AN 5.28. Unification with Five Factors
“Mendicants, I will teach you how to develop noble right unification of mind with five factors. Please listen and pay close attention to what I shall say.”
“Yes, sir,” the mendicants replied.
The Buddha then said: “So, mendicants, how do you develop noble right unification of mind with its five factors?
(1) Then, when you get fully separated from sensual objects and separated from unwholesome states of mind, you attain the first jhana, where there is delight and bliss caused by the separation, to which the mind moves and holds on. You drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded your experience[1] with delight and bliss caused by the separation, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. Imagine a skilled bath attendant or his apprentice pours bath powder into a metal dish and then sprinkles it gradually with water. He kneads it until the lump of bath powder is soaked and saturated, filled with moisture throughout, yet none of it trickles out. Likewise, you drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded your experience with delight and bliss caused by the separation, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. That is the first step in the development of noble right unification of mind with five factors.
(2) Further, when the moving and holding subside, you attain the second jhana, where the mind is confident within and at one, not moving or holding on, so there is just delight and bliss caused by the unification. You drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded your experience with delight and bliss caused by the unification, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. Imagine a lake which has no water flowing in from the east, west, north, or south, and which is also never replenished with rain. But it has water welling up within. The spring of water welling up within the lake drenches, suffuses, fills, and pervades that lake with cool water, so that no single part of the lake is not pervaded with it. Likewise, you drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded your experience with delight and bliss caused by the unification, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. That is the second step in the development of noble right unification of mind with five factors.
(3) Further, when the delight fades away too, you attain the third jhana, where even-minded, mindful, and aware, you personally experience just bliss, described by the noble ones as blissful abiding, even-minded and mindful. You drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded your experience with the bliss free from delight, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. Imagine blue water lilies, pink lotuses, or white lotuses in a pond. Some of them thrive underwater, sprouting and growing in the water without rising above the surface. They are drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded with cool water from the tip to the root. Likewise, you drenched, suffused, filled, and pervaded your experience with the bliss free from delight, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. That is the third step in the development of noble right unification of mind with five factors.
(4) Further, when the bliss is abandoned, you attain the fourth jhana—the purification of mindfulness and even-mindedness—where, since pain was abandoned, and earlier happiness and unhappiness ended too, there is just a neutral sensation. You sit having pervaded your experience with the pure bright mind, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. Imagine a man sitting, covered from head to toe with a white cloth, so that no single part of his body[2] is not covered by it. Likewise, you sit having pervaded your experience with the pure bright mind, so that there is no single part of your whole experience that is not pervaded with it. That is the fourth step in the development of noble right unification of mind with five factors.
(5) Further, the meditation to be reviewed is well grasped, focused on, kept in mind, and penetrated with understanding. It is like one person may look at another—like one standing may look at one sitting or one sitting may look at one lying down. The meditation to be reviewed is well grasped, focused on, kept in mind, and penetrated with understanding. That is the fifth step in the development of noble right unification of mind with five factors.
Mendicants, when you practiced and developed noble right unification of mind with its five factors like this, you will be able to realize anything that can be realized through special knowledge, to whatever extent, if you direct your mind to it.
Imagine a water jar placed on a stand, filled to the brim with water. If a strong man tips it any direction, would the water pour out?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Likewise, when you practiced and developed noble right unification of mind with its five factors like this, you will be able to realize anything that can be realized through special knowledge, to whatever extent, if you direct your mind to it.”
Imagine a square walled lotus pond on level ground, filled to the brim with water. If a strong man opens the embankment on any side, would the water pour out?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Likewise, when you practiced and developed noble right unification of mind with its five factors like this, you will be able to realize anything that can be realized through special knowledge, to whatever extent, if you direct your mind to it.
