The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [548]
20. “Again, Sāriputta, a bhikkhu should consider thus: ‘Are true knowledge and deliverance realised by me?’ If, by reviewing, he knows thus: ‘True knowledge and deliverance are not realised by me,’ then he should make an effort to realise true knowledge and deliverance. But if, by reviewing, he knows thus: ‘True knowledge and deliverance are realised by me,’ then he can abide happy and glad, training day and night in wholesome states.1351
21. “Sāriputta, whatever recluses and brahmins in the past have purified their almsfood have all done so by repeatedly reviewing thus. Whatever recluses and brahmins in the future will purify their almsfood will all do so by repeatedly reviewing thus. Whatever recluses and brahmins in the present are purifying their almsfood are all doing so by repeatedly reviewing thus. Therefore, Sāriputta, you should train thus: ‘We will purify our almsfood by repeatedly reviewing thus.’”
That is what the Blessed One said. The venerable Sāriputta was satisfied and delighted in the Blessed One’s words.
Indriyabhāvanā Sutta
The Development of the Faculties
[298] 1. THUS HAVE I HEARD. On one occasion the Blessed One was living at Kajangalā in a grove of mukhelu trees.
2. Then the brahmin student Uttara, a pupil of the brahmin Pārāsariya, went to the Blessed One and exchanged greetings with him. When this courteous and amiable talk was finished, he sat down at one side. The Blessed One then asked him: “Uttara, does the brahmin Pārāsariya teach his disciples the development of the faculties?”
“He does, Master Gotama.”
“But, Uttara, how does he teach his disciples the development of the faculties?”
“Here, Master Gotama, one does not see forms with the eye, one does not hear sounds with the ear. That is how the brahmin Pārāsariya teaches his disciples the development of the faculties.”
“If that is so, Uttara, then a blind man and a deaf man will have developed faculties, according to what the brahmin Pārāsariya says. For a blind man does not see forms with the eye, and a deaf man does not hear sounds with the ear.”
When this was said, the brahmin student Uttara, Pārāsariya’s pupil, sat silent, dismayed, with shoulders drooping and head down, glum, and without response.
3. Then, knowing this, the Blessed One addressed the venerable Ānanda: “Ānanda, the brahmin Pārāsariya teaches his disciples the development of the faculties in one way, but in the Noble One’s Discipline the supreme development of the faculties is otherwise.”1352
“Now is the time, Blessed One, now is the time, Sublime One, for the Blessed One [299] to teach the supreme development of the faculties in the Noble One’s Discipline. Having heard it from the Blessed One, the bhikkhus will remember it.”
“Then listen, Ānanda, and attend closely to what I shall say.”
“Yes, venerable sir,” he replied. The Blessed One said this:
4. “Now, Ānanda, how is there the supreme development of the faculties in the Noble One’s Discipline? Here, Ānanda, when a bhikkhu sees a form with the eye, there arises in him what is agreeable, there arises what is disagreeable, there arises what is both agreeable and disagreeable.1353 He understands thus: ‘There has arisen in me what is agreeable, there has arisen what is disagreeable, there has arisen what is both agreeable and disagreeable. But that is conditioned, gross, dependently arisen; this is peaceful, this is sublime,