True Saint I

[187] [261]

[1][pts][nana][ntbb][than][olds][upal] THUS have I heard:

Once when the Lord was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's grove in Anāthapiṇḍika's pleasaunce,
he informed the Almsmen that he would instruct them
in the exposition and analysis
of the True Saint.

Their attention gained,
the Lord spoke as follows: -

Let past be past; nor future longings house;
- the past is dead, the morrow not yet born.
Whoso with insight scans his heart to-day,
let him ensue eternal Changelessness!
Toil then to-day. To-morrow death may come,
- who knows? No bargain holds death's hosts at bay.
Whoso, by night and day unceasingly,
lives still to struggle onward, he it is
is called True Saint; - the Perfect Sage is he.

[188] How, Almsmen, does a man hark back to the past? -

By finding delight in remembering
that in a previous birth in the past
such and such was he like,
such and such were his feelings,
his perceptions,
his plastic forces
and his mentality.

How does a man not hark back? -

By not finding delight in such memories.

How does a man have longings for the future? -

By [262] finding delight in the longing
that in later births in the future
he may be such and such,
with such and such feelings and so forth.

How does a man not have longings for the future? -

By not finding delight in any such aspirations.

How is a man swept away by present states of consciousness? -

Take the case of an uninstructed everyday man
who has no vision of the Noble Ones
and is unversed and untrained in their Doctrine,
who has no vision of the Excellent Ones
and is unversed and untrained in their Doctrine; -
such a man either conceives
Form as Self,
or Self as having Form,
or Form in Self,
or Self in Form; -
and so on with feelings,
perceptions,
the plastic forces
[189] and the mind. -

That is how a man is swept away.

How is a man not swept away
by present states of consciousness? -

Take the case of an instructed disciple of the Noble Ones,
who has vision of the Noble
and is versed and trained in their Doctrine,
who has vision of the Excellent
and is versed and trained in their Doctrine; -
such a man neither conceives
Form as Self,
nor Self as having Form,
nor Form in Self,
nor Self in Form;
nor does he entertain like conceptions
about feelings,
perceptions,
the plastic forces,
or the mind. -

That is how a man is not swept away by present States of consciousness.

This is what I meant when I said
I would instruct you in the exposition of the True Saint.

Thus spoke the Lord.

Glad at heart,
those Almsmen rejoiced in what the Lord had said.

Majjhima Nikāya III. Upari-Paṇṇāsa 4. Vibhaṅga Vagga

Sacred Books of the Buddhists Volume VI Dialogues of the Buddha Part V

Further Dialogues of the Buddha Volume II

Sutta 131

Bhadd'Eka-Ratta Suttaɱ

True Saint I

Majjhima Nikāya
III. Upari-Paṇṇāsa
4. Vibhaṅga Vagga

Sacred Books of the Buddhists
Volume VI
Dialogues of the Buddha
Part V

Further Dialogues of the Buddha
Volume II