On Mindfulness & Clear Comprehension — literal faithful translation
(Sections: Patthama Kelaññasutta, Dutiya Kelaññasutta, Phassamūlakasutta)
7. Patthama Kelaññasutta — On being endowed with mindfulness and clear comprehension
[374] At one time the Blessed One was dwelling in the woodset hall (Guṭākara-sālā) in the Mahāvana near Vesālī. It was evening. The Blessed One left his lodging, entered the patients’ hall, sat upon the seat laid out there, and then called the bhikkhus and said: “Monks, the bhikkhu ought to be endowed with mindfulness (sati) and clear comprehension (sampajañña). This is my instruction to you at this time.”
[375] “Monks, how is a bhikkhu endowed with mindfulness? — Monks, in this dispensation a bhikkhu is one who constantly sees the body in the body, is earnest, has clear comprehension, has mindfulness, and dispels covetousness (abhijjhā) and grief/sorrow (domanassa) in the world. He constantly sees feeling in feeling, is earnest, has clear comprehension, has mindfulness, and dispels covetousness and sorrow. He constantly sees mind in mind, is earnest, has clear comprehension, has mindfulness, and dispels covetousness and sorrow. He constantly sees phenomena (dhamma) in dhamma, is earnest, has clear comprehension, has mindfulness, and dispels covetousness and sorrow. Thus, monks, a bhikkhu is endowed with mindfulness.”
[376] “Monks, how does a bhikkhu possess clear comprehension? — Monks, in this dispensation a bhikkhu is one who is habitually aware (makes a living awareness) when going forward and when going back; who is habitually aware when looking and when turning; who is habitually aware when bending and stretching; who is habitually aware in the arranging of his robe, bowl, and robe-sash; who is habitually aware in eating, drinking, chewing, and tasting; who is habitually aware in evacuating excrement and urine; who is habitually aware while walking, standing, sitting, sleeping, waking, speaking, and keeping silence. Thus, monks, the bhikkhu should be endowed with mindfulness and clear comprehension. This is my instruction to you at this time.”
[377] “If a bhikkhu is endowed with mindfulness and clear comprehension, not careless, earnest, resolute in this way, then pleasant feeling (sukha-vedanā) arises. He knows: ‘This pleasant feeling has arisen for me.’ Yet he sees that that pleasant feeling arises dependent on condition — if not for the conditions it would not arise. On what does it depend? On this very body. But this body is impermanent, conditioned. Because conditioned factors mutually condition each other, that pleasant feeling which depends on the body is not permanent. When he contemplates thus — sees the impermanence, the decay, the loosening, the cessation, the giving up in the body and in pleasant feeling — by so perceiving impermanence, decay, loosening, cessation and relinquishment in body and pleasant feeling, he is able to abandon the tendency to lust for bodily pleasant feeling.”
[378] “Likewise: if the bhikkhu is mindful and clearly comprehending, not careless, earnest, resolute, then painful feeling (dukkha-vedanā) arises and he knows: ‘This painful feeling has arisen for me.’ He sees it is conditioned — depends on the body — and the body is not permanent; by contemplating the impermanence, decay, loosening, cessation and relinquishment in body and painful feeling, he can abandon the tendency to hostility/ill-will toward the body and painful feeling (i.e., the paṭigha-tendency).”
[379] “Likewise: if the bhikkhu is mindful and clearly comprehending, not careless, earnest, resolute, then neither-pain-nor-pleasure feeling (adukkham-asukha-vedanā; often rendered ‘neutral’ or ‘indifferent’ feeling) arises, and he knows: ‘This neither-pain-nor-pleasure feeling has arisen for me.’ He sees it is conditioned on the body, which is impermanent; by seeing impermanence, decay, loosening, cessation and relinquishment in the body and in that neutral feeling, he can abandon the bias born of ignorance toward body and such neutral feelings.”
[380] “If that bhikkhu experiences pleasant feeling, he knows clearly that that pleasant feeling is impermanent, not to be indulged in, not to be enjoyed; if he experiences painful feeling, he knows the painful feeling is impermanent, not to be indulged in; if he experiences neutral feeling, he knows it too is impermanent, not to be indulged in. For whichever felt tone he experiences as maximum in the body he knows: ‘I experience feeling as bodily (i.e., bodily feeling is the extreme).’ And whichever felt tone he experiences as maximum in life (i.e., as a life-sense), he knows: ‘I experience feeling as life (i.e., life-based feeling is the extreme).’ He knows that on death these various unpleasant feelings — which are not to be relished — will be cooling (i.e., will be extinguished) in this world.”