Imagine a chariot with harnessed thoroughbreds standing at a level crossroads, with a goad placed at the ready. A skilled horse trainer and charioteer could mount the chariot, take the reins in his left hand and the goad in his right, and ride out and return wherever and whenever he likes. Likewise, when you practiced and developed noble right unification of mind with its five factors like this, you will be able to realize anything that can be realized through special knowledge, to whatever extent, if you direct your mind to it.
If you wish to possess the various kinds of psychic powers—to multiply yourself and become one again; to appear and vanish; to walk unhindered through walls, ramparts, and mountains as if they were space; to dive in and out of the earth as if it were water; to walk on water as if it were earth; to fly cross-legged through space like a bird; to touch the powerful and mighty sun and moon with your hands; to control your body as far as the world of Brahmā—then you will be able to do so, to whatever extent.
If you wish to hear both kind of sounds with the purified and superhuman divine hearing, hearing human and divine sounds, whether near or far, then you will be able to do so, to whatever extent.
If you wish to know the minds of other beings and persons, being able to read their minds with yours—to know a desirous mind to be desirous and an undesirous mind to be undesirous, to know an angry mind to be angry and an unangry mind to be unangry, to know a deluded mind to be deluded and an undeluded mind to be undeluded, to know a stuck mind to be stuck and a distracted mind to be distracted, to know an expanded mind to be expanded and a narrow mind to be narrow, to know a surpassable mind to be surpassable and an unsurpassable mind to be unsurpassable, to know a unified mind to be unified and an ununified mind to be ununified, to know a liberated mind to be liberated and an unliberated mind to be unliberated—then you will be able to do so, to whatever extent.
If you wish to recall many kinds of past lives—to recall one life; two, three, four, five lives; ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty lives; a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand lives; many eons of evolution, many eons of devolution, many eons of both evolution and devolution; to remember you name in a certain place, your clan, appearance, and food, what pleasure and pain you experienced, and how you died; to remember passing away there, and taking rebirth somewhere else; to remember your name there too, your clan, appearance, and food, what pleasure and pain you experienced, and how you died; to remember passing away from there, and taking rebirth here; to recall many kinds of past lives in detail in this way—then you will be able to do so, to whatever extent.
If you wish to see the passing on and rebirth of beings with the purified and superhuman divine sight; to see beings passing on and taking rebirth, having high or low births, in good or bad places, becoming beautiful or ugly; to understand that beings travel on according to their deeds—that those with bad physical, verbal, and mental conduct, who criticize the noble ones, have wrong view, and do deeds based on wrong view, get reborn in the lower plane, in a bad destination, a netherworld, or a hell; and those with good physical, verbal, and mental conduct, who do not criticize the noble ones, have right view, and do deeds based on right view, get reborn in a good destination, in a heaven—if you wish to see beings passing on and taking rebirth in that way, understanding that they travel on according to their deeds, then you will be able to do so, to whatever extent.
If you wish to end the defilements and attain the undefiled liberation of the mind and liberation through understanding, realizing it for yourself in this very life with special knowledge, then you will be able to do so, to whatever extent.”
- In this context kāya does not mean the physical body but the person or experiencer more generally. Tse-fu Kuan states in Mindfulness in Early Buddhism p.83: “The simile-accompanied glosses on the jhānas […] contain the term kāya, [which] here probably refers to the experiencer of sensation”. Cone’s Dictionary of Pāli glosses, specifically referring to the jhāna similes: “the experiencer of sensation and feeling, either (a) generally (physically and/or mentally); or (b) specifically, as one of the organs of sense or perception.” Likewise, the PTS Pāli English Dictionary suggests for these similes: “Best to be grouped here is an application of kāya in the sense of the self as experiencing a great joy; the whole being, the ‘inner sense’, or heart.” In archaic English ‘body’ also means ‘person’, which is still reflected in words like ‘somebody’. ⤴
- In this simile kāya can be interpreted as the physical body, although it may also refer to the person more generally (that is, “himself”). But this is a simile, and similes should not be taken literally. They regularly use words in a different sense than the passages they illustrate. So we cannot conclude from this simile that the jhanas are bodily experiences. ⤴