(1) The Base Consisting of Boundless Space

1. [326] Now, as to the four immaterial states mentioned next to the divine abidings (III.105), one who wants firstly to develop the base consisting of boundless space sees in gross physical matter danger through the wielding of sticks, etc., because of the words: “‘It is in virtue of matter that wielding of sticks, wielding of knives, quarrels, brawls and disputes takes place; but that does not exist at all in the immaterial state,’ and in this expectation he enters upon the way to dispassion for only material things, for the fading and cessation of only those” (M I 410); and he sees danger in it too through the thousand afflictions beginning with eye disease. So, in order to surmount that, he enters upon the fourth jhāna in any one of the nine kasiṇas beginning with the earth kasiṇa and omitting the limited-space kasiṇa.

2. Now, although he has already surmounted gross physical matter by means of the fourth jhāna of the fine-material sphere, nevertheless he still wants also to surmount the kasiṇa materiality since it is the counterpart of the former. How does he do this?

3. Suppose a timid man is pursued by a snake in a forest and flees from it as fast as he can, then if he sees in the place he has fled to a palm leaf with a streak painted on it or a creeper or a rope or a crack in the ground, he is fearful, anxious and will not even look at it. Suppose again a man is living in the same village as a hostile man who ill-uses him and on being threatened by him with a flogging and the burning down of his house, he goes away to live in another village, then if he meets another man there of similar appearance, voice and manner, he is fearful, anxious and will not even look at him.

4. Here is the application of the similes. The time when the bhikkhu has the gross physical matter as his object is like the time when the men were respectively threatened by the snake and by the enemy. [327] The time when the bhikkhu surmounts the gross physical matter by means of the fourth jhāna of the finematerial sphere is like the first man’s fleeing as fast as he can and the other man’s going away to another village. The bhikkhu’s observing that even the matter of the kasiṇa is the counterpart of that gross physical matter and his wanting to surmount that also is like the first man’s seeing in the place he had šfled to the palm leaf with a streak painted on it, etc., and the other man’s seeing the man who resembled the enemy in the village he had left, and their unwillingness to look owing to fear and anxiety.

And here the similes of the dog attacked by a boar and that of the pisāca goblin and the timid man^[1] should be understood too.

5. So when he has thus become disgusted with (dispassionate towards) the kasiṇa materiality, the object of the fourth jhāna, and wants to get away from it, he achieves mastery in the five ways. Then on emerging from the now familiar fourth jhāna of the fine-material sphere, he sees the danger in that jhāna in this way: “This makes its object the materiality with which I have become disgusted,” and “It has joy as its near enemy,” and “It is grosser than the peaceful liberations.” There is, however, no [comparative] grossness of factors here [as in the case of the four fine-material jhānas]; for the immaterial states have the same two factors as this fine-material [jhāna].

6. When he has seen the danger in that [fine-material fourth jhāna] jhāna in this way and has ended his attachment to it, he gives his attention to the base consisting of boundless space as peaceful. Then, when he has spread out the kasiṇa to the limit of the world-sphere, or as far as he likes, he removes the kasiṇa [materiality] by giving his attention to the space touched by it, [regarding that] as “space” or “boundless space.”

7. When he is removing it, he neither folds it up like a mat nor withdraws it like a cake from a tin. It is simply that he does not advert to it or give attention to it or review it; it is when he neither adverts to it nor gives attention to it nor reviews it, but gives his attention exclusively to the space touched by it, [regarding that] as “space, space,” that he is said to “remove the kasiṇa.”

8. And when the kasiṇa is being removed, it does not roll up or roll away. It is simply that it is called “removed” on account of his non-attention to it, his attention being given to “space, space.” This is conceptualized as the mere space left by the removal of the kasiṇa [materiality]. Whether it is called “space left by the removal of the kasiṇa” or “space touched by the kasiṇa” or “space secluded from the kasiṇa,” it is all the same.

9. He adverts again and again to the sign of the space left by the removal of the kasiṇa [328] as “space, space,” and strikes at it with thought and applied thought. As he adverts to it again and again and strikes at it with thought and applied thought, the hindrances are suppressed, mindfulness is established and his mind becomes concentrated in access. He cultivates that sign again and again, develops and repeatedly practices it.

10. As he again and again adverts to it and gives attention to it in this way, consciousness belonging to the base consisting of boundless space arises in absorption with the space [as its object], as the consciousness belonging to the fine-material sphere did in the case of the earth kasiṇa, and so on. And here too in the prior stage there are either three or four sensual-sphere impulsions associated with equanimous feeling, while the fourth or the fifth is of the immaterial sphere. The rest is the same as in the case of the earth kasiṇa (IV.74).

11. There is, however, this difference. When the immaterial-sphere consciousness has arisen in this way, the bhikkhu, who has been formerly looking at the kasiṇa disk with the jhāna eye finds himself looking at only space after that sign has been abruptly removed by the attention given in the preliminary work thus “space, space.” He is like a man who has plugged an opening in a [covered] vehicle, a sack or a pot^[2] with a piece of blue rag or with a piece of rag of some such colour as yellow, red or white and is looking at that, and then when the rag is removed by the force of the wind or by some other agency, he finds himself looking at space.

