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Conduct Is Where Practice Grows

SN 46.1, the Himavanta Sutta — set 3, Learning to Look at Your Own Mind

Reading time: about 2 min · 306 words

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Before you read

This is one image and one claim, and it takes about a minute to read.

The image: nāgas — great creatures of Indian story, somewhere between serpents and elephants, and the texts rarely say which — grow up on the Himalaya until they are big enough and strong enough to go down through the pools, then the small rivers, then the great rivers, and finally into the ocean. Only there do they reach full size.

The claim: how you actually behave does the same job for practice that the mountain does for them. It is not a moral entry fee. It is the thing the seven awakening factors get large on, and without it they stay small.

The seven awakening factors are the practice list this collection returns to often: remembering, discernment of qualities, energy, rejoicing, relaxation, unification of mind, and dynamic balance. What Feeds and Starves the Hindrances, SN 46.51, introduces them at length; this page just says what they need underneath them.

Translation

Growing Big Enough for the Ocean

At Sāvatthī.

"Bhikkhus, relying on the Himalaya, the king of mountains, nāgas grow in body and gather strength. Once they have grown in body and gathered strength there, they go down into the little pools. From the little pools they go down into the big pools. From the big pools they go down into the small rivers. From the small rivers they go down into the great rivers. From the great rivers they go down into the sea, the great ocean. And there they come to greatness and fullness in body.

Bhikkhus, in just the same way, a bhikkhu who relies on conduct and is established in conduct, developing the seven awakening factors and cultivating them, reaches greatness and fullness in qualities.

And how does a bhikkhu who relies on conduct and is established in conduct, developing the seven awakening factors and cultivating them, reach greatness and fullness in qualities?

Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu develops:

  • the remembering awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment;
  • the discernment-of-qualities awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment;
  • the energy awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment;
  • the rejoicing awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment;
  • the relaxation awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment;
  • the unification awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment;
  • the dynamic-balance awakening factor, based on seclusion, based on fading, based on quenching, culminating in relinquishment.

Bhikkhus, that is how a bhikkhu who relies on conduct and is established in conduct, developing the seven awakening factors and cultivating them, reaches greatness and fullness in qualities."

The first discourse is finished.

Words used in this translation (16)
awakening
Coming fully awake to how things are. Sometimes translated "enlightenment," a word this project avoids as needlessly mystical.
awakening factor
One of seven qualities developed and kept in balance on the way to waking up.
bhikkhu
A Buddhist monk -- someone who has left household life to practise full time. Left untranslated because "monk" carries centuries of unrelated European associations.
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.
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.
discernment-of-qualities
This project's rendering of "dhammavicaya" -- sorting out what is actually going on in experience, and which qualities help and which do not. One of the seven awakening factors.
fading
The fading away of attraction and investment in experience, as passion cools.
nāgas
Great creatures of Indian story. The Pāli word covers both huge serpents and elephants. The texts often do not say which they mean, so this translation keeps the word rather than picking an animal.
quenching
An extinguishing image for dissatisfaction and its causes going out. Different Pali words use this image on different pages, so the exact scope comes from the sentence.
rejoicing
This project's rendering of "pīti" (often translated "rapture") -- the bright, uplifted gladness that shows up when practice is going well.
relaxation
This project's rendering of "passaddhi" -- the settling of body and mind that follows gladness and leads into unification of mind.
relinquishment
This project's rendering of "vossagga" -- letting go, in the sense of releasing a hold rather than pushing something away.
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.
seclusion
This project's rendering of "viveka" -- being apart from the usual pull of the senses and from unwholesome states. Physical solitude is one form of it, not the whole of it.
unification
Short for unification of mind (samādhi) inside a longer phrase, such as "born of unification" or "the faculty of unification."
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