffering &
stress.” — SN 22:39
§ 49. “Suppose that an archer or archer’s apprentice were to
practice on a
straw man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become
able to
shoot long distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession,
and to pierce great
masses. In the same way, there is the case where a monk… enters
& remains in
the first jh›na: rapture & pleasure born of seclusion,
accompanied by directed
thought & evaluation. He regards whatever phenomena there that
are
connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, &
consciousness, as
inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an
affliction, alien, a
disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from
those
phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property
of
deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite—the resolution of
all fabrications;
the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving;
dispassion;
cessation; Unbinding.’
52
“Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the effluents. Or,
if not, then—
through this very Dhamma-passion, this Dhamma-delight, and from the
total
wasting away of the first five Fetters [self-identity views,
grasping at precepts &
practices, uncertainty, sensual passion, and irritation]—he is due
to be reborn (in
the Pure Abodes), there to be totally unbound, never again to
return from that
world….
[Similarly with the second, third, and fourth jh›na.]
“…. Suppose that an archer or archer's apprentice were to practice
on a straw
man or mound of clay, so that after a while he would become able to
shoot long
distances, to fire accurate shots in rapid succession, and to
pierce great masses. In
the same way, there is the case where a monk… enters & remains
in the
dimension of the infinitude of space. He regards whatever phenomena
there that
are connected with feeling, perception, fabrications, &
consciousness, as
inconstant, stressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an
affliction, alien, a
disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. He turns his mind away from
those
phenomena, and having done so, inclines his mind to the property
of
deathlessness: ‘This is peace, this is exquisite — the resolution
of all fabrications;
the relinquishment of all acquisitions; the ending of craving;
dispassion;
cessation; Unbinding.’
“Staying right there, he reaches the ending of the effluents. Or,
if not, then—
through this very Dhamma-passion, this very Dhamma-delight, and
from the
total wasting away of the first five of the fetters—he is due to be
reborn (in the
Pure Abodes), there to be totally unbound, never again to return
from that
world…. ”
[Similarly with the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness
and the
dimension of nothingness.] — AN 9:36