{"collection":"Anguttara Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_an6.29/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_an6.29","id":"suttacentral_an6.29","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/an6.29/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Anguttara Nikaya","Early Buddhist Texts"],"text":"Then the Buddha said to Ud\u0101y\u012b, \u201cUd\u0101y\u012b, how many topics for recollection are there?\u201d When he said this, Ud\u0101y\u012b kept silent. And a second time \u2026 and a third time, the Buddha said to him, \u201cUd\u0101y\u012b, how many topics for recollection are there?\u201d And a second time and a third time Ud\u0101y\u012b kept silent. Then Venerable \u0100nanda said to Venerable Ud\u0101y\u012b, \u201cReverend Ud\u0101y\u012b, the Teacher is addressing you.\u201d \u201cReverend \u0100nanda, I hear the Buddha. It\u2019s when a mendicant recollects many kinds of past lives. That is: one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: \u2018There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.\u2019 And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details. This is a topic for recollection.\u201d Then the Buddha said to Venerable \u0100nanda: \u201c\u0100nanda, I know that this futile man Ud\u0101y\u012b is not committed to the higher mind. \u0100nanda, how many topics for recollection are there?\u201d \u201cSir, there are five topics for recollection. What five? Firstly, a mendicant, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unskillful qualities, enters and remains in the first absorption \u2026 second absorption \u2026 third absorption. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to blissful meditation in this very life. Furthermore, a mendicant focuses on the perception of light, focusing on the perception of day regardless of whether it\u2019s night or day. And so, with an open and unenveloped heart, they develop a mind that\u2019s full of radiance. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to knowledge and vision. Furthermore, a mendicant examines their own body up from the soles of the feet and down from the tips of the hairs, wrapped in skin and full of many kinds of filth. \u2018In this body there is head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, undigested food, feces, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, saliva, snot, synovial fluid, urine.\u2019 When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to giving up sensual desire. Furthermore, suppose a mendicant were to see a corpse thrown in a charnel ground. And it had been dead for one, two, or three days, bloated, livid, and festering. They\u2019d compare it with their own body: \u2018This body is also of that same nature, that same kind, and cannot go beyond that.\u2019 Or suppose they were to see a corpse thrown in a charnel ground being devoured by crows, hawks, vultures, hounds, jackals, and many kinds of little creatures. They\u2019d compare it with their own body: \u2018This body is also of that same nature, that same kind, and cannot go beyond that.\u2019 Furthermore, suppose they were to see a corpse thrown in a charnel ground, a skeleton with flesh and blood, held together by sinews \u2026 A skeleton without flesh but smeared with blood, and held together by sinews \u2026 A skeleton rid of flesh and blood, held together by sinews \u2026 Bones rid of sinews scattered in every direction. Here a hand-bone, there a foot-bone, here a shin-bone, there a thigh-bone, here a hip-bone, there a rib-bone, here a back-bone, there an arm-bone, here a neck-bone, there a jaw-bone, here a tooth, there the skull \u2026 White bones, the color of shells \u2026 Decrepit bones, heaped in a pile \u2026 Bones rotted and crumbled to powder. They\u2019d compare it with their own body: \u2018This body is also of that same nature, that same kind, and cannot go beyond that.\u2019 When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to uprooting the conceit \u2018I am\u2019. Furthermore, giving up pleasure and pain, and ending former happiness and sadness, a mendicant enters and remains in the fourth absorption, without pleasure or pain, with pure equanimity and mindfulness. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to the penetration of many elements. These are the five topics for recollection.\u201d \u201cGood, good, \u0100nanda. Well then, \u0100nanda, you should also remember this sixth topic for recollection. In this case, a mendicant goes out mindfully, returns mindfully, stands mindfully, sits mindfully, lies down mindfully, and focuses on work mindfully. When this topic of recollection is developed and cultivated in this way it leads to mindfulness and situational awareness.\u201d","title":"With Ud\u0101y\u012b","tradition":"Anguttara Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":842}