The canonical sapta-manaskāra (seven attentions) framework for the desire-realm-to-first-jhāna transition. The seven: lakṣaṇa-pratisaṁvedī (recognizing the characteristic), ādhimokṣika (resolved), prāvivekya (giving rise to seclusion), rati-saṁgrāhaka (gathering joy), mīmāṁsā (investigative), prayoga-niṣṭha (culminating practice), prayoga-niṣṭhā-phala (the fruit of culminating practice). Two-paths framing (laukika / lokottara) distinguishes the worldly mundane-path traveler from the supramundane.
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evaṁ parīttaprahāṇaratipraviṣṭasya tadūrdhvaṁ dve gatī bhavataḥ |
who has thus entered into limited delight in abandonment, two paths upward become available —
teṣāṁ teṣāṁ rātridivasānāmatyayāt pṛthuvṛddhivaipulyatāṁ gacchati |
by the passing of those days and nights, go to expansion, growth, abundance.
yadā cāsya dṛṣṭisthiraḥ kharaśca manaskāraḥ saṁvṛtto bhavati |
When his attention has become view-stable and forceful,
śamathavipaśyanāpakṣyācca nimittānyudgṛhītāni bhavanti |
and the śamatha-vipaśyanā signs have been grasped —
tadā sa laukikena mārgeṇa gantukāmastatra ca prayogamārabhate lokottareṇa vā mārgeṇa |
then, wishing to go by the mundane path, he begins the practice there; or by the supramundane path.
The seven attentions begin from a specific qualified state. The practitioner has attained: labdha-manaskāra, cultivated praśrabdhi and cittaikāgratā, attention is dṛṣṭi-sthira (view-stable) and khara (forceful), object-resolve is pariśrabdha (relaxed), and the śamatha-vipaśyanā signs have been grasped. Roughly the late stages of the nine mental abidings (stages 7–8).
ye dṛṣṭe dharme laukikenaiva mārgeṇa pṛgacchanti |
in this very life, go by the mundane path alone,
pūrvaśamathacaritastathā bhūyo 'pyaparipakvakuśalamūlaḥ |
one previously practicing only śamatha who is, moreover, of unripe wholesome roots;
bodhisattvasyāyatyāṁ bodhimanuprāptukāmaḥ |
a bodhisattva wishing to attain bodhi in the future,
amī catvāraḥ pudgalā dṛṣṭa eva dharme laukikamārgayāniyino bhavanti |
These four persons go by the mundane-path-vehicle in this very life.
Four kinds of mundane-path travelers: non-Buddhist meditators (the seven attentions are not exclusively Buddhist), Buddhists with dull faculties, those with only śamatha background and unripe wholesome roots, and bodhisattvas deliberately postponing bodhi. The seven attentions are accessible to anyone with the contemplative skill; jhāna-attainment doesn't itself imply Buddhist enlightenment.
sakalabandhanānāṁ ca pṛthagjanānāṁ, vikalabandhanānāṁ ca |
that of the completely-bound ordinary persons, and that of the partially-bound,
kāmānāmaudārikatāṁ paśyataḥ, prathame ca dhyāne samāpattyupapattikleśāntatāṁ paśyatastatkāmavairāgyagamanamevaṁ yāvat |
Seeing the grossness of sense-pleasures and the defilement-edge of the first dhyāna attainment-and-rebirth — that is the going-to-dispassion-toward-sense-pleasure. Up through —
The mundane path's structural pattern is invariant: at each level, the practitioner sees the grossness of the lower and the calmness of the higher, and through that comparative recognition generates vairāgya that releases attachment to the lower and inclines the mind to the higher. The engine of the mundane path: comparative recognition driving release.
ākiñcanyāyatanavairāgyaṁ veditavyam |
dispassion toward the ākiñcanyāyatana is to be known thus.
dhyānasamāpattisanniśrayeṇa ṣaḍvijñānānāṁ pañcānāmabhinirhāraḥ |
Supported by the dhyāna attainment, there is the manifestation of five of the six consciousnesses.
tatra kāmavairāgyāya prayukto yogī saptabhirmanaskāraiḥ |
The practitioner engaged in dispassion toward sense-pleasure attains kāma-vairāgya through seven attentions.
lakṣaṇapratisaṁvedī, ādhimokṣikaḥ, prāvivekyo, ratisaṁgrāhakaḥ |
The characteristic-knowing, the resolve-born, the seclusion, the delight-gathering;
prayoganiṣṭhaḥ, prayoganiṣṭhāphalaśca |
the practice-culminating, and the fruit-of-practice-culmination.
tatra lakṣaṇapratisaṁvedī manaskāraḥ katamaḥ |
What is the characteristic-knowing attention?
yena manaskāreṇa kāmānāmaudārikalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedayate |
The attention by which the practitioner comprehends the gross characteristic of sense-pleasures,
prathame ca dhyāne śāntalakṣaṇaṁ |
and the calm characteristic of the first dhyāna.
