DN33.5. Fives

Saṅgāti Sutta ("Reciting in Concert")

There are teachings grouped by five that have been rightly explained by the Buddha. You should all recite these in concert. What are the teachings grouped by five?

Five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness.

Five grasping aggregates: form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness.

Five kinds of sensual stimulation. Sights known by the eye that are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing. Sounds known by the ear … Smells known by the nose … Tastes known by the tongue … Touches known by the body that are likable, desirable, agreeable, pleasant, sensual, and arousing.

Five destinations: hell, the animal realm, the ghost realm, humanity, and the gods.

Five kinds of stinginess: stinginess with dwellings, families, material possessions, praise, and the teachings.

Five hindrances: sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt.

Five lower fetters: identity view, doubt, misapprehension of precepts and observances, sensual desire, and ill will.

Five higher fetters: desire for rebirth in the realm of luminous form, desire for rebirth in the formless realm, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.

Five precepts: refraining from killing living creatures, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking alcohol, which is a basis for negligence.

Five things that can’t be done. A mendicant with defilements ended can’t deliberately take the life of a living creature, take something with the intention to steal, have sex, tell a deliberate lie, or store up goods for their own enjoyment like they did as a lay person.

Five losses: loss of relatives, wealth, health, ethics, and view. It is not because of loss of relatives, wealth, or health that sentient beings, when their body breaks up, after death, are reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. It is because of loss of ethics or view that sentient beings, when their body breaks up, after death, are reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell.

Five endowments: endowment with relatives, wealth, health, ethics, and view. It is not because of endowment with family, wealth, or health that sentient beings, when their body breaks up, after death, are reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm. It is because of endowment with ethics or view that sentient beings, when their body breaks up, after death, are reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm.

Five drawbacks for an unethical person because of their failure in ethics. Firstly, an unethical person loses substantial wealth on account of negligence. This is the first drawback. Furthermore, an unethical person gets a bad reputation. This is the second drawback. Furthermore, an unethical person enters any kind of assembly timid and embarrassed, whether it’s an assembly of aristocrats, brahmins, householders, or ascetics. This is the third drawback. Furthermore, an unethical person dies feeling lost. This is the fourth drawback. Furthermore, an unethical person, when their body breaks up, after death, is reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell. This is the fifth drawback.

Five benefits for an ethical person because of their accomplishment in ethics. Firstly, an ethical person gains substantial wealth on account of diligence. This is the first benefit. Furthermore, an ethical person gets a good reputation. This is the second benefit. Furthermore, an ethical person enters any kind of assembly bold and self-assured, whether it’s an assembly of aristocrats, brahmins, householders, or ascetics. This is the third benefit. Furthermore, an ethical person dies not feeling lost. This is the fourth benefit. Furthermore, when an ethical person’s body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a good place, a heavenly realm. This is the fifth benefit.

A mendicant who wants to accuse another should first establish five things in themselves. I will speak at the right time, not at the wrong time. I will speak truthfully, not falsely. I will speak gently, not harshly. I will speak beneficially, not harmfully. I will speak lovingly, not from secret hate. A mendicant who wants to accuse another should first establish these five things in themselves.

Five factors that support meditation. A mendicant has faith in the Realized One’s awakening: ‘That Blessed One is perfected, a fully awakened Buddha, accomplished in knowledge and conduct, holy, knower of the world, supreme guide for those who wish to train, teacher of gods and humans, awakened, blessed.’ They are rarely ill or unwell. Their stomach digests well, being neither too hot nor too cold, but just right, and fit for meditation. They’re not devious or deceitful. They reveal themselves honestly to the Teacher or sensible spiritual companions. They live with energy roused up for giving up unskillful qualities and embracing skillful qualities. They’re strong, staunchly vigorous, not slacking off when it comes to developing skillful qualities. They’re wise. They have the wisdom of arising and passing away which is noble, penetrative, and leads to the complete ending of suffering.

Five pure abodes: Aviha, Atappa, the Gods Fair to See, the Fair Seeing Gods, and Akaniṭṭha.

Five non-returners: one who is extinguished between one life and the next, one who is extinguished upon landing, one who is extinguished without extra effort, one who is extinguished with extra effort, and one who heads upstream, going to the Akaniṭṭha realm.

