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Tidipa

Rahogatasutta (The Discourse on One Gone into Seclusion)

· 21 min read

13S4/2.2.1: a bhikkhu asks how ‘whatever is felt is within suffering’ stands beside the three feelings, and the Bhagavā answers with the impermanence of mental constructions and their successive cessation, subsiding and tranquillising through the jhāna and the formless attainments.

Original text: 13S4/2.2.1 Rahogatasutta 1150–1152 in the World Tipitaka Edition

Summary

Section titled “Summary”

A bhikkhu, reflecting in seclusion, asks the Bhagavā how the saying ‘whatever is felt is within suffering’ stands beside the teaching of three feelings, pleasant, painful and neutral. The Bhagavā answers that it was said of the impermanence of mental constructions and their liability to wear away, dissolve, fade, cease and change, and then sets out the successive cessation, subsiding and tranquillising of mental constructions through the four jhāna, the four formless bases and the cessation of apperception and feeling, ending with the bhikkhu whose defilements are destroyed.

Diagram

Section titled “Diagram”
flowchart TB
    Q["the question: three feelings, yet all that is felt is suffering"] --> A["said of the impermanence of mental constructions"]
    A --> B["liable to wear away, dissolve, fade, cease, change"]
    B --> C["successive cessation"]
    B --> D["successive subsiding"]
    B --> E["six tranquillities"]
    C --> F["first jhāna: speech"]
    F --> G["second jhāna: reflection and consideration"]
    G --> H["third jhāna: felicity"]
    H --> I["fourth jhāna: in-breaths and out-breaths"]
    I --> J["four formless bases: each apperception"]
    J --> K["cessation of apperception and feeling"]
    K --> L["defilements destroyed: passion, hatred, delusion"]

Text

Section titled “Text”

(259.)

1150. Then a certain bhikkhu approached the Bhagavā. Having approached, he bowed to the Bhagavā and sat down to one side. Seated to one side, that bhikkhu said this to the Bhagavā: “Here, Bhante, while I was alone in seclusion, this reflection arose in my mind: three vedanā (feelings) have been spoken of by the Bhagavā. Pleasant feeling, painful feeling, neutral feeling — these three feelings have been spoken of by the Bhagavā. But this has indeed been said by the Bhagavā: ‘Whatever is felt, that is within suffering.’ With reference to what was this said by the Bhagavā: ‘Whatever is felt, that is within suffering’?”

1151. “Excellent, excellent, Bhikkhu. These three feelings, Bhikkhu, have been spoken of by me. Pleasant feeling, painful feeling, neutral feeling — these three feelings have been spoken of by me. But this has indeed been said by me, Bhikkhu: ‘Whatever is felt, that is within suffering.’ But that, Bhikkhu, was said by me with reference just to the impermanence of saṅkhāra (mental constructions): ‘Whatever is felt, that is within suffering.’ But that, Bhikkhu, was said by me with reference just to the liability of mental constructions to wearing away … and so on … to dissolution … and so on … to fading away … and so on … to cessation … and so on … to change: ‘Whatever is felt, that is within suffering.’ And moreover, Bhikkhu, the successive cessation of mental constructions has been declared by me. For one who has entered the first jhāna (mental disposition), speech has ceased. For one who has entered the second jhāna, reflection and consideration have ceased. For one who has entered the third jhāna, felicity has ceased. For one who has entered the fourth jhāna, in-breaths and out-breaths have ceased. For one who has entered the base of the infinity of space, the apperception of form has ceased. For one who has entered the base of the infinity of consciousness, the apperception of the base of the infinity of space has ceased. For one who has entered the base of nothingness, the apperception of the base of the infinity of consciousness has ceased. For one who has entered the base of neither apperception nor non-apperception, the apperception of the base of nothingness has ceased. For one who has entered the cessation of apperception and feeling, apperception and feeling have ceased. For a bhikkhu with the defilements destroyed, passion has ceased, hatred has ceased, delusion has ceased. And, Bhikkhu, the successive subsiding of mental constructions has been declared by me. For one who has entered the first jhāna, speech has subsided. For one who has entered the second jhāna, reflection and consideration have subsided … and so on … for one who has entered the cessation of apperception and feeling, apperception and feeling have subsided. For a bhikkhu with the defilements destroyed, passion has subsided, hatred has subsided, delusion has subsided. There are these six tranquillities, Bhikkhu. For one who has entered the first jhāna, speech has become tranquil. For one who has entered the second jhāna, reflection and consideration have become tranquil. For one who has entered the third jhāna, felicity has become tranquil. For one who has entered the fourth jhāna, in-breaths and out-breaths have become tranquil. For one who has entered the cessation of apperception and feeling, apperception and feeling have become tranquil. For a bhikkhu with the defilements destroyed, passion has become tranquil, hatred has become tranquil, delusion has become tranquil.”