The characteristic move of the entire seven-attention sequence: see the grossness of where you are; see the calmness of where you're going. The practitioner is not willing themselves into the first dhyāna — they are recognizing the actual qualitative difference, and that recognition produces the release of attachment that allows transition.
kathaṁ ca punaraudārikalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedayati |
How does he comprehend the gross characteristic?
kāmānāṁ ṣaḍvastūni paryeṣamāṇaḥ artha, svalakṣaṇaṁ, sāmānyalakṣaṇaṁ |
Investigating the six investigation-subjects of sense-pleasures: meaning, specific characteristic, general characteristic,
itīme kāmāḥ sādīnavā, bahūpadravā, bahvītikā, bahūpasargā iti |
'These sense-pleasures are with-fault, with-many-troubles, with-many-afflictions, with-many-disturbances.'
astyadhyātmaṁ kāmeṣu kāmacchanda iti |
'There exists, inwardly, sense-desire toward sense-pleasures.'
amī vastukāmāḥ |
these are the substance-sense-pleasures (vastu-kāma).
Critical Yogācāra refinement: sense-pleasures are double. Kleśa-kāma is the defilement-aspect (the craving). Vastu-kāma is the substance-aspect (the objects themselves — sights, sounds, etc.). The practice of kāma-vairāgya is primarily directed at kleśa-kāma, not vastu-kāma. The ascetic is not trying to make the world go away; they are trying to make their craving for the world go away.
te punaḥ sukhasthānīyā, duḥkhasthānīyā, aduḥkhasukhasthānīyāśca |
They are in turn bases for pleasant feeling, bases for painful feeling, or bases for neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling.
duḥkhasthānīyāḥ punardveṣādhiṣṭhānāḥ krodhopanāhādhiṣṭhānāḥ |
The bases for painful feeling are bound to hatred, anger, resentment.
aduḥkhāsukhasthānīyāḥ mrakṣapradāśamāyāśāṭhyāhrīkyānapatrāpyādhiṣṭhānā dṛṣṭiviparyāsādhiṣṭhānāśca |
The bases for neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling are bound to concealment, malice, deception, fraud, shamelessness, lack of remorse, and view-perversion.
evamamī kāmāḥ pradusṭavedanānugatāśca, pratyastakleśānugatāścaivaṁ kāmānāṁ svalakṣaṇaṁ paryeṣate |
Thus these sense-pleasures are followed by tainted feelings and by their corresponding defilements.' Thus he investigates the specific characteristic of sense-pleasures.
tatra kathaṁ sāmānyalakṣaṇaṁ paryeṣate |
How does he investigate the general characteristic?
sarva ete kāmā jātiduḥkhatayā, jarāduḥkhatayā yāvad icchāvighātaduḥkhatayā samasamamanubaddhāścānuśaktāśca |
'All these sense-pleasures, together with the suffering-of-birth, the suffering-of-aging, up through the suffering-of-thwarted-desire, are equally bound and bound-together.
ye 'pi kāmopabhogino mahatyāṁ kāmasaṁpadi vartante |
Even those sense-pleasure-enjoyers who proceed in great sense-pleasure-abundance —
te 'pi jātyādidharmatayā avinirmuktāstāvatkālikī sā teṣāṁ saṁpat |
they too are not free from the dharmatā of birth-and-the-rest. Their abundance is only momentary.'
asthikaṅkālopamā, māṁsapeśyupamāstṛṇolkopamāḥ |
They are like a skeleton, like a piece of meat, like a grass-torch;
tṛṇaphalopamāśca |
like fruit on a tree.
The canonical kāma-upamā set (eight similes), found in MN 22 (Alagaddūpama) and MN 54 (Potaliya). Each simile makes a different point: skeleton (no real nourishment), piece of meat (cause of conflict), grass-torch (burns the hand), coal-pit (painful), venomous snake (deadly), dream (unreal), borrowed ornaments (must be returned), fruit on a tree (one falls trying to grasp). Asanga anchors his framework in the Buddha's own similes.