[Text and Commentary]

12. And at this point it is said: “With the complete surmounting (samatikkamā) of perceptions of matter, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, with non-attention to perceptions of variety, [aware of] ‘unbounded space,’ he enters upon and dwells in the base consisting of boundless space” (Vibh 245).

13. Herein, complete is in all aspects or of all [perceptions]; without exception, is the meaning. Of perceptions of matter: both (a) of the fine-material jhānas mentioned [here] under the heading of “perception,” and (b) of those things that are their object. For (a) the jhāna of the fine-material sphere is called “matter” in such passages as “Possessed of visible matter he sees instances of matter” (D II 70; M II 12), and (b) it is its object too [that is called “matter”] in such passages as “He sees instances of visible matter externally … fair and ugly” (D II 110; M II 13).^[3] Consequently, here the words “perception of matter” (rūpa-saññā—lit. “matter-perceptions”), in the sense of “perceptions about matter,” are used (a) for fine-material jhāna stated thus under the headings of “perceptions.” [Also] (b) it has the label (saññā) “matter” (rūpa), thus it (the jhāna’s object) is “labelled matter” (rūpa-saññā); what is meant is that “matter” is its name. So it should be understood that this is also a term for (b) what is classed as the earth kasiṇa, etc., which is the object of that [jhāna].^[4] [329]

14. With the surmounting: with the fading away and with the cessation. What is meant? With the fading away and with the cessation, both because of the fading away and because of the cessation, either in all aspects or without exception, of these perceptions of matter, reckoned as jhāna, which number fifteen with the [five each of the] profitable, resultant and functional,^[5] and also of these things labelled matter, reckoned as objects [of those perceptions], which number nine with the earth kasiṇa, etc., (§1) he enters upon and dwells in the base consisting of boundless space. For he cannot enter upon and dwell in that without completely surmounting perceptions of matter.

15. Herein, there is no surmounting of these perceptions in one whose greed for the object [of those perceptions] has not faded away; and when the perceptions have been surmounted, their objects have been surmounted as well. That is why in the Vibhaṅga only the surmounting of the perceptions and not that of the objects is mentioned as follows: “Herein, what are perceptions of matter? They are the perception, perceiving, perceivedness, in one who has attained a finematerial-sphere attainment or in one who has been reborn there or in one who is abiding in bliss there in this present life. These are what are called perceptions of matter. These perceptions of matter are passed, surpassed, surmounted. Hence, ‘With the complete surmounting of perceptions of matter’ is said” (Vibh 261). But this commentary should be understood to deal also with the surmounting of the object because these attainments have to be reached by surmounting the object; they are not to be reached by retaining the same object as in the first and subsequent jhānas.

16. With the disappearance of perceptions of resistance: perceptions of resistance are perceptions arisen through the impact of the physical base consisting of the eye, etc., and the respective objects consisting of visible objects etc.; and this is a term for perception of visible objects (rūpa) and so on, according as it is said: “Here, what are perceptions of resistance? Perceptions of visible objects, perceptions of sounds, perceptions of odours, perceptions of flavours, perceptions of tangible objects—these are called ‘perceptions of resistance’” (Vibh 261); with the complete disappearance, the abandoning, the non-arising, of these ten kinds of perceptions of resistance, that is to say, of the five profitable-resultant and five unprofitable-resultant;^[6] causing their non-occurrence, is what is meant.

17. Of course, these are not to be found in one who has entered upon the first jhāna, etc., either; for consciousness at that time does not occur by way of the five doors. Still [330] the mention of them here should be understood as a recommendation of this jhāna for the purpose of arousing interest in it, just as in the case of the fourth jhāna there is mention of the pleasure and pain already abandoned elsewhere, and in the case of the third path there is mention of the [false] view of personality, etc., already abandoned earlier.

18. Or alternatively, though these are also not to be found in one who has attained the fine-material sphere, still their not being there is not due to their having been abandoned; for development of the fine-material sphere does not lead to fading of greed for materiality, and the occurrence of those [fine-material jhānas] is actually dependent on materiality. But this development [of the immaterial] does lead to the fading of greed for materiality. Therefore it is allowable to say that they are actually abandoned here; and not only to say it, but to maintain it absolutely.

19. In fact it is because they have not been abandoned already before this that it was said by the Blessed One that sound is a thorn to one who has the first jhāna (A V 135). And it is precisely because they are abandoned here that the imperturbability (see Vibh 135) of the immaterial attainments and their state of peaceful liberation are mentioned (M I 33), and that Āḷāra Kālāma neither saw the five hundred carts that passed close by him nor heard the sound of them while he was in an immaterial attainment (D II 130).

