The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [218]
“Suppose there were a hen with eight or ten or twelve eggs, which she had covered, incubated, and nurtured properly.562 Even though she did not wish: ‘Oh, that my chicks might pierce their shells with the points of their claws and beaks and hatch out safely!’ yet the chicks are capable of piercing their shells with the points of their claws and beaks and hatching out safely. So too, when a noble disciple has thus become one who is possessed of virtue…he is called one in higher training who has entered upon the way. His eggs are unspoiled; he is capable of breaking out, capable of enlightenment, capable of attaining the supreme security from bondage.
20. “Based upon that same supreme mindfulness whose purity is due to equanimity,563 this noble disciple recollects his manifold past lives…(as Sutta 51, §24)…Thus with their aspects and particulars he recollects his manifold past lives. This is his first breaking out like that of the hen’s chicks from their shells.
21. “Based upon that same supreme mindfulness whose purity is due to equanimity, with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, this noble disciple sees beings passing away and reappearing…(as Sutta 51, §25)…he understands how beings pass on according to their actions. This is his second breaking out like that of the hen’s chicks from their shells.
22. “Based upon that same supreme mindfulness whose purity is due to equanimity, by realising for himself with direct knowledge, this noble disciple here and now enters upon and abides in the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints. [358] This is his third breaking out like that of the hen’s chicks from their shells.564
23. “When a noble disciple is possessed of virtue, that pertains to his conduct. When he guards the doors of his sense faculties, that pertains to his conduct. When he is moderate in eating, that pertains to his conduct. When he is devoted to wakefulness, that pertains to his conduct. When he possesses seven good qualities, that pertains to his conduct. When he is one who obtains at will, without trouble or difficulty, the four jhānas that constitute the higher mind and provide a pleasant abiding here and now, that pertains to his conduct.565
24. “When he recollects his manifold past lives…with their aspects and particulars, that pertains to his true knowledge. When, with the divine eye…he sees beings passing away and reappearing and understands how beings pass on according to their actions, that pertains to his true knowledge. When, by realising for himself with direct knowledge, he here and now enters upon and abides in the deliverance of mind and deliverance by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints, that pertains to his true knowledge.
25. “This noble disciple is thus said to be perfect in true knowledge, perfect in conduct, perfect in true knowledge and conduct. And this stanza was uttered by the Brahmā Sanankumāra:
‘The noble clan is held to be
The best of people as to lineage;
But best of gods and humans is one
Perfect in true knowledge and conduct.’
“Now that stanza was well sung by the Brahmā Sanankumāra, not ill sung; it was well spoken, not ill spoken; it has a meaning, and is not meaningless; and it was approved by the Blessed One.”566
26. Then the Blessed One rose and addressed the venerable Ānanda thus: “Good, good, Ānanda! It is good that you have spoken to the Sakyans of Kapilavatthu about the disciple in higher training who has entered upon the