Aṅguttara-Nikāya
III. Tika Nipāta
IX. Samaṇa Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
or
More-Numbered Suttas
III. The Book of the Threes
IX. The Recluse
Sutta 89
Dutiya Sikkhā Suttaɱ
Training (b)
Translated from the Pali by
F.L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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On a certain occasion the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
"Yes, Lord," replied those monks to the Exalted One.
The Exalted One said this:
"Monks, there are these three forms of training.
What three?
The training in the higher morality,
that in the higher thought
and that in the higher insight.
§
And what, monks, is the training in the higher morality?
Herein a monk lives virtuous,
restrained with the restraint of the obligations;
proficient in following the practice of right conduct
he sees danger in the slightest faults:
he takes up and trains himself
in the rules of morality.
This is called
'the training in the higher morality.'
■
And what, monks, is the training in the higher thought?
Herein a monk, remote from sensual desires,
aloof from unprofitable states of mind,
enters on the first musing
which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained,
born of seclusion,
zestful and easeful,
and abides therein.
Then, by calming down thought directed and sustained,
he enters on that inward calm,
that single-minded purpose,
apart from thought directed and sustained,
born of mental balance,
zestful and easeful,
which is the second musing,
and abides therein.
Then by the fading out of zest
he becomes balanced
and remains mindful and composed,
and experiences with the body
that happiness of which the Ariyans aver:
'The balanced, thoughtful man lives happily,'
and he enters on the third musing
and abides therein.
Then, by rejecting pleasure and pain alike,
by the coming to an end
of the joy and sorrow which he had before,
he enters and abides in the fourth musing,
free of pain and free of pleasure,
a state of perfect purity
of balance and equanimity.
This is called
'the training in the higher thought.'
■
And what, monks, is the training in the higher insight?
Herein a monk, by destroying the āsavas,
himself in this very life
comes to know thoroughly
the heart's release,
the release by insight
which is without the āsavas,
and having attained it
abides therein.
This is called
"the training in the higher insight."
These are the three forms of training.[1]
Whoso hath zeal, courage and energy,
Is apt to meditate, alert of mind,
Guarding the forces of his body well[2]
Let him pursue the threefold higher walk,
[216] Loftiest code of conduct, mind, insight,
From first to last, the last e'en as the first,
Above, below,[3] by night e'en as by day.
Hath he thus every quarter (of his life)
Mastered with infinite concentration[4] rapt,
This do they call the training and the course
And eke the pure and holy pilgrimage.
Him do they call The Wakened of the World,
Brave hero[5] faring to the Way's High End.
To him when consciousness doth near its end,
To him from craving utterly set free,
Nibbāna of the burning flame[6] hath come,
And to his heart Release (and Liberty).
[1] For the gāthās I have adopted Mrs. Rhys Davids's version at Buddhism, 201.
[2] Gutt'indriyo.
[3] Yatha adho tathā uddhaɱ (correct tatha in text here). Comy. takes this to mean, 'he looks upon his higher and lower body (? or higher and lower parts of the body) with equal dispassion, as something unlovely.' However, these phrases are generally applied to the six points of the universe. Cf. for instance the practice in the Sublime Moods.
[4] Appamāṇa-samādhinā = arahatta-magga-s. Comy.
[5] Reading with Comy. vīraɱ for text's dhīraɱ.
[6] Pajjotass'eva nibbānaɱ = padīpa-nibbānaɱ viya cetaso vimokkho. Cf. The Gem (in the Short Section and Sn. 235), 'even as this lamp is quenched,' where Comy. says the Master here pointed to a lamp which flickered out while he was speaking. Cf. Paṭācārā's verses, Sisters, v. 116.