ārakṣākṛtaṁ, sneha-paribhraṁśakṛtam, atṛptikṛtam, asvātantryakṛtaṁ, duścaritakṛtaṁ ca duḥkhaṁ pratisaṁvedayanti |
They experience the suffering of guarding, of loss-of-affection, of dissatisfaction, of non-autonomy, of misconduct.
bhagavatā alpāsvādāḥ kāmāḥ bahusuduḥkhāḥ, bahvādīnavāḥ |
by the Blessed One: 'Sense-pleasures give little gratification, much suffering, much fault.'
kāmān khalu pratiṣevamāṇasya nāstyalaṁ tāvat tṛptitā ca paryāptitā vā, anena paryāyeṇa kāmā vigarhitā buddhaiḥ buddhaśrāvakaiśca sadbhiḥ samyaggataiḥ, satpuruṣaiḥ |
'To one indulging in sense-pleasures, there is no measure of satisfaction or sufficiency. By this enumeration, sense-pleasures are reproached by the Buddhas, by the Buddha-disciples, by the well-gone ones, by the noble persons.'
kāmān khalu pratiṣevamāṇasya saṁyojanānyupacayaṁ gacchanti |
'To one indulging in sense-pleasures, the fetters go to accumulation.'
nāsti cāsya kiṁcit pāpakamakuśalaṁ karmākaraṇīyaṁ vadāmi |
'There is no evil, unwholesome action that I say is not-to-be-done [by such a one].'
itīme kāmā atṛptikārakāḥ sādhāraṇā, adharmaviṣamacaryāhetavaḥ |
'These sense-pleasures are dissatisfaction-makers, common, causes of unrighteous and unequal conduct;
kāmatṛṣṇāvivardhakāḥ, satāṁ vivarjanīyāḥ, kṣipram viṣayagāminaḥ, pratyayādhipā, pramādabhūmayo, riktā, anityāstucchā, mṛṣāmoṣadharmāṇo, māyopamāḥ, bālalāpanāḥ |
increasers of sense-craving, to be avoided by the noble, swift-going to sense-objects, dependent on conditions, places of heedlessness, hollow, impermanent, vain, falsely-pretending, illusion-like, child-prattle.'
kāmāḥ, ye ca sāṁparāyikāḥ, ye ca divyāḥ, ye ca mānuṣyakāḥ |
or of the next life, whether divine or human —
māramārabhyaiṣa gocaro, mārasyaiṣa nivāpo yatreme 'nekavidhāḥ pāpakā akuśalā dharmā mānasāḥ saṁbhavanti |
beginning with Māra, this is Māra's range, this is Māra's pasture, where these manifold evil, unwholesome mental dharmas come about:
yadutābhidhyā, vyāpādāḥ, saṁrambho vā, ye vā punarāntarāyikā bhavantyāryaśrāvakasyāśikṣamāṇasyānekaparyāyeṇa kṛṣṇapakṣapatitā ete kāmā yad bhūyasā |
namely covetousness, ill-will, agitation — or whatever else is obstructive to a noble disciple in training. By many enumerations these sense-pleasures fall on the dark side.
atītānāgatapratyutpanneṣvadhvasu anityaṁ nityakālaṁ adhruvaṁ dhruvakālamete kāmāḥ |
'Across past, future, and present times — these sense-pleasures are impermanent in every time, unstable in every time.
evaṁ bahūpadravāḥ, bahūpasargā, bahvādīnavā ityevaṁ kālaṁ paryeṣate |
Thus they are with-many-troubles, with-many-afflictions, with-many-faults.' Thus he investigates time.
mahatā saṁrambheṇa, mahatyā paryeṣṭyā, mahatā pariśrameṇa vividhairvicitraiḥ śilpakarmasthānaiḥ kāmāḥ saṁhriyante |
'With great endeavor, with great seeking, with great labor, by various assorted craftsmanship-and-occupations, sense-pleasures are gathered.
yāvad eṣa bahirdhā parigrahavastunaḥ mātāpitṛputradāradāsīdāsakarmakarapauruṣeyamitrāmātyajñātisālohitānām |
they extend as far as external objects of attachment: mother, father, son, wife, female slave, male slave, worker, servant, friend, minister, kinsman, blood-relation.
asya vā punaḥ kāyasya ādhyātmikasya rūpiṇa audārikasya cāturmahābhautikasya audanakalmāṣopacitasya nityotsadanasnapanapārimardanabhedanacchedanavikiraṇavidhvaṁsanadharmeṇa utpannotpannaduḥkhamātrapratīkārāya saṁvartante |
Or, with respect to this inward body — of form, gross, made of the four great elements, accumulated by gruel and barley, subject to constant smearing, washing, rubbing, breaking, cutting, scattering, and destruction — they serve merely as counteractions to sufferings as they arise.
