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pe.2 Petakopadesa

II. The Pattern of the Dispensation

I. Schedules

1st Grouping

72. Herein, what is the Pattern of the Dispensation?
  1. Type of Thread dealing with Corruption,
  2. Type of Thread dealing with Morality,
  3. Type of Thread dealing with Penetration,
  4. Type of Thread dealing with the Adept,
  5. Type of Thread dealing with Corruption and Morality,
  6. Type of Thread dealing with Corruption and Penetration,
  7. Type of Thread dealing with Corruption, Penetration, and Adept,
  8. Type of Thread dealing with Morality and Penetration.

2nd Grouping

  1. Injunction,
  2. Fruit,
  3. Means,
  4. Injunction and Fruit,
  5. [Injunction and Means (missing),]
  6. Fruit and Means,
  7. Injunction, Fruit, and Means,
  8. Gratification,
  9. Disappointment,
  10. Escape,
  11. Gratification and Disappointment,
  12. Gratification and Escape,
  13. Disappointment and Escape,
  14. Gratification, Disappointment, and Escape

3rd Grouping

  1. Belonging to Worlds,
  2. Dissociated from Worlds,
  3. Belonging to Worlds and Dissociated from Worlds,
  4. Action,
  5. Ripening,
  6. Action and Ripening,
  7. Demonstrated,
  8. Undemonstrated,
  9. Demonstrated and Undemonstrated,
  10. Knowledge,
  11. the Knowable,
  12. Knowledge and the Knowable;
  13. Seeing,
  14. Keeping in Being,
  15. Seeing and Keeping in Being;
  16. Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening,
  17. Not Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening,
  18. Neither Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening Nor Not Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening;
  19. Our Own Statement,
  20. Someone Else's Statement,
  21. Our Own Statement and Someone Else's Statement;
  22. Expressed in Terms of Creatures,
  23. Expressed in Terms of Ideas,
  24. Expressed in Terms of Creatures and in Terms of Ideas;
  25. Eulogy;
  1. Expressed in Terms of Our Own Statement,
  2. Expressed in Terms of Someone Else's Statement,
  3. Expressed in Terms of Our Own Statement and in Terms of Someone Else's Statement;
  4. the To-be-done,
  5. the Fruit,
  6. To-be-done and the Fruit;
  1. the Agreed,
  2. the Refused,
  3. the Agreed and Refused.

These six [that is, nos. 51–56] are refused (do not count).

II. Illustrative Quotations

1st Grouping

73. 1. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Corruption?

Caught in the net of sensual murk
And blocked by craving's bondage,
Fenced in by fences of neglect,
Like fishes in a funnel-trap,
They follow after ageing and death
Just as a sucking-calf its mother,

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these five hindrances).

74. 2. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Morality?

Ideas are heralded by mind,
Mind heads them and they are mind-made.
If someone with a placid mind
Is wont to speak or act, then bliss
Sure follows after him, as does
His shadow keep him company.

[and] the Thread in the Saṃyutta [in which] the Blessed One [taught] to Mahanāma the Sakyan in the Sakyans' city of Kapilavatthu with guiding-detail (?) [how] that [cognizance of his at the time of his death] at the last moment would be fortified by faith and virtue and fortified by learning, generosity, and understanding.

75. 3. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Penetration?

Above, below, in every way without lust,
And seeing not at all that “I am this”;
Thus liberated, he has crossed the flood
Not crossed before, for non-renewal of being.

[and] Ānanda asks the Master (“The kinds of virtue, what is their aim”?).

76. 4. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with the Adept?

Whose cognizance is steady as a rock
And never can be made to shudder
Is free from lust for lust-provoking things,
Untroubled too by troubling things;
Whose cognizance is kept in being like this,
How shall suffering come to him?

[and] Sāriputta and the Blessed One: [how] a certain elder said (He has insulted me and is going wandering without having apologized) and Sāriputta's exposition can be quoted, namely (Blessed One, surely it is he whose mindfulness of the body is not kept in being, not made much of, …).

77. 5. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Corruption and Dealing with Morality?

Rain soddens what is covered up,
But what is open it soddens not.
So open out what is covered up
That rain may never sodden you;

“Rain soddens what is covered up” is corruption. “But what is open it soddens not” is morality.

[and] (Dark with a dark supreme value, …): Herein, “dark” and “with a dark supreme value” are corruption; “bright” and “with a bright supreme value” are morality.

78. 6. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Corruption and Dealing with Penetration?

The steadfast will never call that a strong bond
Made of iron or consisting of wood or of thongs,
But greed flushed with lusting for jewels and gems
And concern for a wife and for children as well, …:

“The steadfast will never call that a strong bond” … down to … “And concern for a wife and for children as well” is corruption; (But that too they sever and wander [in freedom] Unconcerned and all sensual desires foregone) is penetration.

[And] (What is chosen) and (what is asserted) and (name-and-form's finding a footing): With these four (?) terms, corruption; with the four (?) [in the negative paragraph], penetration.

79. 7. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Corruption, Dealing with Penetration, and Dealing with the Adept?

[Verse example:]

This world is born to anguish and subject to painful contact,
It is sickness that it calls self;
For however it conceives [it],
'Tis ever otherwise than that.
Maintaining its being other than that,
The world clings to being, expectantly relishing only being,
[But] what it relishes brings fear,
And what it fears is pain.
Now this divine life under the Blessed One is lived in order to abandon being..

Whoever have declared escape from being [to come about] through [love of] non-being, none of them, I say, escape from being. Whoever have declared liberation from being [to come about] through [love of some kind of] being, none of them, I say, are liberated from being. It is by depending on the essentials of existence that this suffering has actual being: with exhaustion of assuming in all ways suffering has no actual being.

See this wide world subjected to ignorance,
Which is, which delights to be, never freed from being:
[Yet] whatever the kinds of being that occur in any way, anywhere,
All these are determinations, impermanent, pain[-haunted], inseparable from the idea of change.
So when a man thus sees
With right understanding how it is,
Craving for being is abandoned,
He no more expectantly relishes non-being.
[That is the utter exhaustion of all craving,
That is the remainderless fading, cessation, that is extinction.]

That bhikkhu being quenched through not assuming,
His being comes no more to a renewal,
Transcended is Death's being, the battle won,
One such as this outstrips all [modes of] being.

[Now as to the words] “This world is born to anguish … down to … [And what it fears is] pain” is corruption by craving. [The passage] “Whoever have declared escape from being [to come about] through [love of] non-being, none of them, I say, escapes from being. Whoever have declared liberation from being [to come about] through [love of some kind of being], none of them, I say, is liberated from being” is corruption by view. That corruption by view and corruption by craving are both corruption. Then to go back again, [the words] “Now this divine life under the Blessed One is lived in order to abandon being … down to … With exhaustion of assuming in all ways [suffering] has no actual being” are penetration. [The words] “That bhikkhu being quenched … down to … One such as this outstrips all [modes of] being” deal with the Adept.

