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Six Things to Remember Anywhere

AN 11.12, the Dutiyamahānāma Sutta — set 3, Learning to Look at Your Own Mind

Reading time: about 4 min · 552 words

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Before you read

What happens

Mahānāma expects the Buddha to travel away and asks how to keep practicing while living an ordinary household life.

Central question

What can someone remember and develop while working, moving around, and living at home?

Main point

Stand on confidence, energy, remembering, unification of mind, and discernment. Then repeatedly remember examples of awakening, teaching, community, conduct, generosity, and good qualities until the heart straightens, brightens, relaxes, and becomes composed.

Reading tip

The six recollections contain traditional formulas and unfamiliar names. Notice what the practice does to the heart. The last instruction says to use it anywhere, even at work and around family.

This text is not saying

The text does not restrict practice to formal meditation, solitude, or monastic life. Its closing instruction explicitly places these recollections in movement, work, and family life.

Key words

These definitions are here so you do not need to know Pali or Buddhist vocabulary before reading.

remembering
This project's rendering of "sati". It means actively keeping what matters in mind and coming back to it when you lose it. It is not bare attention to whatever happens to be present.
heart
This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
unification of mind
This project's rendering of "samādhi" -- the thinking mind and heart gathered together into one organized, workable whole instead of pulling against each other. It does not mean narrowing attention onto one point. Usually translated "concentration," which this project avoids because it suggests forcing and strain.
Dhamma
The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
Saṅgha
The community of the Buddha's disciples. In traditional recollection formulas, as in AN 11.12, it means especially those who have entered and realized the path, not everyone who calls themselves Buddhist.
arahant
Someone who has completed the path and has nothing further to do. Left untranslated; "saint" and "perfected one" both mislead.

Translation

Mahānāma Asks How to Practice

At one time the Buddha was staying among the Sakyans near Kapilavatthu, in the Banyan Tree Monastery.

Mahānāma the Sakyan had recently recovered from an illness. At that time, several bhikkhus were making a robe for the Buddha. People were saying:

"When the robe is finished and the three months are over, the Buddha will set out traveling."

Mahānāma heard about this. He went to the Buddha, bowed, sat to one side, and said:

"Bhante, I have heard that several bhikkhus are making a robe for the Buddha, and that when it is finished and the three months are over, the Buddha will set out traveling.

We live in many different ways. How should we live?"

"Good, Mahānāma, good. It is fitting for people like you to come to the Buddha and ask this.

Five Qualities to Stand On

People with confidence succeed; people without it do not.

People who have aroused their energy succeed; lazy people do not.

People who keep remembering succeed; forgetful people do not.

People who are unified succeed; people who are not unified do not.

People with discernment succeed; people without discernment do not.

Stand firmly in these five qualities, Mahānāma. Then develop six more.

Six Things to Remember

Remember the Buddha:

That Blessed One is the arahant, the fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, unsurpassed guide for those fit for training, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.

Remember the Dhamma:

The Dhamma is well taught by the Buddha, visible here and now, timeless, inviting you to come and see, leading onward, and to be known personally by the wise.

Remember the Saṅgha:

The Buddha's Saṅgha of disciples practices well, directly, properly, and rightly. It consists of the four pairs of persons, the eight kinds of individuals. This Saṅgha is worthy of offerings, hospitality, gifts, and reverential greeting—the unsurpassed field of merit for the world.

Remember your own conduct: conduct that is unbroken, intact, spotless, and freeing; praised by the wise, not clung to, and leading to unification of mind.

Remember your own generosity:

Among people stained by stinginess, I live at home free from stinginess. I am openhanded, glad to let go, responsive when asked, and glad to give and share.

Remember the devas. Devas live in the heavens of the Four Great Kings, the Thirty-Three, Yāma, the Contented, those Delighting in Creation, those who Control What Others Create, Brahmā's company, and still higher realms. They were reborn there with qualities such as confidence, conduct, learning, generosity, and discernment. Remember that these qualities are present in you too.

What This Does to the Heart

While a noble disciple develops any of these recollections, their heart is not taken over by passion, aversion, or confusion. At that time, the recollection points their heart straight.

With the heart pointed straight, they find inspiration in the meaning and in the Dhamma. An actively happy state connected with the Dhamma arises.

From that active gladness comes rejoicing. With a rejoicing heart, the body relaxes. A relaxed body feels satisfaction. With satisfaction, the heart becomes unified.

Practice Anywhere

Develop these recollections while walking, standing, sitting, or lying down. Develop them while working and while living at home with your children around you."

The second discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (16)
arahant
Someone who has completed the path and has nothing further to do. Left untranslated; "saint" and "perfected one" both mislead.
aversion
One of the three "roots" behind unwholesome action, alongside greed and delusion -- the pushback against what's unwanted or unpleasant.
Bhante
A respectful way of addressing a senior monastic, roughly "venerable sir." Left untranslated because English has no natural equivalent.
bhikkhus
Buddhist monks -- those who have left household life to practise full time. The Buddha's usual way of addressing the assembly, roughly "friends" in force.
Blessed One
One of the Buddha's traditional titles, used respectfully in place of his name in these texts.
body
The physical body, as distinct from speech and the mental side of experience.
conduct
This project's rendering of "sīla", often translated "morality" or "virtue". It means how a person actually behaves. The rest of the practice grows from it; it is not a set of rules to obey.
Dhamma
The Buddha's teaching taken as a whole -- both what he taught and the way things actually are, which the teaching describes.
gladness
This project's rendering of "muditā", often translated "sympathetic joy". It means being truly glad at someone else's good fortune. You cultivate it as a practice; you do not assume it comes naturally.
heart
This project's rendering of "citta": the feeling side of mind. It takes on moods, wants, leans, and reacts. Practice can gladden, steady, train, and release it. Some call it the "heart-mind" or "feeling mind". Here "heart" does not mean only emotion, or the physical organ.
noble disciple
Someone who has had the breakthrough into the path and so is no longer merely an ordinary person. It does not mean noble by birth, and does not require being a monastic.
rejoicing
This project's rendering of "pīti" (often translated "rapture") -- the bright, uplifted gladness that shows up when practice is going well.
remembering
This project's rendering of "sati". It means actively keeping what matters in mind and coming back to it when you lose it. It is not bare attention to whatever happens to be present.
Saṅgha
The community of the Buddha's disciples. In traditional recollection formulas, as in AN 11.12, it means especially those who have entered and realized the path, not everyone who calls themselves Buddhist.
unification of mind
This project's rendering of "samādhi" -- the thinking mind and heart gathered together into one organized, workable whole instead of pulling against each other. It does not mean narrowing attention onto one point. Usually translated "concentration," which this project avoids because it suggests forcing and strain.
world
A word whose scope shifts with the teaching. It can mean the lived world we build through the senses and the mind, or the wider physical cosmos. The surrounding passage shows which sense it has.
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