1152. The first [discourse of the chapter].

Commentary

Section titled “Commentary”
  • The question is how yaṃ kiñci vedayitaṃ taṃ dukkhasmiṃ stands beside the three feelings; the answer makes it a statement about mental constructions, not about feeling as such. buddhavacana reads happiness without feeling at https://buddhavacana.github.io/articles/enlightenment/.
  • Three lists, three renderings kept apart: nirodha “cessation” (niruddha “ceased”), vūpasama “subsiding” (vūpasanta “subsided”), passaddhi “tranquillity” (paṭippassaddha “tranquil”); saṅkhāra “mental construction”; khīṇāsava “with the defilements destroyed” as on buddhavacana’s Kosambi page.
  • The nine attainments are worded as the Saṅgītisutta’s nine successive cessations (/dighanikaya/sangitisutta/10-navaka/), six of whose units are twins here; the four jhāna are treated at https://buddhavacana.github.io/sutta/dispositions/.
  • The …pe… of 1151.6 and 1151.20 elides the repeated frame; each is one sentence with “… and so on …”.
  • The vocative bhikkhu is capitalised, “Bhikkhu”, as Bhante and Bhikkhave are.

Parallels

Section titled “Parallels”

The Chinese parallel is the 474th sūtra of the 雜阿含經 (Saṃyuktāgama; fascicle 17, CBETA T02, no. 99, pp. 121a–b), read here in CBETA’s text; its neighbour, the 473rd, was not read. The two agree in frame and sequence: a disciple, reflecting alone in seclusion (獨一靜處禪思, p. 121a), puts the same question, how the three feelings (三受——樂受、苦受、不苦不樂受) stand beside the saying that all that is felt is suffering (諸所有受悉皆是苦); the Buddha answers that the saying was made with reference to the impermanence and changeability of all mental constructions (一切行無常故，一切行變易法故) and then to their gradual cessation and stilling (漸次寂滅, 漸次止息), and sets out the same nine attainments, speech ceasing in the first jhāna, reflection and consideration in the second, felicity in the third, in-breaths and out-breaths in the fourth, the apperception of form and of each lower base in the four formless bases, and apperception and feeling in their cessation (p. 121b). The differences, checked in CBETA’s text:

  • The setting and the questioner. The Pāḷi names no place and the questioner is a certain bhikkhu (1150); the Chinese sets the discourse at Rājagaha in the Kalandaka Bamboo Grove (王舍城迦蘭陀竹園) and the questioner is āyasmā Ānanda (尊者阿難), who rises from his meditation to ask (p. 121a).
  • The grounds of the saying. The Pāḷi gives six, the impermanence of mental constructions and their liability to wear away, dissolve, fade, cease and change (1151.5–6); the Chinese gives two, impermanence and liability to change (無常, 變易法), and then adds as a second reason the gradual cessation and gradual stilling themselves (以諸行漸次寂滅故說，以諸行漸次止息故說, p. 121a).
  • How the lists are introduced. In the Pāḷi the Bhagavā states the successive cessation, the successive subsiding and the six tranquillities in one speech (1151.7–28); in the Chinese Ānanda asks twice what the gradual cessation and the gradual stilling are, and each list is a separate answer (p. 121b).
  • The destroyed defilements. The Pāḷi closes each of the three lists with the bhikkhu whose defilements are destroyed, for whom passion, hatred and delusion have ceased, subsided and become tranquil (1151.17, 21, 28); the Chinese has no such member in its lists, but after them Ānanda repeats “this is the gradual stilling of mental constructions” and the Buddha adds a superior, extraordinary, supreme, unsurpassed stilling (勝止息、奇特止息、上止息、無上止息), which is the mind’s non-delight in and liberation from lust, hatred and delusion (於貪欲心不樂、解脫，恚、癡心不樂、解脫, p. 121b).
  • The third list. The Pāḷi’s six tranquillities (cha passaddhiyo, 1151.22–28: the four jhāna, the cessation of apperception and feeling, and the bhikkhu with the defilements destroyed) have no counterpart in the Chinese, which has two lists only.
  • The close. The Pāḷi ends with the Bhagavā’s words; the Chinese adds that Ānanda, having heard what the Buddha said, rejoiced and received it respectfully (歡喜奉行, p. 121b).

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