In the Visuddhi magga there is a section describing 9? Sappaya (supportive conditions) does any one have a direct reference, I can’t seem to locate it. It includes things like, weather, people, seclusion, have you ever personally found a place that has all or most of such conditions? Where is the best place to practice that you have found? (Please no…the best place to practice is your mind comments.)
1 Like
This question is not specific, has many gray areas
1 Like
This is more like a general sutta based discussion, rather than a specific sutta question, with only a specific answer (given the range of parameters in the O P) and as such I’m moving it to the discussion category 
1 Like
This is a very practical answer to yr question. Note it is also variable due to the individual differences as well as opportunities. So this is the best place to practice that ‘I’ have found, at this point in time 
If you can’t be here in person, feel free to imagine yourself here, and have a lovely peaceful meditation.
6 Likes
Visuddhi magga (sappaya) reference…
2 Likes
‘Sappaya’ Ia pricing elusive, can’t get a hit, anyone know the root of he word?
sappāya : (adj.) beneficial; wholesome; suitable.
Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionary
Sappāya, (adj.) (saṃ+pā (=pra+ā)+ i , cp. pāya. The corresponding BSk. form is sāmpreya (=saṃ+pra+ i , with guṇa), e.g. AvŚ I. 255; III, 110) likely, beneficial, fit, suitable A. I, 120; S. III, 268; IV, 23 sq. , 133 sq. (Nibbāna° paṭipadā); J. I, 182, 195; II, 436 (kiṃci sappāyaṃ something that did him good, a remedy); Vin. I, 292, 302; Miln. 215 (sappāyakiriyā, giving a drug). nt. something beneficial, benefit, help Vism. 34, 87 (°sevin); VbhA. 265 (various), 271 (°kathā).—Ten sappāyas & 10 asappāyas at DhsA. 168.— sappāyâsappāyaṃ what is suitable, and what not J. I, 215, 471; used as the last part of a compound, meaning what is suitable with reference to: senāsanasappāya (nt.) suitable lodgings J. I, 215. (Page 680)
Source: Sutta: The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary
2 Likes
So it seems there’s two sources, although the V.magga isn’t mentioned in the PTS entry, there’s also 10 from the Dhoda commentary, Ten sappāyas & 10 asappāyas at DhsA. 168, if anyone can come up with the direct references it would be interesting to see.
1 Like
Are you referring to the section on guarding the sign of concentration? If so, it’s at IV, 34:
Herein, the way of guarding it is this:
(1) Abode, (2) resort, (3) and speech, (4) and person, (5) The food, (6) the climate, (7) and the posture--- Eschew these seven different kinds Whenever found unsuitable. But cultivate the suitable; For one perchance so doing finds He need not wait too long until Absorption shall his wish fulfil.
It then goes into detail on each of the seven factors.
3 Likes
FULL PASSAGE
…35. Herein, the way of guarding it is this: (1) Abode, (2) resort, (3) and speech, (4) and person, (5) The food, (6) the climate, (7) and the posture— Eschew these seven different kinds Whenever found unsuitable. But cultivate the suitable; For one perchance so doing finds He need not wait too long until Absorption shall his wish fulfil. 36. 1. Herein, an abode is unsuitable if, while he lives in it, the unarisen sign does not arise in him or is lost when it arises, and where unestablished mindfulness fails to become established and the unconcentrated mind fails to become concentrated. That is suitable in which the sign arises and becomes confirmed, in which mindfulness becomes established and the mind becomes concentrated, as in the Elder Padhániya-Tissa, resident at Nágapabbata. So if a monastery has many abodes he can try them one by one, living in each for three days, and stay on where his mind becomes unified. For it was due to suitability of abode that five hundred bhikkhus reached Arahantship while still dwelling in the Lesser Nága Cave (Cú¿a-nága-leóa) in Tambapaóói Island (Sri Lanka) after apprehending their meditation subject there. There is no counting the streamenterers who have reached Arahantship there after reaching the noble plane elsewhere; so too in the monastery of Cittalapabbata, and others. 37. 2. An alms-resort village lying to the north or south of the lodging, not too far, within one kosa and a half, and where alms food is easily obtained, is suitable. The opposite kind is unsuitable.14 38. 3. Speech: that included in the thirty-two kinds of aimless talk is unsuitable; for it leads to the disappearance of the sign. But talk based on the ten examples of talk is suitable, though even that should be discussed with moderation.15 39. 4. Person: one not given to aimless talk, who has the special qualities of virtue, etc., by acquaintanceship with whom the unconcentrated mind becomes concentrated, or the concentrated mind becomes more so, is suitable. One who is much concerned with his body,16 who is addicted to aimless talk, is unsuitable; for he only creates disturbances, like muddy water added to clear water. And it was owing to one such as this that the attainments of the young bhikkhu who lived at Koþapabbata vanished, not to mention the sign. [128] 40. 5. Food: Sweet food suits one, sour food another. 6. Climate: a cool climate suits one, a warm one another. So when he finds that by using certain food or by living in a certain climate he is comfortable, or his unconcentrated mind becomes concentrated, or his concentrated mind becomes more so, then that food or that climate is suitable. Any other food or climate is unsuitable. 41. 7. Postures: walking suits one; standing or sitting or lying down suits another. So he should try them, like the abode, for three days each, and that posture is suitable in which his unconcentrated mind becomes concentrated or his concentrated mind becomes more so. Any other should be understood as unsuitable. So he should avoid the seven unsuitable kinds and cultivate the suitable. For when he practices in this way, assiduously cultivating the sign, then, “he need not wait too long until absorption shall his wish fulfil.”
