Ethics
The Buddha tells the mendicants to live by the ethical precepts and the monastic code, keeping the rules they have undertaken. He then asks what more there is to do. The answer is given for four postures in turn: walking, standing, sitting, and lying down while awake. In each, a mendicant who has set aside desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt, and whose energy is roused, mindfulness established, body tranquil, and mind unified, is called keen, prudent, energetic, and resolute. A closing verse describes moving carefully and staying mindful in every posture.
A note on this text. Opens with instructions on the monastic code, and the verse mentions ‘the aggregates’ without explanation.
The full text
Numbered Discourses 4.12 · 2. Walking · Ethics · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 1 min · on SuttaCentral
“Mendicants, live by the ethical precepts and the monastic code. Live restrained in the monastic code, conducting yourselves well and resorting for alms in suitable places. Seeing danger in the slightest fault, keep the rules you’ve undertaken. When you’ve done this, what more is there to do?
Suppose a mendicant has got rid of desire and ill will while walking, and has given up dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt. Their energy is roused up and unflagging, their mindfulness is established and lucid, their body is tranquil and undisturbed, and their mind is immersed and unified in samādhi. Such a mendicant is said to be ‘keen and prudent, always energetic and resolute’ when walking.
Suppose a mendicant has got rid of desire and ill will while standing …
sitting …
or when lying down while awake, and has given up dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt. Their energy is roused up and unflagging, their mindfulness is established and lucid, their body is tranquil and undisturbed, and their mind is immersed and unified in samādhi. Such a mendicant is said to be ‘keen and prudent, always energetic and resolute’ when lying down while awake.
Carefully walking, carefully standing,carefully sitting, carefully lying;a mendicant carefully bends their limbs,and carefully extends them.
Above, below, all round,as far as the planet extends;they scrutinize the rise and fallof phenomena such as the aggregates.
Training in what leads to serenity of heart,always staying mindful;they call such a mendicant‘always determined’.”