The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [171]
(THE ENDING OF THE ROUND: THE GRADUAL TRAINING)
31-38. “Here, bhikkhus, a Tathāgata appears in the world, accomplished, fully enlightened…(as Sutta 27, §§11-18) [268-69]…he purifies his mind from doubt. [270]
39. “Having thus abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, he enters upon and abides in the first jhāna…With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, he enters upon and abides in the second jhāna…With the fading away as well of rapture…he enters upon and abides in the third jhāna…With the abandoning of pleasure and pain…he enters upon and abides in the fourth jhāna…which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.
(THE ENDING OF THE ROUND: FULL CESSATION)
40. “On seeing a form with the eye, he does not lust after it if it is pleasing; he does not dislike it if it is unpleasing. He abides with mindfulness of the body established, with an immeasurable mind, and he understands as it actually is the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom wherein those evil unwholesome states cease without remainder.413 Having thus abandoned favouring and opposing, whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, he does not delight in that feeling, welcome it, or remain holding to it.414 As he does not do so, delight in feelings ceases in him. With the cessation of his delight comes cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of being; with the cessation of being, cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.
“On hearing a sound with the ear…On smelling an odour with the nose…On tasting a flavour with the tongue…On touching a tangible with the body…On cognizing a mind-object with the mind, he does not lust after it if it is pleasing; he does not dislike it if it is unpleasing…With the cessation of his delight comes cessation of clinging; with the cessation of clinging, cessation of being; with the cessation of being, cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair cease. Such is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering.
(CONCLUSION)
41. “Bhikkhus, remember this [discourse] of mine briefly as deliverance in the destruction of craving; but [remember] the bhikkhu Sāti, [271] son of a fisherman, as caught up in a vast net of craving, in the trammel of craving.”
That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One’s words.
Mahā-Assapura Sutta
The Greater Discourse at Assapura
1. THUS HAVE I HEARD. On one occasion the Blessed One was living in the Angan country at a town of the Angans named Assapura. There the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus.”—“Venerable sir,” they replied. The Blessed One said this:
2. “‘Recluses, recluses,’ bhikkhus, that is how people perceive you. And when you are asked, ‘What are you?’, you claim that you are recluses. Since that is what you are designated and what you claim to be, you should train thus: ‘We will undertake and practise those things that make one a recluse, that make one a brahmin,415 so that our designations may be true and our claims genuine, and so that the services of those whose robes, almsfood, resting place, and medicinal requisites we use shall bring them great fruit and benefit, and so that our going forth shall not be in vain but fruitful and fertile.’
(CONDUCT AND LIVELIHOOD)
3. “And what, bhikkhus, are the things that make one a recluse, that make one a brahmin? Bhikkhus, you should train thus: ‘We will be possessed of shame