Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

23. [And in the same words the Exalted One spake of how he had been used to enter into assemblies of each of the other of the eight kinds, and of how he had not been made known to them either in speaking or in vanishing away.] ' Now these, Ananda, are the eight assemblies.'

1 Windisch, 'Mara und Buddha,' p. 75, makes this number refer
to the number of entrances, and quotes Itivuttaka, p. 15, in support.
The Singhalese version (p. 758) is as above.

Il8 XVI. MAHA PARINIBBANA SUTTANTA. D. ii. no.

A

24. [no] l Now these, Ananda, are the eight positions of Mastery [over the delusion arising from the apparent permanence of external things 1]. What are the eight ?

25. ' When a man having subjectively the idea of form sees forms external to himself which are finite, and pleasant or unpleasant to the sight, and having mastered them, is conscious that he knows and sees — this is the first position of mastery.

26. ' When a man having subjectively the idea of form sees externally forms which are boundless, and pleasant or unpleasant to the sight, and having mastered them, is conscious that he knows and sees — this is the second position of mastery.

27. ' When a man without the subjective idea of form sees forms external to himself which are finite, and pleasant or unpleasant to the sight, and having mastered them, is conscious that he knows and sees — this is the third position of mastery.

28. ' When a man without the subjective idea of form sees externally forms external to himself which are boundless, and pleasant or unpleasant to the sight, and having mastered them, is conscious that he knows and sees — this is the fourth position of mastery.

29. ' When a man without the subjective idea of form sees externally forms external to himself that are blue, blue in colour, blue in appearance, and reflecting blue, — just, for instance, as the flax blossom is blue in colour, blue in appearance, and reflecting blue ; or, again,

. 1 This and the next paragraph are based upon the Buddhist belief as to the long-vexed question between the Indian schools who represented more or less closely the European Idealists and Realists. When cleared of the many repetitions inserted for the benefit of the repeaters or reciters, the fundamental idea seems to be that the great necessity is to get rid of the delusion that what one sees and feels is real and permanent. Nothing is real and permanent but character.

The so-called eight Positions of Mastery are merely an expansion of the first two of the following eight Stages of Deliverance, and the whole argument is also expressed in another form in the passage on the nine successive 'Cessations,' of which an abstract will be found in Childers, sub voce nirodha.

D. ii. 112. THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. II9

as that fine muslin of Benares, of delicate finish on both sides, is blue in colour, blue in appearance, and reflecting blue, — when a man without the subjective idea of form sees externally forms which, just in that way, are blue, blue in colour, blue in appearance, and reflecting blue, and having mastered them, is conscious that he knows and sees — that is the fifth position of mastery.' 30-2. [ill] [The sixth, seventh, and eighth positions of mastery are explained in words identical with those used to explain the fifth ; save that yellow, red, and white are respectively substituted throughout for blue ; and the Kanikara flower, the Bandhu-givaka flower, and the morning star are respectively substituted for the flax blossom, as the first of the two objects given as examples.]

33. 1 [112] ' Now these stages of Deliverance, Ananda [from the hindrance to thought arising from the sensations and ideas due to external forms], are eight in number. Which are the eight ?

' A man possessed of form sees forms — this is the first stage of deliverance.

1 Unaware of his own form, he sees forms external to himself — this is the second stage of deliverance.

' With the thought " it is well," he becomes intent — this is the third stage of deliverance.