Pañcālacaṇḍa the Deva’s Son
Pañcālacaṇḍa Sutta (SN 2:7)
The first verse in this discourse focuses on jhāna as a crucial element in the path to release. The Buddha’s “awakening to jhāna” apparently refers to two points in his career as a bodhisatta: (1) the point when, realizing the futility of self-torture, he surmised that jhāna might form the path to awakening; and (2) his realization of the extent to which jhāna actually could lead to the knowledge that yielded in full awakening. (For details on both of these points, see MN 35.) In the second verse, the Buddha expands on Pañcālacaṇḍa’s understanding of the practice of jhāna by pointing out that it has to be endowed with mindfulness to be genuinely right concentration. This point is related to the fact that the various lists of activities that constitute the path—such as the five faculties, the seven factors for awakening, and the noble eightfold path—always place right mindfulness before right concentration.
Near Sāvatthī. As he was standing to one side, Pañcālacaṇḍa the deva’s son recited this verse in the Blessed One’s presence:
“Truly in a confining place, he found an opening— the one of extensive wisdom, the awakened one who awakened to jhāna,1 the chief bull, withdrawn, the sage.”
The Buddha:
“Even in a confining place they find it, [Pañcālacaṇḍa,” said the Blessed One,] “the Dhamma for the attainment of unbinding. Those who have gained mindfulness are rightly well-centered.”2
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