(3) Recollection of the Saṅgha

89. One who wants to develop the recollection of the Community should go into solitary retreat and recollect the special qualities of the community of Noble Ones as follows:

“The community of the Blessed One’s disciples has entered on the good way, the community of the Blessed One’s disciples has entered on the straight way, the community of the Blessed One’s disciples has entered on the true way, the community of the Blessed One’s disciples has entered on the proper way, that is to say, the four pairs of men, the eight persons; this community of the Blessed One’s disciples is fit for gifts, fit for hospitality, fit for offerings, fit for reverential salutation, as an incomparable field of merit for the world” (A III 286).

[Entered on the Good, Straight, True, Proper Way]

90. Herein, entered on the good way (supaṭipanna) is thoroughly entered on the way (suṭṭhu paṭipanna). What is meant is that it has entered on a way (paṭipanna) that is the right way (sammā-paṭipadā), the way that is irreversible, the way that is in conformity [with truth], the way that has no opposition, the way that is regulated by the Dhamma. They hear (suṇanti) attentively the Blessed One’s instruction, thus they are his disciples (sāvaka—lit. “hearers”). The community of the disciples is the community of those disciples. The meaning is that the total of disciples forms a communality because it possesses in common both virtue and [right] view. [219] That right way, being straight, unbent, uncrooked, unwarped, is called noble and true and is known as proper owing to its becomingness, therefore the noble community that has entered on that is also said to have entered on the straight way, entered on the true way, and entered on the proper way.

91. Those who stand on the path can be understood to have entered on the good way since they possess the right way. And those who stand in fruition can be understood to have entered on the good way with respect to the way that is now past since by means of the right way they have realized what should be realized.

92. Furthermore, the Community has entered on the good way because it has entered on the way according as instructed in the well-proclaimed Dhamma and Discipline (dhamma-vinaya), and because it has entered on the immaculate way. It has entered on the straight way because it has entered on the way avoiding the two extremes and taking the middle course, and because it has entered on the way of the abandonment of the faults of bodily and verbal crookedness, tortuousness and warpedness. It has entered on the true way because Nibbāna is what is called “true” and it has entered on the way with that as its aim. It has entered on the proper way because it has entered on the way of those who are worthy of proper acts [of veneration].

93. The word yadidaṃ (“that is to say”) = yāni imāni. The four pairs of men: taking them pairwise, the one who stands on the first path and the one who stands in the first fruition as one pair, in this way there are four pairs. The eight persons: taking them by persons, the one who stands on the first path as one and the one who stands in the first fruition as one, in this way there are eight persons. And there in the compound purisa-puggala (persons) the words purisa and puggala have the same meaning, but it is expressed in this way to suit differing susceptibility to teaching.

This community of the Blessed One’s disciples: this community of the Blessed One’s disciples taken by pairs as the four pairs of men (purisa) and individually as the eight persons (purisa-puggala).

[Fit for Gifts]

94. As to fit for gifts, etc.: what should be brought (ānetvā) and given (hunitabba) is a gift (āhuna—lit. “sacrifice”); the meaning is, what is to be brought even from far away and donated to the virtuous. It is a term for the four requisites. The Community is fit to receive that gift (sacrifice) because it makes it bear great fruit, thus it is “fit for gifts” (āhuneyya).

95. Or alternatively, all kinds of property, even when the bringer comes (āgantvā) from far away, can be given (hunitabba) here, thus the Community “can be given to” (āhavanīya); or it is fit to be given to by Sakka and others, thus it “can be given to.” And the brahmans’ fire is called “to be given (sacrificed) to” (āhavanīya), for they believe that what is sacrificed to it brings great fruit. [220] But if something is to be sacrificed to for the sake of the great fruit brought by what is sacrificed to it, then surely the Community should be sacrificed to; for what is sacrificed (given) to the Community has great fruit, according as it is said:

“Were anyone to serve the fire
Out in the woods a hundred years,
And pay one moment’s homage too
To men of self-development,
His homage would by far excel
His hundred years of sacrifice” (Dhp 107).

