The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [489]
29. “Again, when a robber culprit is caught, a wise man sees kings having many kinds of torture inflicted on him... (as in §4)...Then the wise man thinks thus: ‘Because of such evil actions as those, when a robber culprit is caught, kings have many kinds of tortures inflicted on him. Those things are not found in me, and I am not seen engaging in those things.’ This is the second kind of pleasure and joy that a wise man feels here and now.
30. “Again, when a wise man is on his chair or on his bed or resting on the ground, then the good actions that he did in the past—his good bodily, verbal, and mental conduct—cover him, overspread him, and envelop him. Just as the shadow of a great mountain peak in the evening covers, overspreads, and envelops the earth, so too, when a wise man is on his chair or on his bed or resting on the ground, then the good actions that he did in the past—his good bodily, verbal, and mental conduct—cover him, overspread him, and envelop him. Then the wise man thinks: ‘I have not done what is evil, I have not done what is cruel, I have not done what is wicked. I have done what is good, I have done what is wholesome, I have made myself a shelter from anguish. When I pass away, I shall go to the destination of those who have not done what is evil…who have made themselves a shelter from anguish.’ He does not sorrow, grieve, and lament, he does not weep beating his breast and become distraught. This is the third kind of pleasure and joy that a wise man feels here and now.
31. “A wise man who has given himself over to good conduct of body, speech, and mind, [172] on the dissolution of the body, after death, reappears in a happy destination, even in heaven.
(HEAVEN)
32. “Were it rightly speaking to be said of anything: ‘That is utterly wished for, utterly desired, utterly agreeable,’ it is of heaven that, rightly speaking, this should be said, so much so that it is hard to finish describing the happiness of heaven.”
When this was said, a bhikkhu asked the Blessed One: “But, venerable sir, can a simile be given?”
33. “It can, bhikkhu,” the Blessed One said. “Bhikkhus, suppose that a Wheel-turning Monarch1203 possessed the seven treasures and the four kinds of success, and because of that experienced pleasure and joy.
34. “What are the seven treasures? Here, when a head-anointed noble king has bathed his head on the Uposatha day of the fifteenth1204 and has ascended to the upper palace chamber for the Uposatha, there appears to him the divine wheel-treasure with its thousand spokes, its tire, and its nave, complete in every aspect. On seeing it, the head-anointed noble king thinks thus: ‘Now it has been heard by me that when a head-anointed noble king has bathed his head on the Uposatha day of the fifteenth and has ascended to the upper palace chamber for the Uposatha, and there appears to him the divine wheel-treasure with its thousand spokes, its tire, and its nave, complete in every aspect, then that king becomes a Wheel-turning Monarch. Am I then a Wheel-turning Monarch?’
35. “Then the head-anointed noble king rises from his seat, and taking a water vessel in his left hand, he sprinkles the wheel-treasure with his right hand, saying: ‘Turn forward, good wheel-treasure; triumph, good wheel-treasure!’ Then the wheel-treasure turns forward rolling in the eastern direction and the Wheel-turning Monarch follows it with his four-constituent