10 asappāyas at DhsA. 168 Any leads?
2 Likes
The dictionary is mistaken. The referenced page gives seven, not ten.
Imasmiṃ pana pathavikasiṇe parikammaṃ katvā catukkapañcakajjhānāni nibbattetvā jhānapadaṭṭhānaṃ vipassanaṃ vaḍḍhetvā arahattaṃ pattukāmena kulaputtena kiṃ kattabbanti?
Ādito tāva pātimokkhasaṃvara-indriyasaṃvara-ājīvapārisuddhi-paccayasannissita-saṅkhātāni cattāri sīlāni visodhetvā suparisuddhe sīle patiṭṭhitena, yvāssa āvāsādīsu dasasu palibodhesu palibodho atthi, taṃ upacchinditvā kammaṭṭhānadāyakaṃ kalyāṇamittaṃ upasaṅkamitvā pāḷiyā āgatesu aṭṭhatiṃsāya kammaṭṭhānesu attano cariyānukūlaṃ kammaṭṭhānaṃ upaparikkhantena sacassa idaṃ pathavikasiṇaṃ anukūlaṃ hoti, idameva kammaṭṭhānaṃ gahetvā jhānabhāvanāya ananurūpaṃ vihāraṃ pahāya anurūpe vihāre viharantena khuddakapalibodhupacchedaṃ katvā kasiṇaparikammanimittānurakkhaṇa-satta-asappāyaparivajjana-satta-sappāyasevana-dasavidha-appanākosallappabhedaṃ sabbaṃ bhāvanāvidhānaṃ aparihāpentena jhānādhigamatthāya paṭipajjitabbaṃ.
With this earth-device, what ought to be done by a clansman’s son who has done the preamble, induced the fourfold and fivefold Jhānas, increased insight with jhāna as proximate cause, and who is desirous of attaining arahantship?
At first, having purified the four precepts of restraint known as the Pātimokkha, restraint of controlling faculties, purity of life and dependence on requisites; he should establish himself in the sublimer precepts; he should cut off any impediment, which exists in him, among the ten impediments beginning with ‘house-life’; he should approach that good friend, who gives him stations of exercise; he should study that exercise befitting his own practice among the thirty-eight stations of exercise as given in the Text, and if the earth-device is suitable he should take that up; he should reject an unsuitable monastery, living in one that is suitable for his jhāna culture; he should sever the minor impediments; and by not slackening the arrangement of the entire process of culture, comprising the different stages of preamble, guarding of the image, avoiding of the seven unsuitable things, pursuing the seven suitable things, and proficiency in the tenfold ecstasy, he should practise with a view to the attainment of jhāna.
(The Expositor II 223-4)
The reader is then referred to the Visuddhimagga for a detailed treatment.
A good source for “clear comprehension of suitability” (sappāyasampajañña) with regard to many different things is the second volume of Dispeller of Delusion, Ñāṇamoli’s translation of the Vibhaṅga Atthakathā.
2 Likes
Thanks for clarifying bhante, is the Dispeller of Delusion, Ñāṇāmoli’s translation of the Vibhaṅga Atthakathā. available online?
1 Like
Well, it shouldn’t be, as it’s not one of the translations that the PTS has placed in the public domain. But it is…
And the two volumes of the The Expositor (Maung Tin’s translation of the Dhs-a) are also available. This one is in the public domain.
https://archive.org/search.php?query=atthasalini%20expositor
2 Likes