20. With non-attention to perceptions of variety: either to perceptions occurring with variety as their domain or to perceptions themselves various. For “perceptions of variety” are so called [for two reasons]: firstly, because the kinds of perception included along with the mind element and mind-consciousness element in one who has not attained—which kinds are intended here as described in the Vibhaṅga thus: “Herein, what are perceptions of variety? The perception, perceiving, perceivedness, in one who has not attained and possesses either mind element or mindconsciousness element in one who has not attained and possesses either mind element or mind-consciousness element: these are called ‘perceptions of variety’” (Vibh 261)—occur with respect to a domain that is varied in individual essence with the variety classed as visible-object, sound, etc.; and secondly, because the forty-four kinds of perception—that is to say, eight kinds of sense-sphere profitable perception, twelve kinds of unprofitable perception, eleven kinds of sense-sphere profitable resultant perception, two kinds of unprofitable-resultant perception, and eleven kinds of sense-sphere functional perception—themselves have variety, have various individual essences, and are dissimilar from each other. With the complete non-attention to, non-adverting to, non-reaction to, non-reviewing of, these perceptions of variety; what is meant is that because he does not advert to them, give them attention or review them, therefore …

21. And [two things] should be understood: firstly, that their absence is stated here in two ways as “surmounting” and “disappearance” because the earlier perceptions of matter and perceptions of resistance do not exist even in the kind of existence produced by this jhāna on rebirth, let alone when this jhāna is entered upon and dwelt in that existence; [331] and secondly, in the case of perceptions of variety, “non-attention” to them is said because twenty-seven kinds of perception—that is to say, eight kinds of sense-sphere profitable perception, nine kinds of functional perception, and ten kinds of unprofitable perception—still exist in the kind of existence produced by this jhāna. For when he enters upon and dwells in this jhāna there too, he does so by non-attention to them also, but he has not attained when he does give attention to them.

22. And here briefly it should be understood that the abandoning of all finematerial-sphere states is signified by the words with the surmounting of perceptions of matter, and the abandoning of and non-attention to all sense-sphere consciousness and its concomitants is signified by the words with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, with non-attention to perceptions of variety.

23. Unbounded space: here it is called “unbounded” (ananta, lit. endless) because neither its end as its arising nor its end as its fall are made known.^[7] It is the space left by the removal of the kasiṇa that is called “space.” And here unboundedness (endlessness) should be understood as [referring to] the attention also, which is why it is said in the Vibhaṅga: “He places, settles his consciousness in that space, he pervades unboundedly (anantaṃ), hence ‘unbounded (ananto) space’ is said” (Vibh 262).

24. He enters upon and dwells in the base consisting of boundless space: it has no bound (anta), and thus it is unbounded (ananta). What is spatially unbounded (ākāsaṃ anantaṃ) is unbounded space (ākāsānantaṃ). Unbounded space is the same as boundless space (ākāsānañcaṃ—lit. space-boundlessness). That “boundless space” is a “base” (āyatana) in the sense of habitat for the jhāna whose nature it is to be associated with it, as the “deities’ base” is for deities, thus it is the “base consisting of boundless space” (ākāsānañcāyatana). He enters and dwells in: having reached that base consisting of boundless space, having caused it to be produced, he dwells (viharati) with an abiding (vihāra) consisting in postures that are in conformity with it.

This is the detailed explanation of the base consisting of boundless space as a meditation subject.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

“A dog, it seems, was attacked in the forest by a boar and fled. When it was dusk he saw in the distance a cauldron for boiling rice, and perceiving it as a boar, he fled in fear and terror. Again, a man who was afraid of pisāca goblins saw a decapitated palm stump at night in a place that was unfamiliar to him, and perceiving it as a pisāca goblin, he fell down in his fear, horror and confusion” (Vism-mhṭ 320).

[2]:

PED, this ref. reads yānapuṭosā for yānapatoḷi, taking it as one compound (see under yāna and mutoḷī, but this does not fit the context happily. Vism-mhṭ (p. 321) has: “‘Yānappatoḷikumbhimukhādīnan’ ti oguṇṭhana-sivikādi-yānaṃ mukhaṃ = yāna-mukhaṃ; patoḷiyā kuddakadvārassa mukhaṃ = patoḷi-mukhaṃ; kumbhi-mukhan ti paccekaṃ mukhasaddo sambandhitabbo.” This necessitates taking yāna separately.

[3]:

These two quotations refer respectively to the first of the eight liberations and the first of the eight bases of mastery (See M-a III 255ff.).

[4]:

This explanation depends on a play on the word saññā as the [subjective] perception and as the [objective] sign, signal or label perceived.

[5]:

See XIV.129, description of perception aggregate, which is classified in the same way as the consciousness aggregate. Those referred to here are the fifteen finematerial kinds, corresponding to nos. (9–l3), (57–61) and (81–85) in Table III.

[6]:

See XIV.96f. nos. (34–38) and (50–54) in Table III.

[7]:

“A [formed] dhamma with an individual essence is delimited by rise and fall because it is produced after having not been, and because after having been it vanishes. But space is called boundless since it has neither rise nor fall because it is a dhamma without individual essence” (Vism-mhṭ 323).