[Prose example:] (Four kinds of persons), (i) “One who goes with the stream” is corruption, (ii) “One who has steadied himself” and (iii) “One who goes against the stream” are penetration, and (iv) “One who … stands of firm ground” is the Adept's plane.

80. 8. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dealing with Morality and Dealing with Penetration?

Merit will grow for one who gives,
No risk is stored for one restrained,
One who is skilled abandons evil,
With exhaustion of lust, hate, delusion,
He attains complete extinction.

[Here] “Merit will grow for one who gives, No risk is stored for one restrained” is morality. “One who is skilled abandons evil, with exhaustion of lust, hate, delusion, He attains complete extinction” is penetration.

[And] (Five rewards can be expected when ideas that have entered the ear are consolidated by word of mouth, looked over by the mind, and well penetrated by [right] view (i) Here someone has heard many ideas, remembered and not forgotten them, consolidated them by word of mouth, looked over them with the mind, penetrated them well by [right] view, then when he devotes himself, strives and makes efforts, he reaches distinction here and now; (ii) and if he reaches no distinction here and now, he reaches it when ill; (iii) and if he reaches none when ill, he reaches it on the occasion of his time of dying; (iv) and if he reaches none on the occasion of his time of dying, he reaches it when a god; (v) and if he reaches none when a god, then through lust for the True Idea he reaches Hermit Enlightenment). Herein, “he reaches … here and now” is penetration. That he “reaches Hermit Enlightenment” in a future existence is morality.

81. These [are eight of the] sixteen types of Thread completely encompassing all the Dispensation: the ninefold Thread is analysed into these sixteen Thread-types. And this ninefold Thread is for one with understanding, not for one without understanding, for one devoted, not for one undevoted.

Discussion

1. Corruption—3 kinds

82. Normally in the world corruption haunts [even] one who abides without action. That corruption is threefold as (i) corruption by craving, (ii) corruption by View, and (iii) corruption by misconduct.

[Now] when he comes to stand out above (iii) that [last-named type of] corruption, then corruption establishes itself in the ideas [that he heard, and] it establishes itself in ideas belonging to the worlds, since he is unskilled as to what is seen there.

If he misapprehends that virtue: [owed to his climbing out of corruption by misconduct] and that view, then he has (i) corruption by craving. But if it occurs to him thus (By means of this virtue or duty … or divine life I shall be some god or other, then he has wrong view, and that is (ii) his corruption by wrong view.

2. Morality

83. But if he is established in virtue and his virtue-and-duty is not misapprehended, then he being virtuous, that [virtue-and-duty] of his, being taken in a reasoned manner, generates (non-remorse … down to … knowing and seeing of deliverance). And that good conduct thus conduces to his morality, [that is, to his moral progress] either here and now or on the occasion of his completing his time, or in other categories in some future existence. That is why this is called the type of Thread Dealing with Morality.

3. Penetration

84. Herein, [when,] being steadied in the virtues, his cognizance is without hindrances, [then] the Blessed One teaches him that True Idea for the abandoning of the embodiment-view.

85. [Finally] he reaches the supreme goal, extinction: he reaches the supreme extinction either with intervals between sessions, or else in a single session [he reaches all] the six Acquaintanceships.

86. Herein, those persons who [first] reach [extinction] in the Noble Ones' True Idea are of two kinds: the Follower by Faith and the Follower by Ideas.

Herein, the Follower by Ideas is (one who gains knowledge from a condensed statement) while the Follower by Faith is (guidable).

Herein, one who gains knowledge from a condensed statement is of two kinds: one may have keen faculties and another blunt faculties. And herein, one who is guidable is of two kinds: one may have keen faculties and another blunt faculties.

87. Herein, the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement with blunt faculties and the guidable-type with keen faculties [when classed as above under the two types] are unequal in their faculties; [but when] they are subtracted [respectively] from the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement and from the guidable-type, they, [being then regardable as] equal in their faculties, [constitute a third type, namely] the (one who gains knowledge from an expanded statement). These are thus the three person-types, without fourth and without fifth the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement, the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement, and the guidable-type.

88. Herein, the person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement, [whether] the faculties he obtains [are blunt or keen], when, being steadied on the plane of seeing, he reaches the fruit of Stream-Entry, he is a Single-Seed, the first type of Stream-Enterer. Herein, the person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement, [whether] the faculties he obtains [are blunt or keen], when, being steadied on the plane of seeing, he reaches the fruit of Stream-Entry, he is a Clan-to-Clan, the second type of Stream-Enterer. Herein, the person of the guidable-type, [whether] the faculties he obtains [are blunt or keen], when, being steadied on the plane of seeing, he reaches the fruit of Stream-Entry, he is a Seven-times-at-Most, the third type of Stream-Enterer.

[Now] these three types of persons are steadied in the fruit of Stream-Entry with diversity in their faculties, [and it is with diversity of faculties in each case] that the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement is a Single-Germ, the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement is a Clan-to-Clan and the guidable-type is a Seven-at-Most.

This is the type of Thread Dealing with Penetration.

4. The Adept

89. Now it is if someone makes efforts additional to that, that he reaches the supreme goal, extinction.

90. Herein, the keen-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement becomes two person-types on reaching the Non-Return Fruit: there is he-who-attains-extinction-early [in his next existence] and he-who-attains-extinction-late [there].

Herein, the keen-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement becomes two person-types on reaching the Non-Return Fruit: there is he-who-attains-extinction-without-prompting-determinations and he-who-attains-extinction-with-prompting-determinations.

Herein, the person of guidable-type, on reaching the Non-Return Fruit, is an Up-Streamer-Bound-For-The-Not-Junior-Gods.

91. [But] by taking account of difference in their faculties [in the cases of] the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement and the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement: [then] the keen-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement is one-who-attains-extinction-early, while the blunt-facultied one of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement is one-who-attains-extinction-late; [then] the keen-facultied one of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement is one-who-attains-extinction-without-prompting-determinations, while the blunt-facultied one of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement is one-who-attains-extinction-with-prompting-determinations. The guidable-type is the Up-Streamer-Bound-For-The-Not-Junior-Gods.

92. So the five kinds of Non-Returner, the Once-Returner as sixth, and the three kinds of Stream-Enterer, make up nine kinds of Initiate.

93. Herein, the keen-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement becomes two person-types on reaching Arahantship: the Both-Ways-Liberated and the Liberated-By-Understanding.

Herein, the blunt-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-a-condensed-statement becomes two person-types on reaching Arahantship: the Aeon-Delayer and the Essence-Of-Penetration.

