Outline (ARV1)

Homage to the Buddha!

This I heard:

at one time the Gracious One was dwelling near Śrāvastī, at Mṛgāra’s mother’s mansion in the Eastern Grounds, together with a great monastic community of one thousand, two-hundred and fifty monastics.

There the Gracious One, with a voice that was firm, deep, sweet, noble and without fault, addressed the monastics (saying):

“I will teach the Dharma to you, monastics, those Dharma teachings that are good in the beginning, good in the middle, good in the end, with their meaning, with their (proper) phrasing, I will make known the spiritual life which is complete, fulfilled, accomplished, that is to say, the Dharma instruction known as the Analysis of the Topics. Listen well and carefully, apply your minds, and I will speak.”

“Surely, Gracious One,” those monastics replied to the Gracious One, and the Gracious One said this:

“What, monastics, are the Dharma instructions known as the Analysis of the Topics?

They are as follows:

The five components (of mind and matter),

the five components (of mind and matter) that provide fuel for attachment,

the eighteen elements,

the twelve sense-spheres,

the twelve factors of conditional origination,

the four noble truths,

the twenty-two faculties,

the four absorptions,

the four formless attainments,

the four spiritual states,

the four practices,

the four cultivations of concentration,

the four ways of attending to mindfulness,

the four right strivings,

the four bases of spiritual power,

the five faculties,

the five strengths,

the seven factors of awakening,

the eightfold noble path,

the sixteen modes of mindfulness while breathing,

the four factors of stream-entry,

the ten strengths of a Realised One,

the four confidences,

the four analytical knowledges,

the eighteen special qualities of the Buddha,

the thirty-two marks of a great man,

the eighty secondary characteristics.

This, monastics, is indicated as the Dharma explanation known as the Analysis of the Topics.

1. The Five Components

Herein, monastics, what are the five components?

They are as follows:

The bodily-form component,

the feelings component,

the perceptions component,

the volitions component,

and the consciousness component.

These, monastics, are the five components.

Translated by Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, 2016

Based on the edition by Prof. N. H. Samtani in The Arthaviniścaya-sūtra & its commentary (Nibandhana) (Patna, 1971), updated to include the corrections he printed in that work on pp. 180–181, most of which were also printed in his translation of the same, Gathering the Meanings (Berkeley, 2002), on pp. 309–310.

Original translation with comments to be found at http://www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Ayya Vimala.