Thirty-seven aids to the way
thirty-seven aids to the way
三十七道品 (Jpn sanjushichi-dohon )
Also, thirty-seven aids to enlightenment or thirty-seven elements of the way. Thirty-seven practices conducive to enlightenment. (The "way" here is synonymous with enlightenment or perfect wisdom.)
They are grouped into seven categories:
four meditations (meditations on body,
sensation,
mind,
and phenomena),
four right efforts (to put an end to existing evil, prevent evil from arising, bring good into existence, and encourage existing good),
four steps to attaining transcendental powers (zeal, exertion, memory, and meditative insight),
five roots (faith, exertion, memory, meditation, and wisdom),
five powers (powers of faith, exertion, memory, meditation, and wisdom),
seven aids to enlightenment (memory, discrimination, exertion, joy, lightness and ease, meditation, and impartiality),
and eightfold path (right views, right thinking, right speech, right action, right way of life, right endeavor, right mindfulness, and right meditation).
Each of these seven categories of practice appears separately in early Buddhist scriptures, and they are thought to have been brought together later to form the thirty-seven aids to the way.
