The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [316]
18. “Beyond this, Udāyin, I know of very many gods [whose splendour] the radiance of the sun and moon does not match, yet I do not say that there is no other splendour higher or more sublime than that splendour. But you, Udāyin, say of that splendour which is lower and meaner than a glowworm’s: ‘This is the perfect splendour,’ yet you do not indicate what that splendour is.”
19. “The Blessed One has terminated the discussion; the Sublime One has terminated the discussion.”
“But, Udāyin, why do you say that?”
“Venerable sir, it is taught in our own teachers’ doctrine: ‘This is the perfect splendour, this is the perfect splendour.’ But on being pressed and questioned and cross-questioned about our own teachers’ doctrine by the Blessed One, we are found empty, hollow, and mistaken.”
20. “How is it, Udāyin, is there an exclusively pleasant world? Is there a practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world?”
“Venerable sir, it is taught in our own teachers’ doctrine: ‘There is an exclusively pleasant world; there is a practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world.’”
21. “But, Udāyin, what is that practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world?”
“Here, venerable sir, abandoning the killing of living beings, someone abstains from killing living beings; abandoning the taking of what is not given, he abstains from taking what is not given; abandoning misconduct in sensual pleasures, he abstains from misconduct in sensual pleasures; [36] abandoning false speech, he abstains from false speech; or else he undertakes and practises some kind of asceticism. This is the practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world.”
22. “What do you think, Udāyin? On an occasion when he abandons the killing of living beings and abstains from killing living beings, does his self then feel only pleasure or both pleasure and pain?”
“Both pleasure and pain, venerable sir.”
“What do you think, Udāyin? On an occasion when he abandons the taking of what is not given and abstains from taking what is not given…when he abandons misconduct in sensual pleasures and abstains from misconduct in sensual pleasures… when he abandons false speech and abstains from false speech, does his self then feel only pleasure or both pleasure and pain?”
“Both pleasure and pain, venerable sir.”
“What do you think, Udāyin? On an occasion when he undertakes and practises some kind of asceticism, does his self then feel only pleasure or both pleasure and pain?”
“Both pleasure and pain, venerable sir.”
“What do you think, Udāyin? Does the realisation of an exclusively pleasant world come about by following a way of mixed pleasure and pain?”
23. “The Blessed One has terminated the discussion; the Sublime One has terminated the discussion.”
“But, Udāyin, why do you say that?”
“Venerable sir, it is taught in our own teachers’ doctrine: ‘There is an exclusively pleasant world; there is a practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world.’ But on being pressed and questioned and cross-questioned about our own teachers’ doctrine by the Blessed One, we are found empty, hollow, and mistaken. But how is it, venerable sir, is there an exclusively pleasant world? Is there a practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world?” [37]
24. “There is an exclusively pleasant world, Udāyin; there is a practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world.”
“Venerable sir, what is that practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world?”
25. “Here, Udāyin, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu 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…in the third jhāna…This is the practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world.”
“Venerable sir, that is not the practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world; at that point an exclusively pleasant world has already been realised.