Five kinds of emotional barrenness. Firstly, a mendicant has doubts about the Teacher. They’re uncertain, undecided, and lacking confidence. This being so, their mind doesn’t incline toward keenness, commitment, persistence, and striving. This is the first kind of emotional barrenness. Furthermore, a mendicant has doubts about the teaching … the Saṅgha … the training … A mendicant is angry and upset with their spiritual companions, resentful and closed off. This being so, their mind doesn’t incline toward keenness, commitment, persistence, and striving. This is the fifth kind of emotional barrenness.

Five emotional shackles. Firstly, a mendicant isn’t free of greed, desire, fondness, thirst, passion, and craving for sensual pleasures. This being so, their mind doesn’t incline toward keenness, commitment, persistence, and striving. This is the first emotional shackle. Furthermore, a mendicant isn’t free of greed for the body … They’re not free of greed for form … They eat as much as they like until their bellies are full, then indulge in the pleasures of sleeping, lying, and drowsing … They live the spiritual life hoping to be reborn in one of the orders of gods, thinking: ‘By this precept or observance or mortification or spiritual life, may I become one of the gods!’ This being so, their mind doesn’t incline toward keenness, commitment, persistence, and striving. This is the fifth emotional shackle.

Five faculties: eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body.

Another five faculties: pleasure, pain, happiness, sadness, and equanimity.

Another five faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, immersion, and wisdom.

Five elements of escape. Take a case where a mendicant focuses on sensual pleasures, but their mind isn’t eager, confident, settled, and decided about them. But when they focus on renunciation, their mind is eager, confident, settled, and decided about it. Their mind is in a good state, well developed, well risen, well freed, and well detached from sensual pleasures. They’re freed from the distressing and feverish defilements that arise because of sensual pleasures, so they don’t experience that kind of feeling. This is how the escape from sensual pleasures is explained.

Take another case where a mendicant focuses on ill will, but their mind isn’t eager … But when they focus on good will, their mind is eager … Their mind is in a good state … well detached from ill will. They’re freed from the distressing and feverish defilements that arise because of ill will, so they don’t experience that kind of feeling. This is how the escape from ill will is explained.

Take another case where a mendicant focuses on harming, but their mind isn’t eager … But when they focus on compassion, their mind is eager … Their mind is in a good state … well detached from harming. They’re freed from the distressing and feverish defilements that arise because of harming, so they don’t experience that kind of feeling. This is how the escape from harming is explained.

Take another case where a mendicant focuses on form, but their mind isn’t eager … But when they focus on the formless, their mind is eager … Their mind is in a good state … well detached from forms. They’re freed from the distressing and feverish defilements that arise because of form, so they don’t experience that kind of feeling. This is how the escape from forms is explained.

Take a case where a mendicant focuses on identity, but their mind isn’t eager, confident, settled, and decided about it. But when they focus on the ending of identity, their mind is eager, confident, settled, and decided about it. Their mind is in a good state, well developed, well risen, well freed, and well detached from identity. They’re freed from the distressing and feverish defilements that arise because of identity, so they don’t experience that kind of feeling. This is how the escape from identity is explained.

Five opportunities for freedom. Firstly, the Teacher or a respected spiritual companion teaches Dhamma to a mendicant. That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, no matter how the Teacher or a respected spiritual companion teaches it. Feeling inspired, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, one feels bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed. This is the first opportunity for freedom.

Furthermore, it may be that neither the Teacher nor a respected spiritual companion teaches Dhamma to a mendicant. But the mendicant teaches Dhamma in detail to others as they learned and memorized it. … Or the mendicant recites the teaching in detail as they learned and memorized it. … Or the mendicant thinks about and considers the teaching in their heart, examining it with the mind as they learned and memorized it. … Or a meditation subject as a foundation of immersion is properly grasped, attended, borne in mind, and comprehended with wisdom. That mendicant feels inspired by the meaning and the teaching in that Dhamma, no matter how a meditation subject as a foundation of immersion is properly grasped, attended, borne in mind, and comprehended with wisdom. Feeling inspired, joy springs up. Being joyful, rapture springs up. When the mind is full of rapture, the body becomes tranquil. When the body is tranquil, one feels bliss. And when blissful, the mind becomes immersed. This is the fifth opportunity for freedom.

Five perceptions that ripen in freedom: the perception of impermanence, the perception of suffering in impermanence, the perception of not-self in suffering, the perception of giving up, and the perception of fading away.

These are the teachings grouped by five that have been rightly explained by the Buddha. You should all recite these in concert.



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