The “monastic code” (pātimokkha) is the primary list of rules for Buddhist monastics. There are many extant pātimokkhas in Chinese, Tibetan, and Sanskrit from early Buddhist schools, all similar but with some variations especially in minor rules of etiquette. Each fortnight the pātimokkha is recited to affirm the communal rules of the Saṅgha. Other passages are recited as inspiration, including this exhortation to keep the rules (also at AN 4.12:1.1, AN 10.71:2.1, and Iti 111:2.1), as well as the verses known as Ovāda Pātimokkha (DN 14:3.28.1). | The word pātimokkha is defined in the canon as the “first and foremost” of skillful qualities (mukhametaṁ pamukhametaṁ at Kd 2:3.4.2; mokkhaṁ pāmokkhaṁ at Vb 12:9.1; cf. Cnd 5:45.3). However the Sanskrit form prātimokṣa is from the verb pramuñcati (“binding”; eg. Rig Veda 4.53.2, Atharva Veda 13.3, Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 6.7.1.1). Pali has paṭimokkha (“bandage”), paṭimukka (“bound”) and pātimokkha (“that which should be binding”). The Buddha says he laid down the pātimokkha to bind the community together like flowers bunched with string (Bu Pj 1:3.2.6).

To “fulfill precepts” repeats the commitment to the monastic code. | “Serenity” and “absorption” are the practice of meditation to develop tranquility (samatha). | “Discernment” is vipassanā (“insight”) meditation | “Empty huts” indicates solitude.

This series of arguments is conditional: if this is what you want, then this is how to get it. The Buddha is not encouraging people to want these things; on the contrary, he frequently warned of the dangers of such attachments. He is being pragmatic: given that people have desires, how can they be encouraged to desire something better?

“Psychic powers” (iddhi) were much cultivated in the Buddha’s day, but the means to acquire them varied: devotion to a god, brutal penances, or magic rituals. The Buddha taught that the mind developed in samādhi was capable of things that are normally incomprehensible. | Only a few of these are attested as events in the early texts. The most common is the ability to “materialize and dematerialize”, exhibited by the Buddha (AN 8.30:2.1), some disciples (MN 37:6.1), and deities (MN 67:8.1). The Pali is āvibhāvaṁ tirobhāvaṁ, literally “manifest state, hidden state”. Also found in Chāndogya Upaniṣad 7.26.1.

“Clairaudience” is a literal rendition of dibbasota. The root sense of dibba is to “shine” like the bright sky or a divine being. The senses of clarity and divinity are both present.

Note that the Indic idiom is not the “reading” of minds, which suggests hearing the words spoken in inner dialogue. While this is exhibited by the Buddha (eg. AN 8.30:2.1), the main emphasis is on the comprehension of the overall state of mind.

Empowered by the fourth jhāna, memory breaks through the veil of birth and death, revealing the vast expanse of time and dispelling the illusion that there is any place of eternal rest or sanctuary in the cycle of transmigration.

Here knowledge extends to the rebirths of others as well as oneself. Even more significant, it brings in the understanding of cause and effect; why rebirth happens the way it does. Such knowledge, however, is not infallible, as the Buddha warns in DN 1:2.5.3 and MN 136. The experience is one thing; the inferences drawn from it are another. One should draw conclusions only tentatively, after long experience.

This is the experience of awakening that is the true goal of the Buddhist path. The defilements—properties of the mind that create suffering—have been curbed by the practice of ethics and suppressed by the power of jhāna. Here they are eliminated forever.