- published: 27 Aug 2013
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In Buddhism, bodhipakkhiyā dhammā (Pali, variant spellings include bodhipakkhikā dhammā and bodhapakkhiyā dhammā;Skt.: bodhipakṣa dharma) are qualities (dhammā) conducive or related to (pakkhiya) Enlightenment (bodhi).
In the Pali commentaries, the term bodhipakkhiyā dhammā is used to refer to seven sets of such qualities regularly mentioned by the Buddha throughout the Pali Canon. Within these seven sets of Enlightenment qualities, there is a total of thirty-seven individual qualities (sattatiṃsa bodhipakkhiyā dhammā).
These seven sets of qualities are recognized by both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhists as complementary facets of the Buddhist Path to Enlightenment.
In the Pali Canon's Bhāvanānuyutta sutta ("Mental Development Discourse,"AN 7.67), the Buddha is recorded as saying:
Elsewhere in the Canon, and in numerous places in the Āgamas of other early schools, these seven sets of thirty-seven qualities conducive to Enlightenment are enumerated as:
In the Pali Canon's Netti discourses 112 and 237, forty-three bodhipakkhiya dhammas are enumerated which include the aforementoned thirty-seven plus: