Extension of the Sign

In order to perfect the development of consciousness he should besides extend the counterpart sign according as acquired. Now, there are two planes for extension, namely, access and absorption; for it is possible to extend it on reaching access and on reaching absorption. But the extending should be done consistently in one [or the other], which is why it was said “he should besides extend the counterpart sign according as acquired.”

127. The way to extend it is this. The meditator should not extend the sign as a clay bowl or a cake or boiled rice or a creeper or a piece of cloth is extended. He should first delimit with his mind successive sizes for the sign, according as acquired, that is to say, one finger, two fingers, three fingers, four fingers, and then extend it by the amount delimited, just as a ploughman delimits with the plough the area to be ploughed and then ploughs within the area delimited, or just as bhikkhus fixing a boundary first observe the marks and then fix it. He should not, in fact, extend it without having delimited [the amount it is to be extended by]. After that has been done, he can further extend it, doing so by delimiting successive boundaries of, say, a span, a ratana (=2 spans), the veranda, the surrounding space,^[1] the monastery, and the boundaries of the village, the town, the district, the kingdom and the ocean, [153] making the extreme limit the world-sphere or even beyond.

128. Just as young swans first starting to use their wings soar a little distance at a time, and by gradually increasing it eventually reach the presence of the moon and sun, so too when a bhikkhu extends the sign by successive delimitations in the way described, he can extend it up to the limit of the worldsphere or even beyond.

129. Then that sign [appears] to him like an ox hide stretched out with a hundred pegs^[2] over the earth’s ridges and hollows, river ravines, tracts of scrub and thorns, and rocky inequalities (see M III 105) in any area to which it has been extended.

When a beginner has reached the first jhāna in this sign, he should enter upon it often without reviewing it much. For the first jhāna factors occur crudely and weakly in one who reviews it much. Then because of that they do not become conditions for higher endeavour. While he is endeavouring for the unfamiliar [higher jhāna] he falls away from the first jhāna and fails to reach the second.

130. Hence the Blessed One said: “Bhikkhus, suppose there were a foolish stupid mountain cow, with no knowledge of fields and no skill in walking on craggy mountains, who thought: ‘What if I walked in a direction I never walked in before, ate grass I never ate before, drank water I never drank before?’ and without placing her forefoot properly she lifted up her hind foot;then she would not walk in the direction she never walked in before or eat the grass she never ate before or drink the water she never drank before, and also she would not get back safely to the place where she had thought, ‘What if I walked in a direction I never walked in before … drank water I never drank before?’ Why is that? Because that mountain cow was foolish and stupid with no knowledge of fields and no skill in walking on craggy mountains. So too, bhikkhus, here is a certain foolish stupid bhikkhu with no knowledge of fields and no skill, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unprofitable things, in entering upon and dwelling in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought with happiness and bliss born of seclusion; he does not repeat, develop or cultivate that sign or properly establish it. He thinks: ‘What if with the subsiding of applied and sustained thought I entered upon and dwelt in the second jhāna, which is … with happiness and bliss born of concentration?’ [154] He is unable with the subsiding of applied and sustained thought to enter upon and dwell in the second jhāna, which is … with happiness and bliss born of concentration. Then he thinks: ‘What if, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unprofitable things, I entered upon and dwelt in the first jhāna, which is … with happiness and bliss born of seclusion?’ He is unable, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unprofitable things, to enter upon and dwell in the first jhāna which is … with happiness and bliss born of seclusion. This bhikkhu is called one who has slipped between the two, who has fallen between the two, just like the foolish stupid mountain cow with no knowledge of fields and no skill in walking on craggy mountains …” (A IV 418–19).

131. Therefore he should acquire mastery in the five ways first of all with respect to the first jhāna. Herein, these are the five kinds of mastery: mastery in adverting, mastery in attaining, mastery in resolving (steadying the duration), mastery in emerging, and mastery in reviewing. “He adverts to the first jhāna where, when, and for as long as, he wishes; he has no difficulty in adverting; thus it is mastery in adverting. He attains the first jhāna where … he has no difficulty in attaining; thus it is mastery in attaining” (Paṭis I 100), and all the rest should be quoted in detail (XXIII.27).

132. The explanation of the meaning here is this. When he emerges from the first jhāna and first of all adverts to the applied thought, then, next to the adverting that arose interrupting the life-continuum, either four or five impulsions impel with that applied thought as their object. Then there are two life-continuum [consciousnesses]. Then there is adverting with the sustained thought as its object and followed by impulsions in the way just stated. When he is able to prolong his conscious process uninterruptedly in this way with the five jhāna factors, then his mastery of adverting is successful. But this mastery is found at its acme of perfection in the Blessed One’s Twin Marvel (Paṭis I 125), or for others on the aforesaid occasions. There is no quicker mastery in adverting than that.

133. The venerable Mahā-Moggallāna’s ability to enter upon jhāna quickly, as in the taming of the royal nāga-serpent Nandopananda (XII.106f.), is called mastery in attaining.

134. Ability to remain in jhāna for a moment consisting in exactly a fingersnap or exactly ten finger-snaps is called mastery in resolving (steadying the duration).

Ability to emerge quickly in the same way is called mastery in emerging.

135. The story of the Elder Buddharakkhita may be told in order to illustrate both these last. [155] Eight years after his admission to the Community that elder was sitting in the midst of thirty thousand bhikkhus possessed of supernormal powers who had gathered to attend upon the sickness of the Elder MahāRohanagutta at Therambatthala. He saw a royal supaṇṇa (bird) swooping down from the sky intending to seize an attendant royal nāga-serpent as he was getting rice-gruel accepted for the elder. The Elder Buddharakkhita created a rock meanwhile, and seizing the royal nāga by the arm, he pushed him inside it. The royal supaṇṇa gave the rock a blow and made off. The senior elder remarked: “Friends, if Rakkhita had not been there, we should all have been put to shame.”^[3]

136. Mastery in reviewing is described in the same way as mastery in adverting; for the reviewing impulsions are in fact those next to the adverting mentioned there (§132).

137. When he has once acquired mastery in these five ways, then on emerging from the now familiar first jhāna he can regard the flaws in it in this way: “This attainment is threatened by the nearness of the hindrances, and its factors are weakened by the grossness of the applied and sustained thought.” He can bring the second jhāna to mind as quieter and so end his attachment to the first jhāna and set about doing what is needed for attaining the second.

138. When he has emerged from the first jhāna, applied and sustained thought appear gross to him as he reviews the jhāna factors with mindfulness and full awareness, while happiness and bliss and unification of mind appear peaceful. Then, as he brings that same sign to mind as “earth, earth” again and again with the purpose of abandoning the gross factors and obtaining the peaceful factors, [knowing] “now the second jhāna will arise,” there arises in him mind-door adverting with that same earth kasiṇa as its object, interrupting the life-continuum. After that, either four or five impulsions impel on that same object, the last one of which is an impulsion of the fine-material sphere belonging to the second jhāna. The rest are of the sense sphere of the kinds already stated (§74).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

For pamukha—“veranda” see n. 2 above. Pariveṇa—“surrounding space”: this meaning, not given in PED, is brought out clearly in XI.7.

[2]:

Samabbhāhata—“stretch flat”: not in this sense in PED. This word replaces the word suvihata used at M III 105 where this clause is borrowed from. At XI.92, the same word (apparently in another sense) is glossed by pellana = “pushing” (not in PED) at Vism-mhṭ 362. M-a IV 153 glosses suvihata with “pasāretvā suṭṭhu vihata” which suggests “stretched” rather than “beaten”; harati rather than hanati.

[3]:

What the story is trying to illustrate is the rapidity with which the elder entered the jhāna, controlled its duration, and emerged, which is the necessary preliminary to the working of a marvel (the creation of a rock in this case;XII.57). The last remark seems to indicate that all the others would have been too slow (see Vism-mhṭ 150).