Sutta Study: The Contemplation of Stilling and the Epithets for Nibbāna in the Pali Canon

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Sutta Study: The Contemplation of Stilling and the Epithets for Nibbāna in the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Ñāṅatusita :folded_hands:

Source: Newsletter, Second Mailing 2006

  • A really great and short essay not only worth reading but also discussing. :smiling_face:

It is a compilation of not only one of the contemplations recommended by the Buddha, the recollection or contemplation of stilling, upasamānussati, but also includes links to numreous suttas with the various epithets for Nibbāna.

The essay also mentions that:

It should be noted that Nibbāna is not necessarily the primary epithet given for the final aim of Buddhist practice, although it is the most commonly used one. In the Asaṅkhata Saṃyutta, Nibbāna is only given as the thirty-fourth in a list of forty-four epithets, starting with the Unconditioned (asaṅkhata).

Together with:

In the Pāli Canon, Nibbāna is said to be a state, and one regularly finds an epithet being classified as a state, e.g. *nibbānapada “*the state of Nibbāna,” santipada “the state of peace,” *nibbānadhātu “*the Nibbāna element,” and amatadhātu, “the deathless element”

  • For convenience, the epithets have been divided into sections of epithets sharing a common focus.

I think the links to the suttas with the epithets in the essay is of the greatest value to any student. :+1:

Please check it out in the end of the essay! :smiling_face: :pray:

Source: Newsletter, Second Mailing 2006

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I have always been uncomfortable with the word ‘stilling’ in relation to The Buddha’s teachings. I struggle to discern how greed, hatred & delusion can be stilled. Usually when something is stilled, it stops moving, such a swing, rocking chair or wheel is stilled. But the swing, rocking chair or wheel continue to exist. Similarly, a great fire does not still.

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I think this quote (from the text linked by OP) portrays the meaning of stilling nicely:

“A great blazing fire ceases (or ‘stills’) without fuel, when the conditions have ceased, (it) is called ‘quenched’” (AN 6:43, mahāgini pajjalito anāhārūpasamati, saṅkhāresūpasantesu nibbuto ti pavuccati.”

The fire stills, stops moving and ceases through elimination of its nutriments (fuel, conditions). Through meditative stillness, conditioning through sense contact (including the mind contact) comes to a stop. Then it becomes easier to discern how dukkha is formulated through such conditioning.

This was a good read, thank you for the recommendation.

I find it interesting that according to this essay, the contemplation of stillness is a specific form for contemplation in the teachings of Buddha. Isn’t stillness what Ajahn Brahm teaches as well? I’ve always wondered how his instruction for relaxing, not doing anything during meditation, not striving and not concentrating aligns with the first two jhana factors (vitakka and vicara), which in my view are contradictory for “not doing anything”.

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Today I happened to be reviewing DN 22 where Bhante Sujato translates

passambhayaṁ kāyasaṅkhāraṁ

as

stilling the physical process

as part of the description of Mindfulness of Breathing (under Observing the Body).

So we have the present participle “stilling” of the underlying verb passambheti, “to make calm” according to DPD. Thankfully, Bhante translates DN 22 more naturally than something like “[the meditator] makes the bodily process become still”.

Moving along to the article in the OP, I researched AN 1:494 where the contemplation practice is listed. Bhante translates

upasamānussatiṁ bhāveti

as

they develop the recollection of peace

where the underlying verb upasamati means to become calm or quiet. Bhante’s translation of the compound noun “recollection of peace” apparently tracks with the standard one.

By contrast, the article’s author proposes

[they develop] the recollection of stilling

The author uses a grammatical slight of hand, if I may, that I don’t fully understand…it seems this is how he rationalizes his translation choice, which is the basis of the article. In effect he says the underlying verb upasamati is not only a passive verb meaning “to become quite” (or still) but also an active verb meaning “to still [something]”.

Granted, this may be nothing more than taking liberty as a translator so that we don’t get wrapped around the wheel with awkward verbal expressions – the way Bhante does in DN 22. However, by taking this liberty, the author rationalizes use of upasamati for a broader meaning as in, e.g., putting out a fire. He then states

[The use of upasamati] is the contemplation of the aspects of the final attainment, Nibbāna, the happy state of complete stillness and calm.

which also paves the way for a more metaphysical rendering. So, we go from upasamati as a state of peace or calm in AN 1:494 to an active contemplation practice comparable to “the practice of samatha and vipassanā” (from the article).

I don’t know enough to comment further and realize I may be in error. However, this is an interesting word study!

As a total aside, the sankrit root of upasamati = √śam, originally meaning, literally, to get tired (Benfey Sanskrit-English Dictionary in the Wisdom Library). With the preposition upa it means to cease or grow quiet. (A passive voice, for what it’s worth.)

Notably, the sanskrit root of passambheti is either √śrambh or √srambh – they each mean different things. But, apparently, neither is related to √śam .

√śrambh = to be confident or rest secure
√srambh = to be negligent

Unfortunately, we don’t have Margaret Cone’s Volume IV to tell us which one it is. Does anyone know? I can’t see how it would be √srambh .

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Sujato translates the third instruction in the mindfulness of mental states of SN 54.1 as:

They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe in observing cessation.’ They practice like this: ‘I’ll breathe out observing cessation.

Translating the same practice in MN 118 for the Pali Text Society, Horner came up with:

“I will breathe in beholding stopping; I wlll breathe out beholding stopping…”

In 54.11, Gautama refers to the mindfulness that includes “beholding stopping” as the mindfulness of a “realized one”, and at the same time, as the ending of defilements for the novice. He identifies the sixteen elements of the mindfulness as:

… the ascetic Gotama’s usual meditation during the rainy season residence…

Is that the “recollection of stilling” we are talking about, that particular element of the mindfulness that was Gautama’s own?

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Just to add another resource to this thread for those who haven’t heard of it already: Venerable Nanananda’s Nibbana sermons analyze Nibbana in great detail. I’ve only read the first set of sermons, but they are very good and I plan to read the rest eventually.