śītoṣṇaduḥkhapratīghātāya |
Clothing is the counter-action of the suffering of cold and heat,
nidrāklamaduḥkhapratīghātāya ca śayanāsanaṁ |
Bedding is the counter-action of the suffering of sleep-fatigue.
caṅkramasthānaduḥkhapratighātāya ca |
Walking-and-standing is the counter-action of the suffering of posture.
glānabhaiṣajyamiti duḥkhapratīkārabhūtā ete kāmā iti |
medicine for the sick — these sense-pleasures are counteractions to suffering.'
Asanga reframes the four ascetic requisites — food, clothing, bedding, medicine — utilitarianly. Each is not a source of pleasure but a counter-action to suffering: food counters hunger, clothing counters cold/heat-and-shame, bedding counters fatigue, medicine counters illness. The Yogācāra version of the standard paccavekkhana (reflection on the four requisites).
na saktena nānyatra vyādhigrastena evāturena vyādhimātropaśamāya bhaiṣajyamāptāgamo 'pyeṣaḥ |
nor with clinging — except by one ill, weakened, suffering, taking medicine simply for the appeasement of illness. So this is trustworthy testimony.'
tathaite kāmāḥ evaṁ caivaṁ caudārikāḥ |
'So these sense-pleasures are gross thus and thus.'
pratyātmamapi me jñānadarśanaṁ pravarteta |
'Direct knowing-and-seeing has also arisen in me.'
prakṛtiścaiṣā kāmānāṁ anādikālikā prasiddhadharmatā acintyadharmatā |
It is also the nature of sense-pleasures — beginningless, established-dharma, unthinkable-dharma.
na vikalpayitavyetyevaṁ yuktim paryeṣate |
It is not to be discriminated. Thus he investigates reasoning.
sa evaṁ kāmānāmaudārikalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedya yaduta ṣaḍbhirvastubhiḥ prathame dhyāne śāntalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedayati nāstyetat sarvaśa audārikatvaṁ |
Having thus comprehended the gross-characteristic of sense-pleasures by the six investigation-subjects, he comprehends the calm-characteristic in the first dhyāna: 'There is not at all this gross-character in the first dhyāna that there is in the desire-realm.'
prathame dhyāne yad etat kāmadhātāvityanenaudārikalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedayate |
By this, he comprehends the gross-characteristic of the desire-realm and
prathame ca dhyāne śāntalakṣaṇamayamucyate lakṣaṇapratisaṁvedī manaskāraḥ |
the calm-characteristic of the first dhyāna. This is called the characteristic-knowing attention.
śrutacintāvyavakīrṇo veditavyaḥ |
as mixed with hearing-and-thinking.
Śruta-cintā-vyavakīrṇa — mixed with hearing-and-thinking. This first attention is not yet pure bhāvanā (cultivation). The practitioner is still working with conceptual recognition of grossness and calmness. The threefold prajñā — śrutamayī, cintāmayī, bhāvanāmayī — is the standard sequence; the seven attentions begin with the first two and progressively replace them with the third.
sa evaṁ kāmān parijñāya prathamaṁ dhyānaṁ yathāvat paryeṣṭau audārikaśāntalakṣaṇena śrutaṁ ca cintāṁ ca vyatikrāmyaikāntena bhāvanākāreṇaivādhimucyate |
Having thus fully understood sense-pleasures and properly investigated the first dhyāna by the gross-and-calm-characteristic, he transcends hearing and thinking, and resolves purely by the cultivation-aspect alone.
tannimittālambanāmeva śamathavipaśyanāṁ bhāvayati |
He cultivates śamatha-vipaśyanā with that very sign as object.
bhāvayaṁśca yathā yathā tāmaudārikaśāntatāṁ punaḥ punar adhimucyataḥ |
As, by cultivation, he resolves on that gross-and-calm character again and again —
ādhimokṣiko manaskāraḥ |
the resolve-born attention.