And the words āhavanīya (“to be sacrificed to”), which is used in the schools,^[1] is the same in meaning as this word āhuneyya (“fit for gifts”) used here. There is only the mere trifling difference of syllables. So it is “fit for gifts.”

[Fit for Hospitality]

96. Fit for hospitality (pāhuneyya): “hospitality” (pāhuna) is what a donation to visitors is called, prepared with all honours for the sake of dear and beloved relatives and friends who have come from all quarters. But even more than to such objects of hospitality, it is fitting that it should be given also to the Community; for there is no object of hospitality so fit to receive hospitality as the Community since it is encountered after an interval between Buddhas and possesses wholly endearing and lovable qualities. So it is “fit for hospitality” since the hospitality is fit to be given to it and it is fit to receive it.

But those who take the text to be pāhavanīya (“fit to be given hospitality to”) have it that the Community is worthy to be placed first and so what is to be given should first of all be brought here and given (sabba-Paṭhamaṃ Ānetvā ettha HUNitabbaṃ), and for that reason it is “fit to be given hospitality to” (pāhavanīya) or since it is worthy to be given to in all aspects (sabba-Pakārena ĀHAVANAṃ arahati), it is thus “fit to be given hospitality to” (pāhavanīya). And here this is called pāhuneyya in the same sense.

[Fit for Offering]

97.”Offering” (dakkhiṇa) is what a gift is called that is to be given out of faith in the world to come. The Community is worthy of that offering, or it is helpful to that offering because it purifies it by making it of great fruit, thus it is fit for offerings (dakkhiṇeyya).

[Fit for Salutation]

It is worthy of being accorded by the whole world the reverential salutation (añjali-kamma) consisting in placing both hands [palms together] above the head, thus it is fit for reverential salutation (añjalikaraṇīya).

[As an Incomparable Field of Merit for the World]

98. As an incomparable field of merit for the world: as a place without equal in the world for growing merit; just as the place for growing the king’s or minister’s rice or corn is the king’s rice-field or the king’s corn-field, so the Community is the place for growing the whole world’s merit. For the world’s various kinds of merit leading to welfare and happiness grow with the Community as their support. Therefore the Community is “an incomparable field of merit for the world.”

99. As long as he recollects the special qualities of the Saṅgha in this way, classed as “having entered on the good way,” etc., [221] then: “On that occasion his mind is not obsessed by greed, or obsessed by hate, or obsessed by delusion; his mind has rectitude on that occasion, being inspired by the Saṅgha” (A III 286).

So when he has suppressed the hindrances in the way already described (§66), the jhāna factors arise in a single conscious moment. But owing to the profundity of the Community’s special qualities, or else owing to his being occupied in recollecting special qualities of many sorts, the jhāna is only access and does not reach absorption. And that access jhāna itself is known as “recollection of the Saṅgha” too because it arises with the recollection of the Community’s special qualities as the means.

100. When a bhikkhu is devoted to this recollection of the Community, he is respectful and deferential towards the Community. He attains fullness of faith, and so on. He has much happiness and bliss. He conquers fear and dread. He is able to endure pain. He comes to feel as if he were living in the Community’s presence. And his body, when the recollection of the Sangha’s special qualities dwells in it, becomes as worthy of veneration as an Uposatha house where the Community has met. His mind tends towards the attainment of the Community’s special qualities. When he encounters an opportunity for transgression, he has awareness of conscience and shame as vividly as if he were face to face with the Community. And if he penetrates no higher, he is at least headed for a happy destiny.

Now, when a man is truly wise,
His constant task will surely be
This recollection of the Saṅgha
Blessed with such mighty potency.

This is the section dealing with the recollection of the Community in the detailed explanation.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

“In the Sarvāstivādin school and so on” (Vism-mhṭ 230).