The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [432]
10. “Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu is one with taints destroyed… and is completely liberated through final knowledge, this is the natural way for him to answer.
“‘Friends, with the destruction, fading away, cessation, giving up, and relinquishing of desire, lust, delight, craving, attraction, and clinging, and of mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies regarding the eye, forms, eye-consciousness, and things cognizable [by the mind] through eye-consciousness, I have understood that my mind is liberated.1060
“‘With the destruction, fading away, cessation, giving up, and relinquishing of desire, lust, delight, craving, attraction, and clinging, and of mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies regarding the ear, sounds, ear-consciousness, and things cognizable [by the mind] through ear-consciousness… regarding the nose, odours, nose-consciousness, and things cognizable [by the mind] through nose-consciousness…regarding the tongue, flavours, tongue-consciousness, and things cognizable [by the mind] through tongue consciousness…regarding the body, tangibles, body-consciousness, and things cognizable [by the mind] through body-consciousness…regarding the mind, mind-objects, mind-consciousness, and things cognizable [by the mind] through mind-consciousness, I have understood that my mind is liberated.
“‘It is by knowing thus, seeing thus, regarding these six internal and external bases, that through not clinging my mind is liberated from the taints.’
11. “Saying ‘good,’ one may delight and rejoice in that bhikkhu’s words. Having done so, a further question may be put thus:
“‘But, friend, how does the venerable one know, how does he see, so that in regard to this body with its consciousness and all external signs, I-making, mine-making, and the underlying tendency to conceit have been eradicated in him?’1061 [33]
12. “Bhikkhus, when a bhikkhu is one with taints destroyed… and is completely liberated through final knowledge, this is the natural way for him to answer.
“‘Friends, formerly when I lived the home life I was ignorant. Then the Tathāgata or his disciple taught me the Dhamma. On hearing the Dhamma I acquired faith in the Tathāgata. Possessing that faith, I considered thus: “Household life is crowded and dusty; life gone forth is wide open. It is not easy while living in a home to lead the holy life utterly perfect and pure as a polished shell. Suppose I shave off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and go forth from the home life into homelessness.” On a later occasion, abandoning a small or a large fortune, abandoning a small or a large circle of relations, I shaved off my hair and beard, put on the yellow robe, and went forth from the home life into homelessness.
13–17. “‘Having thus gone forth and possessing the bhikkhus’ training and way of life...(as Sutta 51, §§14–19) [34, 35]…I purified my mind from doubt. [36]
18. “‘Having thus abandoned these five hindrances, imperfections of the mind that weaken wisdom, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, I entered upon and abided in the first jhāna, which is accompanied by applied and sustained thought, with rapture and pleasure born of seclusion. With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, I entered upon and abided in the second jhāna…With the fading away as well of rapture…I entered upon and abided in the third jhāna…With the abandoning of pleasure and pain…I entered upon and abided in the fourth jhāna, which has neither-pain-nor-pleasure and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.
19. “‘When my concentrated mind was thus purified, bright, unblemished, rid of imperfections, malleable, wieldy, steady,