The transition from the first attention to the second is the transition from cintā (thinking) to bhāvanā (cultivation). The same grossness-calmness recognition is no longer being thought through but resolved upon and cultivated. The adhimokṣa is direct commitment without intervening discursive process.
tasyāsevanānvayād bhāvanānvayād bahulīkārānvayāt tatprathamataḥ kleśaprahāṇāya mārga utpadyate |
Through familiarization, cultivation, and frequent practice of that, for the first time the path arises for the abandoning of defilements.
kleśaprahāṇāya ca mārge samutpanne yastadbhagavato manaskāraḥ |
When the path for the abandoning of defilements has arisen, that attention [Damaged/Conjectural: connected with that state]
ayamucyate prāvivekyaḥ |
is called the seclusion attention.
The third attention is the threshold-crossing. Up through the second attention, the practitioner has been preparing. At the third attention, the path arises — the first actual abandoning of desire-realm defilements happens. The name prāvivekya (from viveka — seclusion) marks that the practitioner is now separating from desire-realm defilements. The printed tadbhagavato manaskāraḥ is not read as 'the Blessed Lord's attention'; it is treated as a corrupt/extracted phrase for the attention connected with that stage.
sa tatprathamataḥ kāmāvacarakleśādipraheyaprahāṇāt tatpakṣye dauṣṭhulyāpagamācca |
For the first time, by abandoning the desire-realm defilements and other things to be abandoned, and by the dissipation of the corresponding-side encumbrance —
tasmiṁśca prahāṇānuśaṁsadarśī parīttapravivekaprītisukhasaṁspṛṣṭaḥ kālena kālaṁ prasadanīyena manaskāreṇa |
There, seeing the benefit of abandonment, touched by limited seclusion-born rapture-and-happiness, from time to time he gladdens the mind by inspiring attention,
yāvad eva styānamiddhauddhatyāpagamāya |
All for the dissipation of sloth-and-torpor and agitation.
ratisaṁgrāhako manaskāraḥ |
the delight-gathering attention.
The fourth attention manages emerging-jhāna-factors. As prīti-sukha characteristic of jhāna emerges, two failure-modes can derail: styāna-middha (sloth, sinking into bliss) and auddhatya (agitation, excitement). Remedies: prasadanīya manaskāra (inspiring) when sinking, saṁvejanīya manaskāra (uplifting) when drooping.
tasya tathā prahāṇārāmasya bhāvanārāmasya samyakprayuktasya sataḥ kuśalapakṣaprayogopastambhakāmapratisaṁyuktaṁ kleśakarmaparyavasthānaṁ carato vā viharato vā na samudācarati |
Of him thus delighting-in-abandonment, delighting-in-cultivation, properly engaged — with the establishment-of-the-wholesome-side, the defilement-and-action-obsession bound to sense-pleasures does not occur, whether walking or sitting.
kiṁ santamevāhaṁ kāmeṣu kāmacchandaṁ pratisaṁvedayāmyāhosvid asantam parimīmāṁsayitukāmaḥ |
'Am I sensing sense-desire toward sense-pleasures as actually present, or do I want to examine whether it is absent?'
anyatamānyatamaṁ prasadanīyaṁ śubhanimittaṁ manasi karoti |
He attends to one or another inspiring fair sign.
tasyāprahīṇatvāt sarveṇa sarvamanuśayasya tannimittaṁ manasi kurvataḥ sevanānimnaṁ cittaṁ bhavati |
Because of the non-abandoned-ness of all the latent tendency — even attending to that sign, his mind goes to inclination-toward-indulgence,
sevanāprābhāraṁ nāpekṣāpattiyutena nirvijugupsāprati vā niḥpratikūlatā |
leaning-toward-indulgence. There is no genuine recoil, disgust, or repugnance.
na me samyagviraktaṁ vimuktaṁ cittaṁ yaduta kāmebhyaḥ, saṁskārābhinigṛhītaṁ me cittaṁ vārivad dhṛtaṁ |
'My mind is not properly dispassionate, not liberated from sense-pleasures. My mind is restrained by formations like water held by a dam,
yannvahaṁ bhūyasyā mātrayā tasyānuśayasyāśeṣaprahāṇāya bhūyasyā mātrayā prahāṇārāmo vihareyaṁ |
Let me, by greater measure, abide more delighting-in-abandonment for the complete abandoning of that latent tendency.'
One of the most psychologically sophisticated passages in classical Buddhist meditation literature. The fourth attention has produced apparent dispassion, but Asanga warns: this could be real dispassion or suppressed desire held by the meditation-state itself. The practitioner runs an experimental test: deliberately attend to an attractive sign and watch what the mind does. Real abandonment shows equanimity; false abandonment shows sevanā-nimna/pravaṇa/prābhāra — three escalating signs of inclination.
ayamucyate mīmāṁsāmanaskāraḥ |
This is called the examination attention.
