'7' and the Seven Factors of Enlightenment

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit; ReligionForBreakfast, 2/8/24

Is anything more wonderful than enlightenment?

In Buddhism, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment (Pali satta bojjhaṅgā or satta sambojjhaṅgā, Sanskrit sapta bodhyanga) are:

1. Mindfulness (Pali sati, Sanskrit smṛti) to maintain unbiased, undistorted, unembellished awareness of reality (dhammas, "phenomena," "things") just as it is, in particular the Teachings (the Dhamma).
2. Investigation of the true nature of reality (Pali dhamma vicaya, Sanskrit dharmapravicaya)
3. Energy (Pali viriya, Sanskrit vīrya) also effort, determination
4. Joy or rapture (Pali pīti, Sanskrit prīti)
5. Calm or tranquility, relaxation, serenity (Pali passaddhi, Sanskrit prashrabdhi) of body and mind
6. Stillness (samādhi) a calm, one-pointed state of mind [1], or "bringing the buried latencies or samskaras into full view" [2]
7. Equanimity (Pali upekkhā, Sanskrit upekshā), which is unbiased looking on, accepting reality just as-it-is (yathā-bhuta) without clinging or aversion.

The Seven Factors of Enlightenment as a set is one of the "seven sets of thing" comprising the Thirty-Seven Requisites of Enlightenment (the bodhipakkhiyadhamma or "things pertaining to awakening").

The Pali Buddhist term bojjhanga is a compound of bodhi ("enlightenment" or "awakening") and anga ("limb" or "factor") [3]. More

• SuttaCentral: Seven Factors of Enlightenment
• SuttaCentral: A Guide to Linked Discourses

Of course, the number seven comes up many more times than this in Buddhism. A person, having realized the first stage of enlightenment (a stream-enterer) has at most only seven more rebirths. Why? It's just that way by the cosmic order of things, the niyamas in Abhidharma terms.

"Why does the number 7 appear everywhere in religion?"

(ReligionForBreakfast) The number seven appears everywhere in the Bible...and a bunch of other religious traditions, too. Why is the number seven sacred?

• 00:00 Why so many 7s?
• 00:24 Near Eastern context
• 5:03 Later development of Sacred 7
• 5:59 Cross-cultural phenomenon?
• 7:18 Origin theories
• 10:46 Patreon

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Arvid Kapelrud, "The Number Seven in Ugaritic Texts," Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 18 (Oct 1968), 494-499.
• Denise Flanders, "The Rhetorical Use of Numbers in the Deuteronomistic History," 2022.
• Denise Flanders, "Saul has Killed His Thousands, David His Ten Thousand," dissertation, 2019.
• James Pritchard (ed.), "Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament," Third Edition with Supplement, 1969.
• R.A. Kraft, "Philo's Treatment of the Number Seven in On Creation," in "Exploring the Scripturesque, (2009), p. 217-236.
• Botterweck et. al. (ed.), "Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament," Vol. 14. Laki, "On the Origin of the Sexagesimal System," Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. 59, No 1/3 (Jan-March 1969).
• Kazuo Muroi, "The Origin of the Mystical Number Seven in Mesopotamian Culture"
• Adela Harbro Collins, "Cosmology and eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism," 1966.
• Bendt Alster, "Early Dynastic Proverbs and other Contributions to the Study of Literary Texts from Abu Salabikh," Archiv für Orientforschunb (1991/1992), 1 - 51.
• Leonid Zhmud, "From Number Symbolism to Arithmology," Zahlen- und Buchstabensysteme im Dienste religiöser Bildung.
• L. Schimmelpfennig (ed.) Tübingen: Seraphim, 2019. P. 25-45.