Skip to main content

AN 7.49 great example of why sampajāno is not "situational awareness"

 

Sujato's AN 7.49 translation has, for all 7 perceptions, this refrain:

Veditabbametaṃ, bhikkhave, bhikkhunā ‘subhāvitā me dukkhe anattasaññā, atthi me pubbenāparaṃ viseso, pattaṃ me bhāvanābalan’ti.
 they should know: ‘My perception of not-self in suffering is well developed. I have realized a distinction higher than before. I have attained a fruit of development.’
Itiha tattha sampajāno hoti.
 In this way they are aware of the situation.    


The point of embedding sampajāno in the 4 satipaṭṭhāna formula,

is to bundle the pañña (wisdom/discernment) faculty with sati faculty. 

Abhidhamma and the commentaries agree here, look at how they gloss sampajāno in satipaṭṭhāna.

Look at how SN 46.3

under Dhamma -vicaya awakening factor, bundles pañña, pa-viciniti, pa-vicārati (vitakka and vicāra of first jhāna), pari-vimamsa (4th iddipāda). 

paññāya here is obviously referring to the sampajāno that's bundled with sati in the 7 awakening factors, with the 4 satipaṭṭhāna, as well as all four jhānas (especially 3rd jhāna).


So tathā sato viharanto
He, {dwelling as} a rememberer,
taṃ dhammaṃ paññāya
that Dhamma-[teaching] (with) discernment,
pa-vicinati pa-vicarati
(he) discriminates, (he) evaluates,
pari-vīmaṃsam-āpajjati.
circumspect-investigation-(he)-enters-upon.
. Yasmiṃ samaye, bhikkhave, bhikkhu
. On-the occasion, monks, a-monk
tathā sato viharanto
Dwelling as a rememberer,
taṃ dhammaṃ paññāya
that Dhamma-[teaching] (with) discernment,
pa-vicinati pa-vicarati
(he) discriminates, (he) evaluates,
pari-vīmaṃsam-āpajjati.
circumspect-investigation-(he)-enters-upon.
Dhamma-vicaya-sam-bojjh-aṅgo tasmiṃ samaye
Dhamma-investigation-awakening-factor on-that occasion
bhikkhuno āraddho hoti;
(the) monk has-aroused;
Dhamma-vicaya-sam-bojjh-aṅgaṃ tasmiṃ samaye
Dhamma-investigation-awakening-factor on-that occasion
bhikkhu bhāveti;
(the) monk develops;
Dhamma-vicaya-sam-bojjh-aṅgo tasmiṃ samaye
Dhamma-investigation-awakening-factor on-that occasion
bhikkhuno bhāvanā-pāripūriṃ gacchati.
(the) monk has-developed-(and)-fulfilled *******.


You're not just "situationally aware"

You're exercising the full power of the paññā wisdom faculty.
Bodhi translated 'sampajāno' as "clear comprehension",
I translate it as 'lucid-discerning.'

Sujato mostly translates it as 'situational awareness', 
occasionally he translates it as "awareness" or something else more vague when it's extremely clear it can't be 'situational awareness' in that context.

In AN 7.49, it's clear sampajāno is not just 'situational awareness'.


A cocaine addict is 'situationally aware' that they're addicted and it's painful.

pañña, lucid discerning, wisdom faculty, is a wisdom that sees why you're addicted, 
how to break the causes of addiction, 
how to get out of it.
Becoming situationally aware of dukkha is just an obvious minor detail that precedes the real work.
The point of bundling sampajāno with sati, in 7 awakening factors and 4 satipaṭṭhāna, is to give you the tool to completely end suffering,
not to just become situationally aware that, "OH, I'm aware that I'm suffering."



"Situational awareness" is not even in the dictionary


Wikipedia has:
Situational awareness or situation awareness (SA) is the understanding of an environment, its elements, and how it changes with respect to time or other factors. Situational awareness is important for effective decision making in many environments. It is formally defined as:
“the perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future”.[1]
An alternative definition is that situation awareness is adaptive, externally-directed consciousness that has as its products knowledge about a dynamic task environment and directed action within that environment. [2]




conclusion: Sampajāno is the pañña (wisdom) indriya, synonymous with right view


wisdom can do situational awareness,
but situational awareness can't do what wisdom does.
So it's a bad translation of sampajāno and wrong interpretation of the Dhamma.
It makes the collection of suttas incoherent when you start arbitrarily giving specialized meanings according to context.

Sujato needs to follow his own translation guidelines here.
Principle of least meaning.

Abhidhamma and the commentaries agree sampajāno is the pañña faculty, so does common sense.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lucid24.org: What's new?

Link to lucid24.org home page :    4👑☸   Remember, you may have to click the refresh button on your web browser navigation bar at to get updated website. 2025 12-16 2025-12 December: Major update on look and feel of Lucid24.org 2024 9-17 Lots of new stuff in the last 2 and a half years.  Too many to list. Main one justifying new blog entry, is redesign of home page. Before, it was designed to please me, super dense with everything in one master control panel. I've redesigned it to be friendly to newbies and everyone really. Clear structure, more use of space.  At someone's request, I added a lucid24.org google site search at top of home page. 2022 4-14 Major update to lucid24.org, easy navigation of suttas, quicklink: the ramifications 4-2 new feature lucid24.org sutta quick link 3-28 A new translation of SN 38.16, and first jhāna is a lot easier than you think 🔗📝notes related to Jhāna force and J.A.S.I. effect AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm an...
3 comments
Read more

AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111: How does Ajahn Brahm and Sujato's "Jhāna" work here?

What these 3 suttas have in common, AN 9.36, MN 64, MN 111, is the very interesting feature of explicitly describing doing vipassana, while one is in the jhāna and the first 3 formless attainments. LBT (late buddhist text) apologists, as well as Sujato, Brahm, claim that the suttas describe a jhāna where one enters a disembodied, frozen state, where vipassana is impossible until one emerges from that 'jhāna'.  Since Sujato translated all the suttas, let's take a look at what he translated, and how it supports his interpretation of 'jhāna'.  AN 9.36: Jhānasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato (suttacentral.net) ‘The first absorption is a basis for ending the defilements.’ ‘Paṭhamampāhaṁ,   bhikkhave,   jhānaṁ   nissāya   āsavānaṁ   khayaṁ   vadāmī’ti,   iti   kho   panetaṁ   vuttaṁ. That’s what I said, but why did I say it? Kiñcetaṁ   paṭicca   vuttaṁ? Take a mendicant who, q uite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskill...
Post a Comment
Read more

Pāḷi and Sanskrit definition of Viveka

  'Viveka', Sanskrit dictionary Primary meaning is ‘discrimination’. Other meanings:  (1) true knowledge,  (2) discretion,  (3) right judgement,  (4) the faculty of distinguishing and classifying things according to their real properties’. Wikipedia (sanskrit dictionary entry 'viveka') Viveka (Sanskrit: विवेक, romanized: viveka) is a Sanskrit and Pali term translated into English as discernment or discrimination.[1] According to Rao and Paranjpe, viveka can be explained more fully as: Sense of discrimination; wisdom; discrimination between the real and the unreal, between the self and the non-self, between the permanent and the impermanent; discriminative inquiry; right intuitive discrimination; ever present discrimination between the transient and the permanent.[2]: 348  The Vivekachudamani is an eighth-century Sanskrit poem in dialogue form that addresses the development of viveka. Within the Vedanta tradition, there is also a concept of vichara which is one t...
Post a Comment
Read more