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“Udāyin, at that point an exclusively pleasant world has not yet been realised; that is only the practical way to realise an exclusively pleasant world.” 26. When this was said, the wanderer Sakuludāyin’s assembly made an uproar, saying very loudly and noisily: “We are lost along with our own teachers’ doctrines! We are lost along with our own teachers’ doctrines! We know nothing higher than that!”784

Then the wanderer Sakuludāyin quieted those wanderers and asked the Blessed One:

27. “Venerable sir, at what point is an exclusively pleasant world realised?”

“Here, Udāyin, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and grief, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity. He dwells with those deities who have arisen in an entirely pleasant world and he talks with them and enters into conversation with them.785 It is at this point that an exclusively pleasant world has been realised.”

28. “Venerable sir, surely it is for the sake of realising that exclusively pleasant world that bhikkhus lead the holy life under the Blessed One.”

“It is not for the sake of realising that exclusively pleasant world that bhikkhus lead the holy life under me. There are other states, Udāyin, higher and more sublime [than that] and it is for the sake of realising them that bhikkhus lead the holy life under me.” [38]

“What are those higher and more sublime states, venerable sir, for the sake of realising which bhikkhus lead the holy life under the Blessed One?”

29–36. “Here, Udāyin, a Tathāgata appears in the world, accomplished, fully enlightened...(as Sutta 51, §§12–19)...he purifies his mind from doubt.

37. “Having thus abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhāna…This, Udāyin, is a higher and more sublime state for the sake of realising which bhikkhus lead the holy life under me.

38–40. “Again, with the stilling of applied and sustained thought, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the second jhāna…the third jhāna…the fourth jhāna. This too, Udāyin, is a higher and more sublime state for the sake of realising which bhikkhus lead the holy life under me.

41. “When his concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. He recollects his manifold past lives, that is, one birth, two births...(as Sutta 51, §24)...Thus with their aspects and particulars he recollects his manifold past lives. This too, Udāyin, is a higher and more sublime state for the sake of realising which bhikkhus lead the holy life under me.

42. “When his concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs it to knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings...(as Sutta 51, §25)... Thus with the divine eye, which is purified and surpasses the human, he sees beings passing away and reappearing, inferior and superior, fair and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and he understands how beings pass on according to their actions. This too, Udāyin, is a higher and more sublime state for the sake of realising which bhikkhus lead the holy life under me.

43. “When his concentrated mind is thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfection, malleable, wieldy, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs it to knowledge of the destruction of the taints. He understands as it actually is: ‘This is suffering’...(as Sutta 51, §26) [39]…He understands as it actually is: ‘This is the way leading to the cessation of the taints.’

44. “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