Vāri-vad dhṛtaṁ — 'held like water.' The mind is currently dispassionate but only because the meditative apparatus is holding the desire back, like water held by a dam. Remove the dam, and the desire flows again. A diagnostic protocol for distinguishing real progress from suppressed defilement.
sa bhūyasyā mātrayā prahāṇārāmo viharati |
By a greater measure, he abides delighting-in-abandonment,
tasya pratipakṣaṁ ca bhāvayataḥ kālena kālaṁ prahīṇāprahīṇatāṁ mīmāṁsamānasya sarvebhyaḥ kāmāvacarebhyaḥ kleśebhyaścittaṁ visaṁyujyate |
Of him cultivating the antidote, time after time examining the abandoned-and-not-abandoned, the mind disengages from all desire-realm defilements —
tasmiṁśca samaye prayogadhyānaprayogamārgaparyavasānagataḥ |
At that time, having reached the limit of preliminary-dhyāna-practice path,
samutpanno bhavatyayamucyate prayoganiṣṭho manaskāraḥ |
arises. This is called the practice-culminating attention.
Complete provisional release. The mind has fully disengaged from all desire-realm defilements through the attentions, but the bīja (seed) is not yet uprooted. The release is tāvat-kālika — time-bound. The precise definition of the difference between laukika (mundane) and lokottara (supramundane) liberation. A practitioner who reports 'I've gotten over my desire-realm cravings' has attained prayoga-niṣṭha — real but not final.
tasya ca samanaskārapratyayaṁ taddhetukaṁ prathamaṁ dhyānaṁ samāpadyate |
And, conditioned on that very attention [the practice-culminating attention] as the cause, he attains the first dhyāna.
maulaprathamadhyānasahagato yo manaskāraḥ |
The attention conjoined with the basic-first-dhyāna
ayamucyate prayoganiṣṭhāphalo manaskāraḥ |
is called the fruit-of-practice-culmination attention.
The seventh attention is the first dhyāna. It is not a step toward first dhyāna — it is the attention in first dhyāna. The whole seven-attention sequence has been the staged transition; the seventh attention is arrival.
tatra prāvivekye manaskāre vartamāno, ratisaṁgrāhake ca vivekajena prītisukhena kāyaṁ pratiprīṇayati |
Abiding in the seclusion-attention and the delight-gathering-attention, by the seclusion-born rapture-and-happiness, he saturates the body.
kadācit kenacit pratanukasaṁmukhībhāvayogena prāyoganiṣṭhāmanaskārakālasyāratiḥ |
Sometimes by some particular conditions, by the manifesting of a thinned aspect, in the time of the practice-culminating attention there is non-delight.
kadācit kadācit dhyānavipulatarasaṁmukhībhāvena prayoganiṣṭhāphale punar manaskāre vartamānasya nāsti kiñcid asyāsya bhavati |
Sometimes again, when a broader dhyāna is brought into presence and the fruit-of-practice-culmination attention is occurring, [Damaged/Conjectural: no part of his body remains]
smāraṇīyaṁ sarvataḥ kāyād yaduta vivekajena prītisukhena sa tasmin samaye viviktaiḥ kāmaiḥ viviktaṁ pāpakairakuśalair dharmaiḥ savitarkasavicāraṁ vivekajaṁ prītisukhaṁ prathamaṁ dhyānaṁ pañcāṅgamupasampadya viharati |
[Damaged/Conjectural: unsuffused throughout by seclusion-born rapture-and-happiness.] At that time, secluded from sense-pleasures, secluded from evil unwholesome dharmas, with thought and examination, he attains and abides in the five-factored first dhyāna, with seclusion-born rapture-and-happiness.
The line preserves a damaged version of the standard first-dhyāna pervasion formula: no part of the body remains unsuffused by seclusion-born rapture-and-happiness. The printed/root sequence around nāsti kiñcid asya... smāraṇīyaṁ sarvataḥ kāyād is corrupt, so the English marks the body-suffusion reconstruction conjectural/corrupt. The following phrase is the standard sutta-formulary description of the first dhyāna: 'with sense-pleasures secluded, with evil unwholesome dharmas secluded, with thought, with examination, with seclusion-born rapture-and-happiness, the first dhyāna with five factors' (MN 4 etc.). Asanga shows that the seven-attention sequence yields exactly the canonical first dhyāna.
kāmāvacarapratipakṣabhāvanāphale sthitaḥ kāmavairāgyatāmanuprāpta ityucyate |
Having stood in the fruit of cultivating-the-counter-action-to-the-desire-realm, he attains kāma-vairāgya.
prahātavyasya ca prahāṇāya prāptavyasya ca prāptaye cittaṁ praṇidhatte |
and his mind sets the determination toward the abandoning of what is to be abandoned and the attaining of what is to be attained.
