Skip to main content

SN 47.2 memorization technique: natural order sequence



SN 47.2 (full sutta text) - 🔗🔊  (audio link) S&S postures


“kathañca, bhikkhave, bhikkhu sam-pajāno hoti?
And-how, monks, {is a} monk lucidly-discerning ****?
idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
Here, monks, a monk [does this]:
Abhik-kante paṭik-kante
Forward-going (and) backward-going,
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
ālokite vilokite
Looking-ahead (and) looking-aside,
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
samiñjite pasārite
Drawing-in (and) extending (his limbs),
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
Saṅghāṭi-patta-cīvara-dhāraṇe
(his) outer-robes,--bowl,--robes;--using [these things],
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
asite pīte khāyite sāyite
eating, drinking, chewing his food, and tasting;
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
Uccāra-passāva-kamme
Feces—(and)—urine—working [those out of his body],
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
gate ṭhite
walking, standing,
nisinne sutte
sitting, falling asleep,
jāgarite bhāsite tuṇhībhāve
waking up, speaking, and keeping silent
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.
evaṃ kho, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
Thus indeed, monks, ******
Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.




This sutta is a nice companion to AN 3.16 description of jagara (wakefulness), and what one is doing for the walking meditation.


0. Sam-pajāna-kārī hoti,
Lucid-discerning- (he) -exercises ****.

This refrain follows each step, and serves as a memory aid in the sutta composition in building a rhythm and marks. 

1. Abhik-kante paṭik-kante
Forward-going (and) backward-going,

That may be referring to a walking path for walking meditaiton, pacing forward and backward.

2. ālokite vilokite
Looking-ahead (and) looking-aside,

Notice the natural sequence here, #2 is something you do while doing #1


3. samiñjite pasārite
Drawing-in (and) extending (his limbs),

Notice the natural sequence here, #3 is something you do while doing #1, 


4. Saṅghāṭi-patta-cīvara-dhāraṇe
(his) outer-robes,--bowl,--robes;--using [these things],

This is done once a day (bowl, going for alms round).

5. asite pīte khāyite sāyite
eating, drinking, chewing his food, and tasting;

Notice the natural sequence, you eat and drink after alms round.

6. Uccāra-passāva-kamme
Feces—(and)—urine—working [those out of his body],

Notice the natural sequence, after you eat and drink, there will definitely be waste elimination as a result of that.


7. gate ṭhite
walking, standing,

nisinne sutte
sitting, falling asleep,

jāgarite bhāsite tuṇhībhāve
waking up, speaking, and keeping silent


Notice that #7 loops back to #1 again, with the walking.
And Jagara (wakefulness) naturally slurps/links to that important sutta you should have memorized already, AN 3.16.

Another interesting feature about #7, is it only has one refrain after all 7 words, instead of 2 refrains, one after the 4 postures, and then one after the last 3 items. This breaks the pattern of the first 6 activities, which all used the refrain as a marker to break up conceptually different groupings. 

I wondered if this was a transmission error, that the refrain 'sampanajo hoti' after the 4 postures was accidentally lost. But assuming it's not an error, then the lack of a refrain after the 4 postures actually serves well as a dissonant signal that the end of the sutta passage is coming to an end. 

Another helpful memory aid #7, has 7 words for 7 activities. 

I chant this sutta at least once a week, and when I was first learning to memorize it, I chanted it several times a day. The less frequently you chant something, the more you start to understand the role of specific things that the Buddha and the elder disciples did in how they designed and engineereed the sutta compositions to aid memory. What modern book readers think of as annoying repetition or boring composition sutta structure, all of those details are actually important aids to memory, and markers to help you do a check sum and recover from errors you make from a faltering memory, signals to alert you that, "hey that didn't sound right, what I just chanted, let's try it again..."

Importance of the number 7

There's a secret slurp here, sati is #1 of the 7sb awakening factors, sampajano corresponds to #2 of 7sb, dhamma-vicaya. So by having exactly 7 parts (marked by 7 refrains), it's another reminder to that #1 sati and #2 sampajano that you should slurp in all 7 awakening factors.

Kind of like saying:
1. here is a root of a tree
2. here is an empty hut... (you know what you should do now)...

(slurp in instructions for 7 awakening factors, 4 jhanas, and execute those instructions)





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advice to younger meditators on jhāna, sex, porn, masturbation

Someone asked: Is porn considered harmful sexual.activity? I don't have a sex life because I don't have a partner and I don't wish to engage in casual sex so I use porn to quench the biological urge to orgasm. I can't see that's it's harmful because nobody is being forced into it. The actors are all paid well and claim to enjoy it etc. The only harm I can see is that it's so accessible these days on smart devices and so children may access it but I believe that this is the parents responsibility to not allow unsupervised use of devices etc. Views? Frankk response: In another thread, you asked about pleasant sensations and jhāna.  I'm guessing you're young, so here's some important advice you won't get from suttas   if you're serious about jhāna.  (since monastics are already celibate by rule)   If you want to attain stable and higher jhānas,   celibacy and noble silence to the best of your ability are the feedstock and prerequiste to tha...
Post a Comment
Read more

SN 48.40 Ven. Thanissaro comments on Ven. Sunyo's analysis

This was Ven. Sunyo's analysis of SN 48.40: https://notesonthedhamma.blogspot.com/2024/05/exciting-news-honest-ebt-scholars-like.html And here is Ven. Thanissaro's response to that analysis: I think there’s a better way to tackle the issue of SN 48:40 than by appealing to the oldest layers of commentarial literature. That way is to point out that SN 48:40, as we have it, doesn’t pass the test in DN 16 for determining what’s genuine Dhamma and what’s not. There the standard is, not the authority of the person who’s claiming to report the Buddha’s teachings, but whether the teachings he’s reporting are actually in accordance with the principles of the Dhamma that you know. So the simple fact that those who have passed the Buddha’s teachings down to us say that a particular passage is what the Buddha actually taught is not sufficient grounds for accepting it. In the case of the jhānas—the point at issue here— we have to take as our guide the standard formula for the jhānas, a...
Post a Comment
Read more

1min. video: Dalai Lama kissing boy and asking him to suck his tongue

To give more context, this is a public event,  * everyone knows cameras are rolling  *  it's a room full of children * the boy's mom is standing off camera a few feet away watching all of this * the boy initiated contact, he had already had a hug with Dalai Lama earlier and then asked Dalai Lama for another hug which triggered this segment  17 min. video showing what happened before that 1 min. clip and after, with some explanation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT0qey5Ts78 16min talk from Ajahn Acalo with his thoughts on Dalai Lama kissing boy, relevance to Bhikkhu monastic code, sexual predators in religion in general, and how celibate monastics deal with sexual energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2m0TcUib0 The child's comments about the incident in a filmed interview later https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/world-news/2023/04/18/643eba5d46163ffc078b457c.html The child: It's a great experience It was amazing to meet His Holiness and I think it's a great ex...
Post a Comment
Read more