[381] “Monks, consider an oil lamp: it burns due to oil and wick; when oil and wick are exhausted the lamp goes out. So too, monks: when the bodily conditions and life-conditions are exhausted, feeling is exhausted — when the lamp’s fuel ceases the lamp is quenched. Thus the bhikkhu who has fully known feeling as bodily or as life-knowing, sees that at death all feelings not fit for relish will be rendered cool (i.e., cease).”
(End — Patthama Kelaññasutta)
8. Dutiya Kelaññasutta — (parallel material / reinforcement)
[382–387] (This section repeats and reinforces the same instruction: the Blessed One again instructs—same locus, evening, the patients’ hall—declaring that bhikkhus should be endowed with mindfulness & clear comprehension. The text restates the fourfold “see body in body / feeling in feeling / mind in mind / dhamma in dhamma” pattern (as in [375] and [383]) and the practice of continuous awareness in bodily postures and activities (as in [376] and [384]). It then repeats the contemplations: when pleasant, painful, or neutral feeling arise, the practitioner discerns their conditionedness on contact/body, their impermanence and cessation, thereby abandoning the latent tendencies (lust, aversion, ignorance) and seeing that when life ceases these unsavoury feelings will cool and be ended — the lamp simile is repeated.)
(End — Dutiya Kelaññasutta)
10. Phassamūlakasutta — On the three feelings (vedanā) arising from contact (phassa)
[389–390] “Monks, these three feelings arise from contact; contact is their root, their basis, their cause, their condition. What are the three feelings? They are: pleasant feeling, painful feeling, and neither-pain-nor-pleasure feeling. Pleasant feeling arises dependent on contact which is the basis of pleasant feeling; that feeling — the experiencing of pleasant — arises dependent on that contact, and it ceases when that contact (which is the basis) ceases. Similarly, painful feeling arises based on the contact that is the basis of painful feeling, and ceases when that contact ceases. Likewise for neither-pain-nor-pleasure feeling. Just as when two sticks are rubbed together the friction produces warmth and fire which cease when the sticks are separated, so these three feelings arise from contact and cease when the contact (the conditioned basis) ceases.”
(End — Phassamūlakasutta)
Short Pāli Glossary (concise · intensive)
sati — mindfulness; present-moment recollective awareness that keeps the mind ‘holding’ phenomena as they occur. sampajañña — clear comprehension / full awareness; the discriminative, contextual knowing of one’s activities (how one walks, eats, speaks, etc.). Often paired with sati as the practical knowing that regulates conduct and practice. vedanā — feeling / tone of experience; traditionally threefold: sukha (pleasant), dukkha (painful), adukkha-asukha (neither-pain-nor-pleasure / neutral). phassa — contact; the meeting of sense-base, sense-object, and sense-consciousness (triad) that gives rise to feeling. Phassa is the proximate condition (mūla/ṁula) for vedanā. abhijjhā / abhijjhā — covetousness, greed, craving-tendency (here rendered “covetousness” — a factor to be dispelled). domanassa / domanassa — grief, dejection, sorrow — mental afflictions to be dispelled. anicca — impermanence; the observation that conditioned phenomena arise and pass away. (Term implied through “not permanent / not lasting.”) viriyā — effort, energy, earnestness; here the practitioner’s energetic application. kilesa — defilements/mental afflictions (greed, hatred, delusion) — to be diminished by mindful knowing of conditionedness. paṭigha — tendency to counteraction / aversion / hostility; the text indicates abandoning the paṭigha-tendency toward body and painful feeling. paññā — wisdom/insight; seeing the three marks (impermanence, suffering, non-self) — results from this contemplative noticing. upakkilesa / āsava — influxes / latent tendencies (mentioned in nearby doctrinal context); mindfulness & comprehension weaken these streams. kaya — body (literal bodily basis); the text repeatedly points to seeing body in body as the basis for discerning conditioned feeling. jīvitindriya — the life faculty; used in the text when saying feeling experienced as “life” or “body” as the locus for maximum experience. phuṭṭhabbā — (related usage) “that which is to be touched” — contact-basis language (see phassa).