Bodhipakkhiyādhammā

• 1. Defining The Thirty-Seven Qualities

  ›

  The Pali term Bodhipakkhiyādhammā appears in ancient texts to describe qualities conducive to awakening. This compound word combines bodhi, meaning understanding or enlightenment, with pakkhiya, indicating something that leads toward it. Scholars like Rhys Davids and Stede documented variant spellings of this term across different manuscripts from the early 20th century. Within these seven sets of related qualities, there is a total of thirty-seven repetitious and interrelated factors listed in the Pali Canon. These qualities function as wholesome states developed when the mind undergoes training. Both Theravadan and Mahayanan Buddhists recognize these seven sets as complementary facets of the Buddhist path to liberation. The concept does not appear as a single technical umbrella term in the earliest Nikayas themselves. Instead, the individual sets frequently appear as a compendium of practice leading to enlightenment.

  5

• 2. The Seven Sets Of Training Factors

  ›

  In the Bhāvanānuyutta sutta, recorded as AN 7.67, the Buddha explicitly lists four establishments of mindfulness alongside other groups. He mentions mindfulness of the body, feelings, mental states, and mental qualities as foundational practices. Four right exertions follow, covering effort for preventing unskillful states and abandoning already arisen ones. Effort also arises skillfully and sustains existing good states. Four bases of spiritual power include intention, effort, consciousness, and skill of analysis. Five spiritual faculties encompass conviction, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. Five strengths mirror these faculties with identical components. Seven factors of bodhi add investigation, joy, tranquility, equanimity, and concentration to the mix. The Noble Eightfold Path rounds out the list with right understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. These thirty-seven items form the complete set recognized across early schools.

  36

• 3. Canonical Sources And Variations

  ›

  A sutta found in The Senior Collection of Gandhāran Buddhist texts assigns forty-one beneficial dharmas instead of thirty-seven. This Gandharan text includes an extra quality that the Pali tradition does not contain. Current scholarship believes a Chinese translation of the Dirghagama belongs to the Dharmaguptaka school of Buddhism. Another Chinese translation of the Dharmaguptaka vinaya also contains this forty-one numbered list. In the Pali Canon's Nettipakarañña, section 112 mentions forty-three qualities connected with awakening. These additional six contemplations include impermanence, suffering, non-self, abandoning, dispassion, and cessation. The term Bodhipakkhiyādhammā first appears explicitly in the Pali commentaries rather than the canonical discourses themselves. A search of the Sinhala SLTP tipitaka using the La Trobe University search engine reveals only nine specific discourses containing the compound term. These include DN 27, SN 48.51, SN 48.55, SN 48.67, AN 5.56, AN 6.17, AN 9.1, Iti. 82, and Iti. 97.

  45

• 4. Commentary Traditions And Interpretation

  ›

  In the Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa enumerates the seven sets of Bodhipakkhiyādhammā alongside a relevant Sutta Pitaka discourse from Vism. XXII.33. He describes each set individually across sections Vism. XXII.34 through 38. Buddhaghosa further factors the thirty-seven qualities to describe fourteen non-redundant qualities found in Vism. XXII.40 through 43. While nine qualities like zeal, consciousness, joy, tranquility, equanimity, intention, speech, action, and livelihood appear only once, five others recur multiple times. Table 1 identifies these five qualities spanning twenty-eight instances across all seven sets. The Visuddhimagga orders them by ascending frequency from faith appearing twice to energy appearing nine times. Other Pali commentaries mention these qualities in Dhammapada-Athakatha section DhA i.230. They also appear in Suttanipata-Athakatha at SnA 164 and Jataka-Athakatha at J i.275, iii.290, and v.483.

  2

• 5. Repetition Across The Sutta Pitaka

  ›

  In the Samyutta Nikaya, the fifth division's first seven chapters are each devoted to one of the Bodhipakkhiyādhammā groups. These seven chapters include almost nine hundred discourses according to scholar Bhikkhu Bodhi's count of eight hundred ninety-four separate texts. The actual number varies depending on which edition of the Samyutta Nikaya one references. In the Digha Nikaya's Maha-parinibbana Sutta, section DN 16, the Buddha states his last address to his assembly of followers. He instructs that these teachings should be thoroughly learned, cultivated, developed, and frequently practiced for the welfare of gods and men. The Majjhima Nikaya's Greater Discourse to Sakuludāyin, MN 77, identifies five qualities the Buddha possessed including highest virtues and knowledge. His elaboration included the seven sets of thirty-seven qualities conducive to Enlightenment. In the Anguttara Nikaya's Upajhāyasuttañam, AN 5.6.6, the Buddha recommends developing these throughout the day to overcome spiritual hindrances. The Khuddaka Nikaya mentions them at Iti. 82, stanza 900, and Nettipakarañña sections 31, 112, 197, 237, 240, and 261.

  35

• 6. Overlapping Qualities In Practice

  ›

  Five core virtues appear multiple times across all seven distinct sets of qualities in Buddhist practice. Faith appears twice among the seven sets while energy appears nine times according to the Visuddhimagga ordering. Mindfulness shows up four times within the full list of thirty-seven items. Concentration or unification also recurs four times alongside wisdom which appears three times. These five qualities span twenty-eight instances total across the seven groups. They form the backbone of the training factors that recur most frequently in the texts. Table 1 from Buddhaghosa's commentary lists faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom as the repeating elements. This pattern suggests a developmental facet where certain qualities build upon others more heavily than unique ones do. The repetition highlights their central role in achieving awakening compared to single-occurrence traits like zeal or tranquility.