Herein, the keen-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement becomes two person-types on reaching Arahantship: the Able-By-Choice and the Able-By-Guarding.

Herein, the blunt-facultied person of the type-gaining-knowledge-from-an-expanded-statement becomes two person-types on reaching Arahantship: the No-Extinction-Attainer-If-He-Chooses-Extinction-Attainer-If-He-Does-Not-Choose and the No-Extinction-Attainer-If-He-Guards-Extinction-Attainer-If-He-Does-Not-Guard.

Herein, the person of guidable-type who is not devoted to the pursuit of development is One-Liable-To-Fall-Away, or else owing to his being One-Certain-In-Action he becomes a Level-Head.

94. These are nine types of Arahants.

95. This is the fourfold Thread, namely that Dealing with Corruption, … that Dealing with the Adept.

The 10 Powers of a Perfect One

96. Now a Perfect One has a tenfold Power that occurs with regard to these person-types. How tenfold? Here when the Enlightened Ones, the Blessed Ones, have not yet set rolling the Wheel of the True Idea, gods' sons of great influence issue forth (?) to implore them thus (Let the Sublime One teach the True Idea). And he [the newly Enlightened One], on surveying the world with the unsurpassed Enlightened One's eye, sees three classes of creatures: the certain-of-rightness, the certain-of-wrongness and the not-certain.

1. Knowledge of Instance and Non-Instance

97. Herein, that the certain-of-rightness class might enter into wrong mindfulness (?): no such instance is found. That it might attain extinction without a teacher: no such instance is found. That it might enter upon an attainment [of concentration]: such an instance is found.

98. Herein, that the certain-of-wrongness class will practise noble right practice: no such instance is found. That it will practise ignoble wrong practice: such an instance is found.

Herein, (1) that the not-certain class, when rightly practising, will go to the certain-of-rightness class: such an instance is found. (2) That, when wrongly practising, it will go to the certain-of-rightness class: no such instance is found. (3) That, when rightly practising, it will go to the certain-of-wrongness class: no such instance is found. (4) That, when wrongly practising, it will go to the certain-of-wrongness class: such an instance is found.

99. (a) That anyone will in accordance with a True Idea accuse me thus “You, a Fully Enlightened One, who are surveying these three [classes] with the unsurpassed Enlightened Ones' eye, have not discovered these ideas”: no such instance is found.

100. (b) That anyone will in accordance with a True Idea accuse me, claiming [as I do] to be without lust, of having taints still unexhausted: no such instance is found.

101. (c) That after the teaching of the True Idea to this not-certain class it will not be seen [to conduce] to the complete exhaustion of suffering in him who gives it effect: no such instance is found.

102. (d) That a hearer of mine belonging to the not-certain class, being thus advised, will not verify any progressive distinction: no such instance is found.

103. (ii) That whoever of the many kinds of gods, naga-serpents or spirits with their many languages a Stilled One tames [in those languages] will go to a further shore other than the further shore stated by the definition of ideas [in the language of the texts]: no such instance is found: The Discrimination of Ideas.

104. (iii) That [a Stilled One] should not master those languages uttered by creatures as [their] language: no such instance is found: The Discrimination of Language.

105. (1) That [such] language [so used by him] should not intimate that meaning to those hearers who delight in the path that is not uneven (unrighteous): no such instance is found: The Discrimination of Meanings.

106. (iv) That when influential gods' sons approach and ask [a Stilled One] questions, the meaning might not be perspicuous to him because of his being bodily or mentally oppressed or because of his being embarrassed through palsy of a hand or lameness of a foot: no such instance is found: The Discrimination of Perspicuity.

107. That wherein quieting (?) of these is, therein non-quieting (?) of these is: no such instance is found. That wherein destruction of these is not, therein destruction of these will be: no such instance is found. [And as] for Origin, so for Cessation.

108. The ten unprofitable [and profitable] courses of action.

109. That womankind will be Māra or [Sakka] Ruler [of Gods] or a High Divinity or a Perfect One or a Wheel-Turner [Monarch]; no such instance is found. That a male may be a Wheel-Turner or Sakka Ruler of Gods: such an instance is found.

110. So such power, such knowledge, as this is called the Knowledge of Instance and No-Instance, the first Power of a Perfect One.

111. That can be demonstrated by the three classes, the four Intrepidities, the four Discriminations, Dependent Arising in [its] occurrence and standstill, and what happens in unprofitable and profitable ripening, and for the female and the male on reappearance.

A Perfect One knows this Power thus.

2. Knowledge of the Way that Leads Anywhere

112. Now as to the certain-of-rightness class [out] of [those three classes] which [were mentioned above], this is not the Way that Leads Anywhere, this is the way that leads only to extinction. Likewise also the certain-of-wrongness class, which is not the Way that Leads Anywhere, this is only the way leading to origin of embodiment. It is this [not-certain class, which], when steadied in a way [going] here or there, goes to extinction, goes to the state of unease, and goes to the divine and human states, or may go anywhere according to whatever way it may practise: this is the Way that Leads Anywhere.

113. Knowledge of how it is herein, is called Knowledge of the Way that Leads Anywhere, the second Power of a Perfect One.

3. Knowledge of Difference of Belief

114. Now this Way that Leads Anywhere [is followed by those] of differing beliefs: some [believe] in sensual desires, and some in performance of difficult feats, some are devoted to self-torment, some rely on [belief in] purity through the roundabout [of rebirths], some [believe in] ineffectuality [of action (?)].

115. Knowledge of how creatures come to be bound down by [the habit of] this or that kind of temperament understands how the world's varied field of beliefs comes to be.

116. This is the third Power of a Perfect One.

4. Knowledge of the Different Elements

117. Herein, when creatures are of such a belief, that [belief of theirs] they repeat, keep in being and make much of. When they repeat (?) it [thus], believing in it, that element sustains them. What is that? It is the sensual-desire element, the renunciation element, the ill-will element, the non-ill-will element, the cruelty element and the non-cruelty element that are believed in. Any other element beyond [namely the undetermined element beyond the determined element] they do not see; (obstinately misapprehending and insisting upon that alone, they assert “Only this is the true, the other is wrong”), as was said by the Blessed One to Sakka Ruler of Gods.

118. Knowledge of how it is herein, is called the fourth Power of a Perfect One.

5. Knowledge of Ripening of Action

119. Herein, whatever element [they believe] best, that they instigate through the body and through speech. The instigation is mental [choice] while the choice-as-action is is bodily and verbal. Because of the mentalness of the instigation a Perfect One understands the action-sequence thus “By this creature, who has such elements, such action was done, that being in the past period; with this as cause, such ripening of it is ripening now or will ripen in the future period”. He understands the presently arisen period thus “This person, who has such elements, is doing this action through craving and view; with this as cause, its ripening will be generated not only here and now but also either on the next reappearance or in some future state”. He understands [the future period] thus “This person will do such action; with this as cause such ripening of it will be generated”. There are (four undertakings of action: (i) this kind of undertaking of action has presently arisen pleasure and ripens as pleasure in the future; (ii) … etc. …).

