The Buddha // Bojjhaṅgasaṃyutta, Pali Canon

(Connected Discourses on The Factors of Enlightenment)

Based upon the Himalayas, the kind of the mountains, the nāgas nurture their bodies and acquire strength. When they have nurtured their bodies and acquired strength, they then enter the pools. From the pools they enter the lakes, then the streams, then the rivers, and finally they enter the ocean. There they achieve greatness and expansiveness of body. So too, wise ones, based upon virtue, established upon virtue, a wise one develops and cultivates the seven factors of enlightenment, and thereby achieves greatness and expansiveness.

And how does a wise one, based and established upon virtue, develop the seven factors of enlightenment? Here, based upon seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, and maturing in release, a wise one develops the enlightenment factors :

1. mindfulness

(mindfulness of 1. body, 2. sensations/feelings, 3. mind, 4. mental phenomenon/thoughts )

2. discrimination

(between wholesome/unwholesome states, blameable/blameless states, inferior/superior states, dark/bright states and their counterparts)

3. energy

(the elements of arousal, endeavor, and exertion)

4. rapture

(arises with the arousal of energy)

5. tranquility

(tranquility of body, tranquility of mind)

6. concentration

(the signs of serenity, and non-dispersal)

7. equanimity

(arises with the development of concentration)

In this way, a wise one, based upon virtue, established upon virtue, develops the seven factors of enlightenment, and thereby achieves greatness and expansiveness.