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[ Sitting Practice ]
V: I've read on several occasions about there being "40 objects of meditation" according to the Pali. By any chance would you happen to know what these are or where I could find the list?
I believe most who reference to "40 subjects of meditation" are thinking of Buddhaghosas Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purity -- in my Pali Text Society Edition, pp 129 ff.)
These are mentioned in The Ones beginning with sutta 455, and, of course, everywhere as this just about covers everything the Buddha taught, and, as I look, I see the one subject not mentioned in Buddhaghosas list is the "Dhamma Device", or the "Consciousness Device" or using the Dhamma as ones means to concentrate and get high which is, essentially the method being taught here.
In the Visuddhimagga the list is:
Earth, water, fire, wind.
For these see:
../../ThePaliLine/TheGreatMastersSatisfactionPastures.htm#TheFourGreatElements
Blue-green, yellow, red, white, light, space
A swollen corpse, discolored corpse, a festering corpse, a fissured corpse, a mangled corpse, a dismembered corpse, a cut and dismembered corpse, a bloody corpse, a worm-filled corpse, a skeleton.
For these see:
../../ThePaliLine/TheGreatMastersSatisfactionPastures.htm#TheCharnelField
Recollecting the Buddha, recollecting the Dhamma, recollecting the Order
Recollecting Ethical Culture
For this see:
../../ThePaliLine/gradualsila.htm#EthicalCulture
Recollecting Giving
For this see:
../../ThePaliLine/gradualdana.htm
Recollecting the Gods.
For this see:
../../ThePaliLine/The10thQuestion_1.htm#THE_NINTH_LESSON
Recollecting Death.
For this see:
Meditation on Death (discussion, not too helpful, but something.)
Recollecting the Body.
For this see
The end of The Ones, and
../../ThePaliLine/TheGreatMastersSatisfactionPastures.htm#SatisfactionwithBody
Recollecting the Breathing, Recollecting Calm.
For both of these same as above, and
The Anapanasatisutta
Friendly Vibrations, Sympathetic Vibrations, Empathetic Vibrations, Objective Detachment.
For this see: ../../ThePaliLine/gradualdana.htm#TheFourGodlyThoughts
The Realm of Limitless Space
The Realm of Limitless Consciousness
The Realm of No Things There
The Realm of Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception
For these see:
../../ThePaliLine/The10thQuestion_1.htm#NAVASATTAVASA
The Perception of the Foulness of Food
For this, ya gotta nose ya stuff!
And one called the Specification of the Four Elements.
On this also see two pages from Warren: Buddhism in Translations, translations from the VisudhiMagga:
and
This is an excerpt from the mo translation of Digha Nikaya III.33: Sangiti Suttanta
10.2 (the Pali)
One recognizes the earth device above, below, across, as non-dual[1], unbounded.
One recognizes the water device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the fire device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the wind device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the deep-blue device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the golden-colored device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the blood-read device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the white device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the space device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
One recognizes the consciousness device above, below, across, non-dual, unbounded.
Dasa kasi¼¤yatan¤ni Rhys Davids notes the commentary here (and I agree) "Kasina in the sense of entire." I think this is word-play between the title and the subheadings: The 10 Whole-Spheres (ayatana:atmo-sphere)...the earth-device is whole when perceived as one...; in other words this is not a description of ten devices, it is a description of when these ten devices are perceived correctly and completely. Sariputta: "Do you see that old log over there? I, should I wish, could see that old log as earth or as water, or as fire, or as wind. Whatsoever way I wished to perceive it, that is the way I could perceive it." (I do not have this quoted exactly correctly, but the idea is about the same, see: -- AN.III.iv.41: The Tree-trunk for the translation.
PED: Kasi¼a-1: entire, whole J IV.111, 112.
Kasi¼a-2 (deriv. uncertain) one of the aids to kammaĀĀh¤na the practice by means of which mystic meditation may be attained. They are fully described at A V.46 sq., 60; usually enumerated as ten (that is, earth, water, fire, air; blue, yellow, red, white; space, intellection (or perhaps consciousness) ) - For the last two ¤k¤sa- and vi¾¾¤¼a-) we find in later sources ¤loka- and ¤k¤sa-. - Eight = (the above omitting the last two). There are 14 manners of practising the kasi¼as Vism 374. Nine qualities or properties of (paĀhavi-) kasi¼a are enumd at Vism 117. - Each k. is fivefold, according to uddhaµ, adho, tiriyaµ, advayaµ, appam¤¼aµ; M II.15. - kasi¼aµ oloketi to fix one's gaze on the particular kasi¼a chosen; -µ samann¤harati to concentrate one's mind on the k..
-¤yatana the base or object of a kasi¼a exercise;
-kamma the k. practice.
-jh¤na the k. meditation.
-dosa fault of the k. object Vism 117, 123 (the 4 faults of paĀhavØ-kasi¼a being confusion of the 4 colours).
-parikamma the preliminary, preparatory rites to the exercise of a kasi¼a meditation, such as preparing the frame, repeating the necessary formulas, etc.;
-µ katheti to give instructions in these preparations;
-µ karoti to perform the k-preparations;
-ma¼Ąala a board or stone or piece of ground divided by depressions to be used as a mechanical aid to jh¤na exercise. In each division of the ma¼Ąala a sample of a kasi¼a was put. Several of these stone ma¼Ąalas have been found in the ruins at Anur¤dhapura.
-sam¤patti attainment in respect of the k. exercise.
Walshe notes some confusion concerning the "consciousness" device. This is explained in one sutta that I recollect (cite ?) where he describes this device as the study of the Dhamma. I say that the practice being used here on BuddhaDust is the practice of the Consciousness Device -- using Dhamma Vicaya not simply to learn and understand the Dhamma, but as a thing on which to focus the mind so as to bring about results consistant with the Dhamma.
See also 8s#10
[1]advayaµ: (not ekatta; a=not, dva=dvi=2, divided) non-dual or undivided, but what is meant is uniformly of the nature of the device, not a mixture, as we normally perceive the world (or at least as some of us normally perceive the world -- there are those who perceive the world as uniformly made up of themselves), of various elements -- again reference the quote from Sariputta: he is saying he is able to perceive the log as uniformly made up of one element (whichever he chooses) whereas the modern scientific view would be that even though the primary perceived nature of a log would be solidity (pathavi) that solidity would be a mixture of solid, liquids, heat and gas. What purpose is served by this? Most likely many more purposes than I can see! But one I can see is that such perception creates separation. The log is perceived as "apart from" -- separable -- the world. In the perception of the separable nature of pathavi ~ one has simultaneously (however much or little perceived) allowed for the separation of "one's self" from the world.
References:
Warren: Buddhism in Translations, translations from the VisudhiMagga: The 40 Subjects of Meditation
and
The Earth Kasina
Digha Nikaya #33: Sangiti Sutta: Complete Spheres
BD: Exercises: Make an Earth Kasina
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