120. So he understands this past, future, and presently arisen undertaking of action as to cause and as to instance, and the variety in its ripening, and the highness and lowness, the inferiority and superiority [of creatures]. This is called the Knowledge of Ripening of Action, the fifth Power of a Perfect One.

6. Knowledge of Corruption, etc., in the cases of the Meditations, etc.

121. Herein, whatever undertaking of action creatures are undertaking, therein he understands thus “When a person is a believer in [efficacy of] action and of lusting temperament, his cognizance (?) comes to fulfilment by means of the renunciation element. When he is occupied with the field of lust, his first meditation is corrupted; but if he again makes further efforts, then he is pursuing the way dealing with distinction [but doing so] on the mental level whose field of cleansing is the [first] meditation; for his meditation is [then still] only of the kind dealing with loss. Once steadied in the first meditation, then the second meditation comes to be his cleansing. And then, when he desires to enter upon the third meditation, the joy faculty invades his cognizance and remains steady. That happiness of his remains steady indicating the third meditation but not as dealing with distinction. If he understands how the escape is in its case, then in the same way the fourth meditation comes to be the cleansing too. [Now] there are the ideas [namely] the factors of the third meditation that deal with the loss of the fourth meditation, and where these ideas are produced it is by [the surmounting of] them that the fourth meditation is indicated as the cleansing. Similarly the Formless (?) Attainments, the four Concentrations (?), the three Gateways to Liberation, and the eight Liberations”.
  1. Meditations: the four Meditations.
  2. Liberations: the eight liberations and the three Gateways to Liberation.
  3. Concentration: the four kinds of concentration, namely concentration through will, concentration through energy, concentration through cognizance, and concentration through inquiry.
  4. Attainments: the four Formless (?) Attainments.

So when a person is of lusting temperament, such is the corruption of his meditations, liberations, [concentrations,] and attainments. Likewise for one of hating temperament and for one of deluded temperament. And when a person is of lusting temperament, such is his cleansing.

122. So knowledge of how it is herein, which is not shared [by disciples], is called the sixth Power of a Perfect One.

7. Knowledge of the Disposition of Creatures' Faculties

123. Herein, a Perfect One understands thus “Ideas belonging to worlds and ideas dissociated from worlds acquire the name ‘faculty’ when dealing with keeping-in-being in dependence upon the plane of [respective] predominance. They acquire the name ‘power’ in dependence upon the mind-faculty as confirmed mind-faculty; they acquire the name ‘energy’ in dependence upon the element of instigation”, so such being his knowledge, he also made the teaching of the True Idea thus “These persons are possessed of these ideas, according to the mood and according to the constituent of the leaning and inclination in the beliefs they possess”.

124. This is called Knowledge of Variety in the Faculties, Powers, and Energy, of other creatures, other persons, the seventh Power of a Perfect One.

8. The Recollection of Past Life, 9. The Heavenly Eye

125. Herein, by means of two powers a Perfect One understands the destination, in the planes and the worlds, etc., of those who have fetters and of those who are Initiates, [understanding it] in the past roundabout by means of the Recollection of Past Life [and understanding their] decease and reappearance now in this presently arisen [roundabout] by means of the Heavenly Eye. Thus these two powers are directed to the Heavenly Eye: that which was the Heavenly Eye's province in the past period becomes Mindfulness's province now.

126. So there is knowledge of his own past life in various ways and different aspects, and of others in the present period by means of the Heavenly Eye. These are two Powers of a Perfect One: Past Life the eighth and the Heavenly Eye the ninth.

10. Knowledge of Exhaustion of Taints

127. Again, a Perfect One understands the meditation of noble persons to be a cleansing and dealing with penetration thus “This person, having by means of this Path, by means of this Way, here and now verified and entered upon the heart-deliverance and understanding-deliverance that are taintless through exhaustion of taints, abides [therein]”. Such is the knowledge about the exhaustion of [his] own taints and the appropriate four-plane [knowledge] of those coefficient with view [exhausted by the Stream-Enterer] down to [that of those exhausted on the plane] of the nine kinds of Arahants, the exhaustion of taints [occurring] limitedly for Initiates and unlimitedly for Arahants. Herein, heart-deliverance is taintless with respect to two taints, namely the taint of sensual desire and the taint of being, while understanding-deliverance is taintless with respect to two taints, namely the taint of views and the taint of ignorance.

128. The knowledge of these two deliverances, how they come to be, is called Knowledge of Exhaustion of Taints, the tenth Power of a Perfect One.

The 4 Types of Thread as 5 Types

129. Steadied in these ten Powers, a Perfect One teaches the Dispensation in five types [of teaching] thus: (1) that dealing with corruption, (2) that dealing with morality, (3a) that dealing with seeing, (3b) that dealing with keeping in being, and (4) that dealing with the Adept.

1. Corruption

130. Herein, non-greed is the escape from corruption by craving non-delusion is the escape from corruption by view, and the three profitable [roots together] are the escape from corruption by misconduct. Why? Because there are these three kinds of mental misconduct, namely (i) covetousness, (ii) ill will, and (iii) wrong view.

131. Herein, (i) covetousness as mental misconduct assists the bodily action consisting in taking-what-is-not-given, and it aids all the speech-action anchored thereto, namely false speech—all speech that denies reality and what is, all contempt and domineering—and [it aids] covetousness as a root of unprofit. In the case of the [corresponding] good conduct, the good conduct is the choice of abstention from the false speech, from the taking-what-is-not-given, and from the covetousness.

132. Herein, (ii) ill will as mental misconduct aids the bodily action consisting in killing-breathing-things, and it aids all that verbal action consisting in refuting by “dragging to and dragging fro and jolting up”, [and] malicious speech [and] harsh speech.

133. (iii) Wrong view as mental misconduct gives purpose to (?) wrong view, covetousness and ill will, and in one who has any wrong view at all, his misconduct (?), whether born of lust or born of hate, is all given being by wrong view. It is for this reason that wrong view aids misconduct in sensual desires. The speech-action it aids is gossip.

134. These are the three kinds of misconduct. As to the unprofitable roots: the covetousness is greed, the ill will is hate, and the wrong view is delusion. These aid the eight Wrongnesses. It is when these three unprofitable roots are curbed that the tenfold profitable comes to fulfilment. From that threefold corruption by misconduct the type of Thread Dealing with Morality is the escape.

135. Herein, this demonstration is based on the plurality [of covetousness, ill will, and wrong view; and] it is in order for the greed, hate, and delusion also to correspond (?); that greed has prominence (pride of place) here for that reason; or else greed [has it because it] is [normally so] described among those [three] ideas [considered as roots].

