3.
The Discourse on Foulness
163.
"There are, monks, these four practices.
What are the four?
The difficult practice with sluggish direct knowledge, the difficult practice with quick direct knowledge, the easy practice with sluggish direct knowledge, the easy practice with quick direct knowledge.
"And what, monks, is the difficult practice with sluggish direct knowledge? Here, monks, a monk dwells observing foulness in the body, perceiving repulsiveness in food, perceiving discontent in the whole world, observing impermanence in all activities; and the perception of death is well established internally for him. He dwells in dependence on these five powers of a trainee - the power of faith, the power of shame, the power of moral fear, the power of energy, the power of wisdom. For him these five faculties become manifest as soft - the faith faculty, the energy faculty, the mindfulness faculty, the concentration faculty, the wisdom faculty. He, due to the softness of these five faculties, slowly attains the immediacy condition for the elimination of mental corruptions. This is called, monks, the difficult practice with sluggish direct knowledge.
"And what, monks, is the difficult practice with quick direct knowledge? Here, monks, a monk dwells observing foulness in the body, perceiving repulsiveness in food, perceiving discontent in the whole world, observing impermanence in all activities; and the perception of death is well established internally for him. He dwells in dependence on these five powers of a trainee - the power of faith, etc. the power of wisdom. For him these five faculties become manifest as exceeding - the faith faculty, etc. the wisdom faculty. He, due to the exceeding nature of these five faculties, quickly attains the immediacy condition for the elimination of mental corruptions. This is called, monks, the difficult practice with quick direct knowledge.
"And what, monks, is the easy practice with sluggish direct knowledge? Here, monks, a monk, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome mental states, enters and dwells in the first meditative absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion; with the subsiding of applied and sustained thought, he enters and dwells in the second meditative absorption, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied thought and without sustained thought, with rapture and happiness born of concentration; with the fading away of rapture, he dwells equanimous, mindful and fully aware, and experiences happiness with the body - that which the noble ones declare: 'One who is equanimous and mindful, one who dwells in happiness' - he enters and dwells in the third meditative absorption; with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and displeasure, he enters and dwells in the fourth meditative absorption, which has neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. He dwells in dependence on these five powers of a trainee - the power of faith, etc. the power of wisdom. For him these five faculties become manifest as soft - the faith faculty, etc. the wisdom faculty. He, due to the softness of these five faculties, slowly attains the immediacy condition for the elimination of mental corruptions. This is called, monks, the easy practice with sluggish direct knowledge.
"And what, monks, is the easy practice with quick direct knowledge? Here, monks, a monk, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome mental states, enters and dwells in the first meditative absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion... etc. the second meditative absorption, etc. the third meditative absorption... etc. he enters and dwells in the fourth meditative absorption. He dwells in dependence on these five powers of a trainee - the power of faith, the power of shame, the power of moral fear, the power of energy, the power of wisdom. For him these five faculties become manifest as exceeding - the faith faculty, the energy faculty, the mindfulness faculty, the concentration faculty, the wisdom faculty. He, due to the exceeding nature of these five faculties, quickly attains the immediacy condition for the elimination of mental corruptions. This is called, monks, the easy practice with quick direct knowledge. These, monks, are the four practices." The third.