an.4.90 Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numbered Discourses)

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“Mendicants, these four people are found in the world.
What four?
The confirmed ascetic, the white lotus ascetic, the pink lotus ascetic, and the exquisite ascetic of ascetics.
And how is a person a confirmed ascetic?
It’s when a mendicant is a trainee who hasn’t achieved their heart’s desire, but lives aspiring to the supreme sanctuary.
That’s how a person is a confirmed ascetic.
And how is a person a white lotus ascetic?
It’s when a mendicant meditates observing rise and fall in the five grasping aggregates.
‘Such is form, such is the origin of form, such is the ending of form.
Such is feeling …
Such is perception …
Such are choices …
Such is consciousness, such is the origin of consciousness, such is the ending of consciousness.’
But they don’t have direct meditative experience of the eight liberations.
That’s how a person is a white lotus ascetic.
And how is a person a pink lotus ascetic?
It’s when a mendicant meditates observing rise and fall in the five grasping aggregates.
‘Such is form, such is the origin of form, such is the ending of form.
Such is feeling …
Such is perception …
Such are choices …
Such is consciousness, such is the origin of consciousness, such is the ending of consciousness.’
And they have direct meditative experience of the eight liberations.
That’s how a person is a pink lotus ascetic.
And how is a person an exquisite ascetic of ascetics?
It’s when a mendicant usually uses only what they’ve been invited to accept … And if anyone should be rightly called an exquisite ascetic of ascetics, it’s me.
These are the four people found in the world.”