2. Morality

136. Herein, the unprofitable root delusion is ignorance. That has insisted on form in four ways: one who goes by ignorance (sees form as self, or self possessing form, or form in self, or self in form).

137. Herein, the first term in [each of the four conjectures in] the embodiment-view belongs with annihilationism [in the following ways:] (The soul is what the physical frame is), the no-existence [of giving, etc.] view, the fortuitous-arising view, and [the view that] (one acts, another experiences [the action's ripening]) . The last three terms of the self-conjectures in the Embodiment-View belong with eternalism [in the following way:] (The soul is one, the physical frame another), and the no-causists fall [under this head] because of the likelihood that the doctrine of no-ought-to-be-done will being suffering, and also the ineffectuality of actions, [so (?)] is included (?).

138. Herein, the live-out-the-soul-ists describe eighty-six (?) kinds of purification through the roundabout [misapprehending it thus:] (Only this is true, the other is wrong).

139. Herein, just as the embodiment-view has four grounds in form, so it has twenty grounds in [all] the five categories. The soul-is-another-ists belong with the eternalness of the embodiment-view and belong with the holders of the eternalist doctrine. They misapprehend virtue and duty thus: (By means of this … I shall be some god or other). This is misapprehension of virtue and duty.

140. Herein, in the embodiment-view (he sees form as self), and he doubts, is uncertain, disbelieves, is not confident, about whether (the soul is what the physical frame is) in the future period and in the past period: this is imperfection in one steadied in [matters only] dealing with morality.

3a. Seeing

141. Herein, he abandons all uncertainty by means of the faith faculty. He sees rise and subsidence by means of the understanding faculty. He gives cognizance singleness by means of the concentration faculty. He instigates by means of the energy faculty. By means of these five faculties, as a follower by Faith he arouses the straight-resulting concentration, since he is certain in the confidence that is due to undergoing; and by means of these faculties when purified, as a Follower by Ideas, he arouses the straight-resulting concentration owed to independence of others, (he understands how it is that “This is Suffering”, …), [and so with the other three] Truths.

This is the type of Thread Dealing with Seeing.

3b. Keeping-in-Being

142. Herein, of the five hither-side fetters, three fetters are abandonable by Seeing; [while the other] two [are] altogether abandoned when done by two person-types.

143. Herein, the three roots of unprofit abandonable by Keeping-in-Being, discarded [in the progressively] higher [stages], still generate six kinds of being.

144. Herein, when among these [three roots] covetousness and ill will have been attenuated, and six kinds of being have come to grips with exhaustion, while two kinds of being still remain. When this covetousness and ill will are altogether exhausted and only one kind of being remains, that being is generated by conceit.

145. Now although here [in the Arahant Path, which is the last stage of the Initiate] there are also the other four [further-side fetters besides conceit], namely the defilements of lust-for-form, lust-for-being, ignorance, and agitation, since these are given their being by conceit as positionality, all [these seven kinds of Initiate] have no power to stop the conceit “I am”, [and so] one should instigate the abandoning of the conceit “I am”. But he whose taints are exhausted [by his reaching the Arahant's Fruit] is beyond this.

4. The Adept

146. While the [type of Thread] Dealing with Seeing [has regard] to five kinds of Initiate persons, and the type of Thread Dealing with Keeping-in-Being [has regard] to three who are practising the way and two who stand in the fruit, beyond these there is the type of Thread Dealing with the Adept, which has regard to (?) the plane of Him Who Has Done, and this is the fifth type of Thread.

The Ninefold Thread—General

147. This Thread [in general] is taught of three types of persons: of the ordinary man, of the Initiate, and of the Adept. That Dealing with Corruption and that Dealing with Morality [are taught] of the ordinary man, that Dealing with Seeing and that Dealing with Keeping-in-Being of the five kinds of Initiates, and that Dealing with the Adept demonstrated last of all Arahants.

148. Now this [Thread shown above as] fivefold can be sought in the twenty-seven moods, its range being among those and not beyond them. Again with abbreviation: that [Thread] falls into fifty moods, which fifty moods demonstrated in the Dispensation, when abbreviated, fall into ten moods, which, while remaining in the presentation of the Noble Truths, fall into eight moods, that is, into the four [unshared and four] shared, which are the plane of the Modes of Conveying in Combined Treatment. These when abbreviated fall into the five types of Threads, into that Dealing with Corruption, that Dealing with Morality, that Dealing with Seeing, that Dealing with Keeping-in-Being, and that Dealing with the Adept. These when abbreviated fall into the four types of Threads, into that Dealing with Corruption, that Dealing with Morality, that Dealing with Penetration, and that Dealing with the Adept. These when abbreviated fall into three types of Threads, into that Dealing with the Ordinary Man, that Dealing with the Initiate, and that Dealing with the Adept. These when abbreviated fall into two types of Threads, into that Dealing with Penetration and that Dealing with Previous Devotion, according as it was said by the Blessed One: (It is with two aims in view that Perfect Ones, arahants and fully enlightened, teach the True Idea, that is, Thread, song, … etc. … The Teachers [do so] conceiving that those possessed of previous devotion will easily attain mastery and conceiving that the previous devotion will [conduce] to creatures' remembering).

149. Herein, bearing in mind the idiosyncrasies of one's own understanding in regard to the eightfold Thread-abbreviation, the construing can be done here and there wherever one is able, and after so construing [the phrasing] here and there, the Thread's meaning can then be demonstrated.

150. No one can demonstrate how the Thread's meaning is without having lent an ear (?).

151. Here is a mnemonic verse for the first Threads:

Caught in the net of sensual murk,
And five in-shutting hindrances;
Ideas are heralded by mind,

And then the Sakyan Mahānāma;
Above, below, quite without lust,
What is the various virtues' aim;
Whose cognizance is like a rock,

The Upatissa Question beginning
“Whose mindfulness of body [is not]”;
Covered, dark dark-supreme-value;
That is not strong, and what is chosen

And “This world” and all the rest,
And the four kinds of persons too;
Merit will grow for one who gives,
And ideas entered by the ear

These are their mnemonic verse.

2nd Grouping

152. 9. Herein, what is Injunction?

Now if thou art afraid of pain
And pain thou findest disagreeable,
Then do no sort of evil act
In public or in secrecy.

[and] (Radha, do not look back … to past form …) can be quoted in detail.

This is called Injunction.

153. 10. Herein, what is Fruit?

The True Ideal guards him that walks therein,
As does a big umbrella in time of rain;
The Ideal's reward when walked in right is this:
Who walks therein has no bad destination,

[and] (Ānanda, one who is virtuous does not have to choose “How shall I have no remorse”?).

This is Fruit.

154. 11. Herein, what is Means?