ādhimokṣikeṇa ca manaskāreṇa prahāṇāya prāptaye ca samyak prayogamārabhate |
By the resolve-born attention, he properly begins the practice for abandoning and attaining.
prāvivekyamanaskāreṇādhimātrajñaśāntāṁ jahāti |
By the seclusion attention, he abandons [Damaged/Conjectural: the strong grade of defilement].
ratisaṁgrāhakeṇa sa kleśaprakāraṁ jahāti |
By the delight-gathering attention, he abandons [Damaged/Conjectural: the middling grade of defilement].
mīmāṁsāmanaskāreṇa prāptinirabhimānatāyāṁ cittamavasthāpayati |
By the examination attention, he establishes the mind in non-pride-of-attainment.
prayoganiṣṭhena mṛduṁ kleśaprakāraṁ jahāti |
By the practice-culminating attention, he abandons the mild defilement-modes.
prayoganiṣṭhāphalenaiṣāṁ kleśaprakārāṇāṁ bhāvitānāṁ subhāvitānāṁ bhāvanāphalaṁ pratyanubhavati |
By the fruit-of-practice-culmination attention, of these defilement-modes that have been cultivated and well-cultivated, he experiences the cultivation-fruit.
Three-grade abandonment: strong (adhimātra) defilements at the seclusion attention (3rd); middling at the delight-gathering attention (4th); mild (mṛdu) at the practice-culminating attention (6th). The printed wording at 21.5-21.6 is noisy, so the English marks the strong/middling grade labels as conjectural/corrupt repairs grounded in the explicit mild-grade line at 21.8 and the standard graded schema. Progress is graduated, not binary.
api ca yaśca lakṣaṇapratisaṁvedī manaskāraḥ |
Furthermore: the characteristic-knowing attention
ayamucyate ānulomiko manaskāro 'pi dūṣaṇāpratipakṣasahagataḥ |
this is called the conforming attention, also conjoined with the fault-counteraction.
yaśca prāvivekyo manaskāraḥ, yaśca prayoganiṣṭho 'yaṁ prātipakṣiko manaskāraḥ |
The seclusion attention and the practice-culminating attention — this is the counter-action attention,
tatra yo mīmāṁsāmanaskāraḥ ayaṁ pratyavekṣaṇāmanaskāraḥ |
The examination attention is the review attention.
evaṁ sati ṣaṭsu manaskāreṣu catvāro manaskārāḥ pravighnā veditavyāḥ |
In this manner, among the six attentions [prior to the fruit attention], four functional attentions are to be known as outstanding:
pratyavekṣaṇīyaśceti |
and review.
The functional reduction applies to the six pre-fruit attentions, not the seventh fruit attention: conforming (preparatory: 1+2), counteraction (3+6), inspiring (4), review (5). This explains the printed ṣaṭsu manaskāreṣu ('among the six attentions') at 22.10; the seventh is the fruit-of-practice-culmination attention and is not one of these four active functions.
yathā prathamadhyānasamāpattiḥ saptabhirmanaskārairevaṁ dvitīyatṛtīyacaturthadhyānasamāpattiḥ |
As is the first-dhyāna attainment with the seven attentions, so the second, third, fourth dhyāna attainments,
ākāśavijñānākiñcanyanaivasaṁjñānāsaṁjñāyatanasamāpattiḥ saptabhireva manaskāraiḥ |
and the attainments of the spheres of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception — with the seven attentions.
