The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [213]
27. “When he knows and sees thus, his mind is liberated from the taint of sensual desire, from the taint of being, and from the taint of ignorance. When it is liberated there comes the knowledge: ‘It is liberated.’ He understands: ‘Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.’
28. “This, bhikkhus, is called 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 [349]—the one who, since he torments neither himself nor others, is here and now hungerless, extinguished, and cooled, and abides experiencing bliss, having himself become holy.”
That is what the Blessed One said. The bhikkhus were satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One’s words.
Aṭṭhakanāgara Sutta
The Man from Aṭṭhakanāgara
1. THUS HAVE I HEARD. On one occasion the Venerable Ānanda was living at Beluvagāmaka near Vesālī.
2. Now on that occasion the householder Dasama of Aṭṭhakanāgara had arrived at Pāṭaliputta for some business or other. Then he went to a certain bhikkhu in Kukkuṭa’s Park, and after paying homage to him, he sat down at one side and asked him: “Where does the venerable Ānanda live now, venerable sir? I wish to see the venerable Ānanda.” “The venerable Ānanda is living at Beluvagāmaka near Vesālī, householder.”
3. When the householder Dasama had completed his business at Pāṭaliputta, he went to the venerable Ānanda at Beluvagāmaka near Vesālī. After paying homage to him, he sat down at one side and asked him:
“Venerable Ānanda, has any one thing been proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows and sees, accomplished and fully enlightened, wherein if a bhikkhu abides diligent, ardent, and resolute, his unliberated mind comes to be liberated, his undestroyed taints come to be destroyed, and he attains the supreme security from bondage that he had not attained before?”550
“There is, householder, indeed one such thing proclaimed by the Blessed One.” [350]
“What is that one thing, venerable Ānanda?”
4. “Here, householder, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. He considers this and understands it thus: ‘This first jhāna is conditioned and volitionally produced.551 But whatever is conditioned and volitionally produced is impermanent, subject to cessation.’ If he is steady in that, he attains the destruction of the taints.552 But if he does not attain the destruction of the taints because of that desire for the Dhamma, that delight in the Dhamma,553 then with the destruction of the five lower fetters he becomes one due to reappear spontaneously [in the Pure Abodes] and there attain final Nibbāna without ever returning from that world.
“This is one thing proclaimed by the Blessed One who knows and sees, accomplished and fully enlightened, wherein if a bhikkhu abides diligent, ardent, and resolute, his unliberated mind comes to be liberated, his undestroyed taints come to be destroyed, and he attains the supreme security from bondage that he had not attained before.
5. “Again, with the stilling of applied and sustained thought, a bhikkhu enters and abides in the second jhāna…He considers this and understands it thus: ‘This second jhāna is conditioned and volitionally produced. But whatever is conditioned and volitionally produced is impermanent, subject to cessation.’ If he is steady in that, he attains the destruction of the taints. But if he does not attain the destruction of the taints…without ever returning from that world.
“This too is one thing proclaimed by the Blessed One [351]… wherein if a bhikkhu abides diligent, ardent, and resolute…he attains the supreme security from bondage that he had not attained before.
6. “Again, with the fading