[And then besides] not-self are all ideas”:
And so when he sees thus with understanding,
He then dispassion finds in suffering;
This path it is that leads to purification,

[and] the prose-exposition in the Sevens, namely (When a bhikkhu possesses seven factors, then even were Himalaya King of Mountains to move … what need to speak of mere ignorance?).

This is Means.

155. 12. Herein, what is Injunction and Fruit?

Now if thou art afraid of pain
And pain thou findest disagreeable,
Then do no sort of evil act
In public or in secrecy.
For if thou doest and wilt do
An evil act [no matter what],
Thou wilt no safety find from pain,
Even by flight to future states.

The Injunction is in the first verse and the Fruit in the second.

[And] (Two ideas should be kept in being by one established well in virtue …). The keeping of cognizance in being and the keeping of understanding in being are the Injunction and the fading of lust is the Fruit.

156. 14. Herein, what is Fruit and Means?

When a wise man, established well in Virtue,
Keeps Cognizance in being and Understanding,
Then as a bhikkhu ardent and sagacious
He succeeds in disentangling this tangle.

The Means is the first half-verse and the Fruit is the second half-verse.

[And] Nandiya the Sakyan desirous of abiding in the town dwelt in [for the Rains] by the Seer the Thread in the Elevens? from the start down to in regard to the Six Ideas and further in regard to the Five Ideas. That which is the task to be done is the Means; that his cognizance is liberated from the taint of sensual desire, and from all taints (?) in the good destinations (?) is the Fruit.

This is Fruit and Means.

157. 15. Herein, what is Injunction and Fruit and Means?

Look upon the world as void,
Mogharāja, constantly mindful;
With self-view thus eliminated
You may outstrip Mortality.

“Look upon the world as void, Mogharāja” is the Injunction. “Constantly mindful” is the Means. “With self-view thus eliminated, You may outstrip Mortality” is the Fruit.

[And] (Bhikkhus, keep concentration in being. Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu when concentrated understands form as impermanent. Seeing thus, a noble hearer is liberated from birth … etc. … and despair). Here also the three.

158. 16. Herein, what is Gratification?

When a mortal desires, if his desire is fulfilled, ….

[and] (It is with True Ideal conduct, with righteous conduct, with profitable conduct, as the causes that one is divine. Thus it is that here some creatures on the dissolution of the body, … reappear in a good destination, in the heavenly world).

This is Gratification.

159. 17. Herein, what is Disappointment?


If his desires elude him,
He becomes as deformed as if pierced by a barb.

[and] the Simile of the Mountain in the Pasenadi Saṃyutta.

This is Disappointment.

160. 18. Herein, what is Escape?

He that shuns desires, as a snake's head with his foot,
And is mindful, evades this attachment to the world,

[and] the Thread in the Saṃyutta: the Pāricchattaka [tree (?)] with the bleached foliage, with the spear (?) foliage).

This is Escape.

161. 19. Herein, what is Gratification and Disappointment?

Whatever actions a man does,
'Tis those that he sees in himself
And good is for the doer of good
And evil for the evil-doer.

Herein, what the evil-doer experiences is [Disappointment, while what the doer of good experiences is] Gratification.

[And] the prose-exposition in the Octads on (Gain and non gain) etc. Herein, the non-gain, non-fame, censure, and pain, there are the Disappointment, while the gain, fame, praise, and pleasure, these are the Gratification.

162. 20. Herein, what is Gratification and Escape?

Merit's ripening is pleasant
And brings success to one's intent,
And so one soon can reach the peace
Supreme that is extinction.

The “merit's ripening” and the “success to one's intent” are the Gratification, while that one can “soon reach the peace supreme that is extinction” is the Escape.

[And] (For a great man possessed of the thirty-two characteristics of a great man there are only two destinations …). [From] “If he lives on in the household life, he becomes a Wheel-Turning Monarch” … down to “… he lives on after conquering” … is Gratification. “If he goes forth from the household life into homelessness” is the Escape from all gratification (?).

This is Gratification and Escape.

163. 21. Herein, what is Disappointment and Escape?

Knowing fear of that assuming
Which gives birth and death their being,
He generates no more assuming
With birth's and death's complete exhaustion.

In the first half-verse the actual being of birth and death is the Disappointment. That he “generates no more assuming With birth's and death's complete exhaustion” is the Escape.

[And] (This world has surely happened upon woe since it is born and … dies … down to … how will there be an end to this suffering? or beyond. Here the scrutiny is the Disappointment. From “he goes forth knowing wants” down to the “ancient city, a royal capital” is the Escape.

This is Disappointment and Escape.

164. 22. Herein, what is Gratification and Disappointment and Escape?

For pleasing sense-desires, many and varied,
In many a different way constrain the heart;

So I went forth to homelessness, O King,

Best is the Monk's State Incontrovertible.

As to [the words] “for pleasing sense-desires, many and varied”, this is Gratification. As to “in many a different way constrain the heart”, this is the Disappointment. As to “So I went forth to homelessness, O King, … Best is the Monk's State Incontrovertible”, this is the Escape.

[And] the Thread with the Simile of the Salt-Crystal according as each action one does is experienceable, so is its ripening experienceable. Herein, by action experienceable as pain, he shows Disappointment [with the words] “By one who has not kept the body in being” down to “petty-hearted”. By action experienceable as pleasure he shows Gratification, which is like the preceding [clause]. “As to One who has kept cognizance in being, kept the body in being, and kept understanding in being, is great in himself, not petty-hearted”, this is Escape.

3rd Grouping

165. 23. Herein, what is the type of Thread Belonging to Worlds?

For evil action when performed,
Like new milk, does not turn [at once];
It follows like a lurking spark
The fool, burning him later on.

[and] the four (Goings on a Bad Way).

This is the type of Thread Belonging to Worlds.

166. 24. Herein, what is the type of Thread Dissociated From Worlds?

Whose faculties are well and truly quieted,
Like horses by a charioteer well trained,
With [all] conceit in him abandoned, taintless,
Then even to the gods he will be dear,

[and] (Bhikkhus, I shall teach you the Noble Superior Right Concentration).

This is the type of Thread Dissociated From Worlds.

167. 25. Herein, what is the type of Thread Belonging To Worlds and Dissociated From Worlds?

As pierced by a down-falling spear,
As though he had his head on fire,
A mindful bhikkhu sets about
Abandoning lust for sense desires.

“As pierced by a down-falling spear, As though he had his head on fire” belongs to worlds. “A mindful bhikkhu sets about Abandoning lust for sense desires” is dissociated from worlds.

[And] (Bhikkhus, if there is will for physical nutriment) belongs to worlds, while (If there is no will [for it]) is dissociated from worlds.

168. 26. Herein, what is Action?

