Aṇguttara-Nikāya
III. Tika Nipāta
VIII. Ānanda Vagga
Sutta 73 [DTO 74]
Mahānāma Sakka Suttaṃ
To the Sakyan
Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
Proofed against and modified in accordance with the revised edition at dhammatalks.org
Provenance, terms and conditons
[1][pts][olds] I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying among the Sakyans near Kapilavatthu in the Banyan Park.
Now at that time the Blessed One had just recovered from being ill, was not long recovered from his illness.
Then Mahānāma the Sakyan went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat to one side.
As he was sitting there he said to the Blessed One:
"For a long time I have known the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One that 'There is knowledge for one who is concentrated, not for one who is not concentrated.'
Now, does concentration come first, and knowledge after, or does knowledge come first, and concentration after?"
Then the thought occurred to Ven. Ānanda, "Here the Blessed One has just recovered from being ill, is not long recovered from his illness, and yet Mahānāma the Sakyan asks him this very deep question.
What if I were to take Mahānāma the Sakyan to one side and teach him the Dhamma?"
So Ven. Ānanda, taking Mahānāma the Sakyan by the arm, led him to one side and said to him, "Mahānāma, the Blessed One has talked both of the virtue of one who is in training [a stream-winner, a once-returner, or a non-returner] and of the virtue of one whose training is complete [an arahant].
He has talked both of the concentration of one who is in training and of the concentration of one whose training is complete.
He has talked both of the discernment of one who is in training and of the discernment of one whose training is complete.
"And what is the virtue of one who is in training? There is the case where a monk is virtuous.
He dwells restrained in accordance with the Pāṭimokkha, consummate in his behavior and sphere of activity.
He trains himself, having undertaken the training rules, seeing danger in the slightest fault.
This is called the virtue of one who is in training.
"And what is the concentration of one who is in training?
There is the case where a monk — quite secluded from sensuality,[1] secluded from unskillful qualities[2] — enters and remains in the first jhāna: rapture and pleasure born of seclusion, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation.
With the stilling of directed thoughts and evaluations, he enters and remains in the second jhāna: rapture and pleasure born of concentration, unification of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation — internal assurance.
With the fading of rapture he remains equanimous, mindful, and alert, and senses pleasure with the body.
He enters and remains in the third jhāna, of which the noble ones declare, 'Equanimous and mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.'
With the abandoning of pleasure and pain — as with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress — he enters and remains in the fourth jhāna: purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain.
This is called the concentration of one who is in training.
"And what is the discernment of one who is in training?
There is the case where a monk discerns as it has come to be that 'This is stress...
This is the origination of stress...
This is the cessation of stress...
This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress.' This is called the discernment of one who is in training.
"Then there is the disciple of the noble ones — thus consummate in virtue, thus consummate in concentration, thus consummate in discernment — who, through the ending of the effluents, enters and remains in the effluent-free awareness-release and discernment-release, having directly known and realized them for himself right in the here and now.
"In this way, Mahānāma, the Blessed One has talked both of the virtue of one who is in training and of the virtue of one whose training is complete.
He has talked both of the concentration of one who is in training and of the concentration of one whose training is complete.
He has talked both of the discernment of one who is in training and of the discernment of one whose training is complete."[3]
[1] For the meaning of sensuality here, see AN 6:63.
[2] "And what, monks, are unskillful qualities? Wrong view, wrong resolve, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration." — SN 45:22
[3] Ven. Ānanda has answered Mahānāma's question by noting that the concentration of one in training precedes both the discernment of one in training and the discernment of one whose training is complete, whereas the discernment of one in training has preceded the concentration of one whose training is complete.
Of Related Interest:
MN 48;
MN 117;
SN 22:5;
SN 35:99;
SN 55:33;
AN 5:28;
AN 9:36