The seven-attention structure is invariant across all eight mundane-path transitions: desire-realm→1st jhāna, 1st→2nd (gross: vitarka-vicāra), 2nd→3rd (gross: prīti), 3rd→4th (gross: sukha), 4th→space, space→consciousness, consciousness→nothingness, nothingness→bhavāgra. The single algorithm carries the practitioner from the desire-realm all the way to the peak of existence.
tatra yena vitarkeṣvaudārikalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedayate |
Among them, by which attention he comprehends the gross-characteristic in vitarkas,
avitarkaśca dvitīyadhyāne śāntalakṣaṇaṁ sa lakṣaṇapratisaṁvedī manaskāraḥ |
and the calm-characteristic in the without-thought second dhyāna — that is the characteristic-knowing attention
prathamadhyānalābhī vitarkeṣvaudārikatāṁ paśyati |
the first-dhyāna-obtainer sees grossness in vitarkas.
yaḥ samāhitabhūmiko 'pyugrālambanabhārī tatprathamopanipātitayā cālambane audāriko manojalpaḥ |
That mental-talking, though belonging to the concentrated plane, bears a forceful object and is gross because it first falls upon the object.
ayaṁ vitarkastadanubandhānucārī vyagracāryevālambane sūkṣmataro manojalpavihāraḥ |
This is vitarka. Following along after it, moving diffusely over the object, is the subtler dwelling in mental-talking [vicāra].
ete punarvitarkavicārā caitasikāścetasyutpadyamānā utpadyante |
These vitarka-vicāras are mental-factor-experiences arising in the mind, co-arising,
sarvaśo nāstyetadaudārikalakṣaṇam avitarke dvitīye dhyāne ityataḥ śāntaṁ dvitīyam |
Not at all does this gross-characteristic exist in the without-vitarka second dhyāna. Therefore the second is calm.
At the 1st-to-2nd transition, what was previously recognized as calm (first dhyāna) is now recognized as gross relative to the second. The criterion is vitarka-vicāra — thought-and-examination, rendered here as manojalpa (mental-talking). The pattern is recursive: the same seven-attention sequence runs again at every transition.
bāhyāyatanasaṁgṛhītāś ca |
And [these vitarka-vicāras] are reckoned as belonging to the external sense-base.
Restored from PDF 6356-6367. The pre-existing JSON ended sbh4.1 at
sarvaśo nāstyetad audārikalakṣaṇam avitarke dvitīye dhyāne ityataḥ śāntaṁ dvitīyam (24.12) and skipped directly to sbh4.2:1.1, dropping the closing material of the seven-attentions chapter: the elaboration of why the lower stage has perpetual vitarka-vicāra (24.13-18), the completion of the 'dvitīyaṁ dhyānam asyaudārikatvasyāpagamāt' clause (24.19), and the yathā-evam-bhūmau-bhūmau generalization to all higher attainments (24.20-21).sarva eva cātītā, anāgatapratyutpannā, hetusamutpannāḥ, pratītyasamutpannāḥ, kāyikāstāvatkalikāḥ |
All [are] past, future, present; arisen from causes, arisen dependently; bodily, momentary;
itvarapratyupasthāyinaścittasaṁkṣobhakarāḥ, iṅjakāḥ, apraśāntākāreṇa vartante |
ephemeral [in their] presentation, agitators of the mind, perturbers — they proceed in a non-calm mode.
uparimāṁ bhūmim ārabhya duḥkhavihārānugatatvāt kṛṣṇapakṣyā |
[They are] dark-side, by way of being conjoined with pain-dwelling, beginning from the upper stage [downward].
kāmavivekaprītisukham evānuśaṁsānugatā bhūmiś caiṣā tādṛśī prakṛtyā yatra sthitasya nityaṁ nityakālaṁ, dhruvaṁ dhruvakālaṁ, savitarkaḥ, savicāraḥ, cittapracāraḥ pravartate |
[This is] a stage conjoined with the [putative] joy-and-pleasure of sense-desire-seclusion as benefit — such by its own nature, in which one situated [has] perpetual, ever-perpetual, fixed, ever-fixed vitarka, vicāra, mental flow proceeding.
na śāntapraśāntety evamādibhir ākārair vitarkeṣv audārikalakṣaṇaṁ pratisaṁvedayate |
'Not calm, not very calm' — by such modes the [practitioner] discerns the grossness-mark in vitarkas.
dhyānam asyaudārikatvasyāpagamāt |
The dhyāna [is called calm] from the departure of [the first dhyāna's] grossness.
śeṣamanaskārā dvitīyadhyānasamāpattaye yathāpi yogaṁ pūrvavad veditavyam |
The remaining attentions for the second-dhyāna-attainment are to be known as appropriate, just as [for] yoga, as before.
evaṁ bhūmau bhūmau yāvan naivasaṁjñānāsaṁjñāyatanasamāpattaye yathāyogaṁ sapta manaskārā veditavyāḥ |
Thus stage by stage, up through the attainment of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, seven attentions are to be known as appropriate.