Someone who kills a breathing thing,
Who speaks false speech, who in the world
Takes [to himself] what is not given,
Who goes too with another's wife,
Who has the habit to indulge
In drinking spirituous liquor.
Unless he these five risks abandons,
He is proclaimed unvirtuous.

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these three kinds of misconduct).

This is Action.

169. 27. Herein, what is Ripening?

Full sixty thousand years gone by
In ripening in such a form.

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are [the hells] with the six bases for contact; bhikkhus, whatever are [the hells] with the six bases providing contact are all).

This is Ripening.

170. 28. Herein, what is Action and Ripening?

As the rust-stain that grows out of the iron
Devours the iron wherefrom it takes its growth,
So too are led habitual transgressors
By their own acts to evil destinations.

[Here from] “As the rust-stain that grows out of the iron” down to “by their own acts” is Action. “Are led … to evil destinations” is Ripening.

[And] (When one practises the way rightly with regard to four, namely mother, father, a Perfect One, and a Perfect One's disciple): the practice of the way rightly is Action, while that [thereby] he reappears among gods is Ripening.

This is Action and Ripening.

171. 29. Herein, what is the Demonstrated type of Thread?

With faultless parts and a white awning
The chariot turns on a single spoke;
See how it moves quite undisturbed:
The stream is cleft, there are no bonds.

and the meaning [thereof] that the householder Citta demonstrated to the monks: this is how the meaning of this verse was demonstrated.

[And] the eleven terms in the Cattle-Herd Simile: (That is how a bhikkhu perceives form … down to … [how he] makes extra offerings), these eleven terms, as stated, are the meaning demonstrated of the simile.

172. 30. Herein, what is an Undemonstrated meaning?

Seclusion is bliss for one content,
And who has heard the truth, who sees.
Non-affliction is bliss in the world,
Restraint towards [all] breathing things.
Fading of lust is bliss in the world
Surmounting sensual desires.
Outguiding the Conceit “I am”,
That indeed is the bliss supreme:

This is Undemonstrated.

[And] the (Eight Thoughts of a Great Man): this is Undemonstrated.

173. 31. Herein, what is Demonstrated and Undemonstrated?

With clear eyes, with countenance bright,
Majestic, erect as a flame,
In the midst of this body of monks
Thou shinest like unto the sun.

[From] “With clear eyes” down to “Thou shinest like unto the sun” is Demonstrated. That he with the clear eyes is the Blessed One, and how he has clear eyes, how he has a fine face, how he has a divine body, how he is erect as a flame, and how he shines, is Undemonstrated.

[And] the prose-exposition of the Lump-of-Froth Simile: By “as a lump of froth is, so is form; as a bubble is, so is feeling;” … down to … “consciousness” the five categories are Demonstrated with the five similes. But the reason why form is similar to a lump of froth, and whether it is all [the kind that is] cognizable by the eye [only] or [also] that cognizable by the [other] four bases, [namely ear, nose, tongue, and body] and how feeling is similar to a bubble, and which kind of feeling it is, whether pleasant, painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant: this is Undemonstrated.

That is how it is Demonstrated and Undemonstrated.

174. 32. Herein, what is Knowledge?

Best in the world is understanding,
The kind that deals with penetration,
The kind that rightly understands
The exhaustion of birth and death.

[and] (There these three faculties, the I-shall-come-to-know-finally-the-as-yet-not-finally-known faculty, the act-of-final-knowing faculty, and the final-knower faculty).

This is Knowledge.

175. 33. Herein, what is the Knowable?

Clung to desires, clung with sensual clinging,
Seeing nothing blameworthy in fetters,
Assuredly those clung with fetter-clinging
Will never cross the vast abounding flood.

[and] (Possessed of four factors, on the dissolution of the body, … they reappear among the gods), namely the Kapiya (?) Thread in the Udāna on the Incontrovertible Confidence.

This is the Knowable.

176. 34. Herein, what is Knowledge and the Knowable?

[And then besides] not-self are all ideas:
And so when he sees thus with understanding,
He then dispassion finds in suffering:
This path it is that leads to purification.

“When he sees” is Knowledge. When he establishes all ideas in the mood of not-self, this is the Knowable.

[And] the (four Noble Truths). Herein, three are the Knowable, while, as to the Path Truth, the Virtue Category and Understanding Category are Knowledge.

177. 35. Herein, what is Seeing?

This is the only path, no other,
For the purification of seeing,
So do you practise the way therein:
This is bewilderment of Māra.

[and] (When a noble hearer is possessed of … four factors …, he could … declare himself to himself thus: “I have exhausted [risk of birth in] the hells … down to … I am a Stream-Enterer, no longer inseparable from the idea of perdition, certain [of rightness], bound for enlightenment”).

This is Seeing.

178. 36. Herein, what is Keeping-in-Being?

Whose faculties are well maintained in being
As to himself, without, and to all the world
Being a person of wit, perceptive of form,
How then shall the deluded come to know him?.

[and] (Four traces of the True Idea: non-covetousness … non-ill-will … right mindfulness … right concentration …).

This is Keeping-in-Being.

179. 37. Herein, what is Seeing and Keeping-in-Being?

He that opposes none in word or mind
Or [bodily] act, who knows the True Idea,
Aspiring to the state [that brings] extinction:
'Tis he can wander rightly in the world,

[and] (How many ideas must be given attention by one who desires to verify the fruit of Stream-Entry?) the Blessed One said (The Five Categories for assumption).

This is Seeing and Keeping-in-Being.

180. 38. Herein, what is Ideas Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening?

Whatever actions a man does
….

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these three kinds of good conduct).

This is Ideas Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening.

181. 39. Herein, what is Ideas Not Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening?

Form, and the felt, and then perception,
And consciousness, and choice besides:
“This is not I, nor this my self”,
When he sees thus his lust fades out

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these five categories).

This is Ideas Not Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening.

182. 40. Herein, what is the Idea neither Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening nor Not Inseparable from the Idea of Ripening?

Those who shall practise in this way
The guide-line by the Buddha taught
Will make an end of suffering
And carry out the Master's message.

So the right practice and cessation are both the Idea-neither inseparable-from-the-idea-of-ripening-nor-not-inseparable-from-the idea-of-ripening.

[And] (Bhikkhus, I shall teach you a divine life and the fruits of a divine life). [Here] the divine life is the Noble Eight-factored Path, while the fruits of the divine life are the fruit of Stream-Entry down to that of Arahantship.

183. 41. Herein, what is Our Own Statement?

No doing any kind of evil,
Perfecting profitable skill,
And purifying one's own heart:
This is the Buddha's dispensation,

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these three Gateways to Liberation).

This is Our Own Statement.

184. 42. Herein, what is Someone Else's Statement?

There is no loved one equal to one's child,
There are no riches equal to one's cattle,
No radiance is equal to the sun,
The sea is sure the greatest of the waters.

