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By Root 6167 0

four foundations of mindfulness.542 Here, venerable sir, we abide contemplating the body as a body…feelings as feelings…mind as mind…mind-objects as mind-objects, ardent, fully aware, and mindful, having put away covetousness and grief for the world. It is wonderful, venerable sir, it is marvellous how amid man’s tangle, corruption, and deceptions, the Blessed One knows the welfare and harm of beings. For humankind is a tangle but the animal is open enough. Venerable sir, I can drive an elephant to be tamed, and in the time it takes to make a trip back and forth in Campā, that elephant will show every kind of deception, duplicity, crookedness, and fraud [he is capable of].543 But those who are called our slaves, messengers, and servants behave in one way with the body, in another way by speech, while their minds work in still another way. It is wonderful, venerable sir, it is marvellous how amid man’s tangle, corruption, and deceptions, the Blessed One knows the welfare and harm of beings. For humankind is a tangle but the animal is open enough.For humankind is a tangle but the animal is open enough.”

5. “So it is, Pessa, so it is! [341] Humankind is a tangle but the animal is open enough. Pessa, there are four kinds of persons to be found existing in the world.544 What four? Here a certain kind of person torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself. Here a certain kind of person torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others. Here a certain kind of person torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself, and he also torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others. Here a certain kind of person does not torment himself or pursue the practice of torturing himself, and he does not torment others or pursue the practice of torturing others. Since he torments neither himself nor others, he is here and now hungerless, extinguished, and cooled, and he abides experiencing bliss, having himself become holy.545 Which of these four kinds of persons satisfies your mind, Pessa?”

“The first three do not satisfy my mind, venerable sir, but the last one satisfies my mind.”

6. “But, Pessa, why don’t the first three kinds of persons satisfy your mind?”

“Venerable sir, the kind of person who torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself, torments and tortures himself though he desires pleasure and recoils from pain; that is why this kind of person does not satisfy my mind. And the kind of person who torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others, torments and tortures others who desire pleasure and recoil from pain; that is why this kind of person does not satisfy my mind. And the kind of person who torments himself and pursues the practice of torturing himself, and who also torments others and pursues the practice of torturing others, torments and tortures himself and others, both of whom desire pleasure and recoil from pain; that is why this kind of person does not satisfy my mind. [342] But the kind of person who does not torment himself or pursue the practice of torturing himself and who does not torment others or pursue the practice of torturing others; who, since he torments neither himself nor others, is here and now hungerless, extinguished, and cooled, and abides experiencing bliss, having himself become holy—he does not torment and torture either himself or others, both of whom desire pleasure and recoil from pain. That is why this kind of person satisfies my mind. And now, venerable sir, we depart. We are busy and have much to do.”

“You may go, Pessa, at your own convenience.”

Then Pessa, the elephant driver’s son, having delighted and rejoiced in the Blessed One’s words, rose from his seat, and after paying homage to the Blessed One, keeping him on his right, he departed.

7. Soon after he had left, the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Bhikkhus, Pessa, the elephant driver’s son, is wise, he has great wisdom. If he had sat a while longer until I had expounded for him in detail these four kinds of persons, he would