2. Discourse on Right Attention (SA2)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s Park. At that time the Blessed One said to the monks:

“You should give right attention to bodily form, contemplating bodily form as impermanent, knowing it as it really is. Why is that? Monks, one who gives right attention to bodily form, who contemplates bodily form as impermanent and knows it as it really is, will eradicate desire and lust in regard to bodily form. One who eradicates desire and lust in regard to bodily form, I say, liberates the mind.

“In the same way you should give right attention to feeling … perception … formations … consciousness, contemplating consciousness as impermanent, knowing it as it really is. Why is that? One who gives right attention to consciousness, who contemplates consciousness as impermanent and knows it as it really is, will eradicate desire and lust in regard to consciousness. One who eradicates desire and lust in regard to consciousness, I say, liberates the mind.

“One who has liberated the mind in this way, monks, if he wishes to declare himself is able to declare of himself: ‘Birth for me has been eradicated, the holy life has been established, what had to be done has been done, I myself know that there will be no receiving of further existence.’

(Just as with giving right attention to impermanence, in the same way also for dukkha, emptiness and not-self).

Then the monks, hearing what the Buddha had said, were delighted and received it respectfully.

Translated by Bhikkhu Anālayo. Originally published in ‘On the Five Aggregates (1)—A Translation of Saṁyukta-āgama Discourses 1 to 32’. Dharma Drum Journal of Buddhist Studies, vol. 11, pp. 1–61 (2012). New Taipei City: Dharma Drum Buddhist College.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Bhikkhu Sujato.