The third book of the Majjhima Nikāya, the Uparipaṇṇāsa, delves into specific themes and advanced topics, with chapters exploring critiques of other philosophical views, meditation practices, the concept of emptiness, analytical methods, and the six sense bases. This book offers profound insights for those seeking a deeper understanding of the Buddha’s teachings.
Uparipaṇṇāsa - The Final Fifty - Two
The Buddha shares the gradual training guidelines in the Dhamma and discipline with the Brahmin Moggallāna. It is through a gradual practice and gradual progression per these guidelines that one attains the ultimate goal of Nibbāna.
Shortly after the Buddha's final Nibbāna, Venerable Ānanda addresses the brahmins Gopaka Moggallāna and chief minister Vassakāra, clarifying that the Buddha appointed no successor, establishing the Dhamma itself as the refuge for the Saṅgha. He outlines ten qualities that make a bhikkhu worthy of veneration and distinguishes the meditations praised by the Buddha from those based on hindrances.
The Buddha expounds the noble right collectedness complete with its supporting conditions, clarifying how the factors of the noble eightfold path give rise to either mundane or supramundane fruits. He shows how right view leads to the sequential development of the path, culminating in right knowledge and right liberation.
The Buddha teaches in detail how to develop mindfulness while breathing in and out through sixteen naturally unfolding steps, showing how their cultivation fulfills the four establishments of mindfulness, which in turn fulfill the seven factors of awakening, culminating in true knowledge and liberation.
Venerable Ānanda recollects the wonderful and marvelous qualities of the Tathāgata, the Buddha, relating to his conception and birth. The Buddha then caps it off by sharing what he considers the most wonderful and marvelous quality of all.
The Buddha shares a powerful verse on what leads one to have had a single auspicious night.
The Buddha teaches Venerable Pukkusāti the Dhamma of this person which constitutes of the six elements, six bases of contact, the eighteen explorations of mind, and is established in four ways.