[and] (Kosiya, good sir, let there be victory in battle by what is well spoken) [with] (In fact, bhikkhus, this Sakka, Ruler of Gods, making use of his own merit's fruit …) can be quoted in detail.

This is Someone Else's Statement.

185. 43. Herein, what is Our Own Statement and Someone Else's Statement?

(What is [already] reached and is [still] to be reached are both contaminated with dirt [in him who trains as one [still] sick]For those with such a doctrine … there is no harm in sense-desire) . This is Someone Else's Statement. [Then] (For those who do not approach either extreme, there is no describing any round [or rebirth]). This is Our Own Statement.

[And]

A man with children finds relish through his children,
And a property-owner likewise through his property.
These essentials of existence are a man's relish;
Who has them not will never relish find.

which is Someone Else's Statement, while

A man with children finds sorrow through his children,
And a cattle-owner likewise through his cattle.
These essentials of existence are a man's sorrow;
Who has them not shall never sorrow find.

is Our Own Statement.

This is Our Own Statement and Another's Statement.

186. 44. Herein, what is Expressed in Terms of Creatures?

All beings there are [and that] will come to be
Will travel on abandoning their bodies—
A skilled man knowing all that loss
Would lead the True Ideal Life Divine.

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are three kinds of teachers: an accomplished Perfect One, an Initiate, and one practising the way).

This is Expressed in Terms of Creatures.

187. 45. Herein, what is Expressed in Terms of Ideas?

What sensual bliss is in the world
Or what the bliss in heaven [then],
All is not worth a sixteenth part
Of bliss come with exhausted craving.

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these seven enlightenment factors).

188. 46. Herein, what is Expressed in Terms of Creatures and Expressed in Terms of Ideas?

Unbiassed Truth is hard to see,
Penetration hard for fools to see,
For one who knows, for him that sees,
There is no relishing, I say.

“Unbiassed Truth is hard to see, Penetration hard for fools to see” is Expressed in Terms of Ideas, while “For one who knows, for him that sees, there is no relishing, I say” is Expressed in Terms of Creatures.

[And] the Simile of the Balk of Timber on the Banks of the Ganges: the “near bank”, the “further bank”, the being “thrown up on dry land”, the “foundering in the middle”, the being “seized by non-human beings”, and the “becoming rotten with” are Expressed in Terms of Ideas. [The phrase] “Thus a bhikkhu will be inclined to extinction” is Expressed in Terms of Creatures.

This is Expressed in Terms of Creatures and Expressed in Terms of Ideas.

189. 47. Herein, what is Eulogy?

The Eightfold Path is the best of paths,
The four States are the best of truths,
Fading of Lust the best Ideal,
And One with Vision the best of bipeds.

[and] (Bhikkhus, there are these three foremost things …): of creatures, an Enlightened One; of ideas, the Fading of Lust; of societies, the Community.

This is Eulogy.

190. 48. Herein, what is the Agreed?

Good is bodily restraint,
Good too is restraint of speech,
Good as well restraint of mind:
Everywhere restraint is good.
Everywhere restrained, a bhikkhu
Is released from every pain.

This is agreed by the Blessed One.

[And] (Bhikkhus, there are these three [things] to be done … Bodily good conduct, verbal good conduct, mental good conduct)

This is the Agreed.

191. 49. Herein, what is the Refused?

There is no loved one equal to one's child,

in detail. This is the Refused.

[And] (Bhikkhus, there are these three [things] not to be done, which are taught [by me] after acquaintance [with them]. What [three]? Bodily misconduct, verbal misconduct, mental misconduct).

This is the Refused.

192. 50. Herein, what is the Agreed and Refused?

Let him do profit by the body;
His body being then restrained,
Leaving misconduct by the body,
Let him pursue good bodily conduct.

With the first two lines and with the fourth he agrees, while with the third line— (Leaving misconduct by the body)—he refuses.

[And] the four persons (?) in the Great Analysis [of Action].

193. Herein, these are the mnemonic verses:

Now if thou art afraid of pain,
And have no relish for the future;
Like an umbrella in time of rain,

What purpose has the profitable?;
And then not-self are all ideas,
It would not move a man possessing;
Thou wilt no safety find from pain,

And also quiet and insight too;
Owing to lust for sense-desires
He is devoured by his thoughts,
Enlightenment Factors kept in being,

He the tangle disentangles;
Then look upon the world as void,
And keep in being concentration;
If his desires when desiring,

Good destination from true conduct;
Deformed as if pierced by a barb,
Crushing from all the four directions;
And also he that shuns desires,

The Pāricchattaka Simile;
Whatever actions a man does,
The worldly eight ideas displayed;
And merit's ripening is pleasant,

No third alternative exists;
Knowing the fear from that assuming,
That is it born and that it dies;
Sense-desires are many and varied,

The Simile of the Salt-Crystal;

For evil actions when performed,
And he that goes by the bad ways;
Whose faculties are truly quieted,

And the Noble (?) concentration (?);
As pierced by a down-falling spear,
When consciousness has a steadying-point;
Someone who kills a breathing thing,

And then misconduct of three kinds
Full sixty thousand years gone by,
And difficult to find the moment;
And as the stain upon the iron,

And in the four Right Practices;
With faultless parts and a white awning,
The Simile of the Cattle-Owner;
Seclusion bliss for the contented,

And when the [eight] thoughts are well taught;
The Simile of the Lump of Froth
With clear eyes and bright countenance;
Best in the world is understanding,

Three faculties with none besides;
Such creatures clung to sense-desires,
Uncontroverted confidence;
[Besides,] not-self are all ideas,

The Noble Truth as it is taught;
This is the only path, no other,
Declares himself Stream-Enterer,
Whose faculties are kept in being,

And traces of the True Idea;
[Opposing none] in words or mind,
Impermanent five categories;
Whatever actions a man does,

There are three kinds of conduct good;
Form and feeling and perception,
Five categories are displayed;
He that shall practise in this way,

And then the fruits of life divine;
No doing any kind of evil,
Gateways to Liberation taught;
There is no loved one like one's child,

The gods and the asura demons;
The already reached, the not yet reached,
Relish and sorrow everlasting;
Whatever beings are and will be,

What kinds of teachers are displayed;
Out guiding sensual bliss in the world,
Seven enlightenment factors taught;
Unbiassed Truth is hard to see,

[The Balk-of-Timber Simile];
The Eightfold is the best of paths,
And then the three foremost described;
And good is bodily restraint,

And what is to be done as taught;
There is no loved one like one's child,
And what should not be done as taught
Let him do profit by the body,

[The Great Analysis of Action]

In the Piṭaka-Disclosure the second chapter called the “Pattern of the Dispensation” is completed.

- Translator: Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli

- Editor: Manfred Wierich