Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

The so-called eight Positions of Mastery are merely an expansion of the first two of the following eight Stages of Deliverance, and the whole argument is also expressed in another form in the {footnote p. 50} passage on the nine successive 'Cessations,' of which an abstract will be found in Childers, sub voce nirodha. The two lists have been translated and commented upon by Burnouf (Lotus de la Bonne Loi, pp. 543, 824-832), who took the texts from the Mahânidâna Sutta and the Sangîti Sutta respectively. The former has been reprinted in Grimblot's Sept Suttas Pâlis, where the passage will be found at pp. 261, 262. I regret that in my interpretation I have been compelled to differ so greatly from Burnouf. Though I have devoted much care and time to the subject, I do not suppose that I have understood it better than he did. We cannot hope to get to the bottom of what these old Buddhists thought about matter and mind from such curt lists as these.] p. 50 25. 'When a man having subjectively the idea of form sees externally forms which are finite, and pleasant or unpleasant to the sight, and having mastered them, is conscious that he knows and sees--this is the first position of mastery. 26. 'When a man having subjectively the idea of form sees externally forms which are boundless, and pleasant or unpleasant to the sight, and having mastered them is conscious that he knows and sees--this is the second position of mastery.