8.
The Discourse with Tikaṇṇa
59. Then the brahmin Tikaṇṇa approached the Blessed One; having approached, together with the Blessed One... etc. Seated to one side, the brahmin Tikaṇṇa, in the presence of the Blessed One, praised the brahmins who possess the threefold true knowledge - "Thus are the brahmins who possess the threefold true knowledge, such are the brahmins who possess the threefold true knowledge."
"In what way, brahmin, do brahmins declare a brahmin to be one who possesses the threefold true knowledge?" "Here, Master Gotama, a brahmin is well-born on both sides, on his mother's side and on his father's side, of pure descent up to the seventh generation of ancestors, unassailed and irreproachable with respect to birth; he is a reciter, a bearer of the sacred texts, who has mastered the three Vedas together with their vocabularies and rituals, phonology and etymology, and the histories as a fifth, learned in verse, a grammarian, fully versed in worldly knowledge and the marks of a great man. Thus indeed, Master Gotama, brahmins declare one to possess the threefold true knowledge."
"In one way, brahmin, brahmins declare a brahmin to possess the threefold true knowledge, but in another way one possesses the threefold true knowledge in the Noble One's discipline." "In what way, Master Gotama, does one possess the threefold true knowledge in the Noble One's discipline? It would be good if Master Gotama would teach me the Teaching in such a way that one possesses the threefold true knowledge in the Noble One's discipline." "If so, brahmin, listen, pay close attention; I will speak." "Yes, sir," the brahmin Tikaṇṇa assented to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said this -
"Here, brahmin, a monk, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome mental states, enters and dwells in the first meditative absorption, which is accompanied by applied thought and sustained thought, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. With the subsiding of applied and sustained thought, he enters and dwells in the second meditative absorption, which has internal confidence and unification of mind, is without applied thought and without sustained thought, with rapture and happiness born of concentration. With the fading away of rapture, he dwells equanimous, mindful and fully aware, and experiences happiness with the body - that which the noble ones declare: 'One who is equanimous and mindful, one who dwells in happiness' - he enters and dwells in the third meditative absorption. With the abandoning of pleasure and with the abandoning of pain, and with the previous disappearance of joy and displeasure, he enters and dwells in the fourth meditative absorption, which has neither-unpleasant-nor-pleasant and purity of mindfulness due to equanimity.
"When the mind is thus concentrated, pure, bright, without blemish, free from impurities, supple, wieldy, stable, and having attained imperturbability, he inclines the mind towards the knowledge of recollecting past lives. He recollects manifold past lives, as follows - one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many cosmic cycles of universe-contraction, many cosmic cycles of universe-expansion, many cosmic cycles of universe-contraction and expansion - 'There I was, having such a name, such a clan, such beauty, such food, experiencing such pleasure and pain, with such a life span; passing away from there, I arose there. There too I was, having such a name, such a clan, such beauty, such food, experiencing such pleasure and pain, with such a life span; passing away from there, I arose here.' Thus with aspects and terms he recollects manifold past lives. This is his first true knowledge attained; ignorance was destroyed, true knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed, light arose, as happens for one dwelling diligent, ardent, and resolute.
"When the mind is thus concentrated, pure, bright, without blemish, free from impurities, supple, wieldy, stable, and having attained imperturbability, he inclines the mind towards the knowledge of the passing away and rebirth of beings. With the divine eye, which is pure and surpasses the human, he sees beings passing away and arising, inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and he understands beings according to their actions - 'These beings indeed, sirs, endowed with bodily misconduct, etc. endowed with mental misconduct, revilers of the noble ones, holding wrong views, undertaking actions based on wrong views, upon the body's collapse at death, they have arisen in a realm of misery, an unfortunate realm, a nether world, in hell. But these beings, sirs, endowed with bodily good conduct, endowed with verbal good conduct, endowed with mental good conduct, not revilers of the noble ones, holding right views, undertaking actions based on right views, upon the body's collapse at death, they have arisen in a fortunate realm, in a heavenly world.' Thus with the divine eye, which is pure and surpasses the human, he sees beings passing away and arising, inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, and he understands beings according to their actions. This is his second true knowledge attained; ignorance was destroyed, true knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed, light arose, as happens for one dwelling diligent, ardent, and resolute.
"When the mind is thus concentrated, pure, bright, without blemish, free from impurities, supple, wieldy, stable, and having attained imperturbability, he directs and inclines the mind towards the knowledge of the elimination of mental corruptions. He understands as it really is: 'This is suffering'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the origin of suffering'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the cessation of suffering'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the practice leading to the cessation of suffering.' He understands as it really is: 'These are the mental corruptions'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the origin of mental corruptions'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the cessation of mental corruptions'; he understands as it really is: 'This is the practice leading to the cessation of mental corruptions.' For one knowing thus, seeing thus, the mind becomes liberated from the mental corruption of sensuality, the mind becomes liberated from the mental corruption of existence, the mind becomes liberated from the mental corruption of ignorance. when liberated, there is the knowledge: 'Liberated.' He understands: 'Birth is eliminated, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done has been done, there is no more of this state of being.' This is his third true knowledge attained; ignorance was destroyed, true knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed, light arose, as happens for one dwelling diligent, ardent, and resolute."
Whose mind has become mastered, fully focused, well concentrated.
The welfare of gods and humans, they call him one who has abandoned all.
The Buddha, bearing his final body, to him, Gotama, they pay homage.
And also has attained the destruction of birth, the sage accomplished through direct knowledge.
Him I call one with the threefold true knowledge, not another who merely talks and prattles."
"Thus, brahmin, in the Noble One's discipline one becomes a possessor of the threefold true knowledge." "In one way, Master Gotama, is the possessor of the threefold knowledge of the brahmins, and in another way is the possessor of the threefold true knowledge in the Noble One's discipline. And moreover, Master Gotama, the possessor of the threefold knowledge of the brahmins is not worth a sixteenth fraction of the possessor of the threefold true knowledge in the Noble One's discipline."
"Excellent, Master Gotama! Etc. May Master Gotama remember me as a lay follower who has gone for refuge from this day forth for life." The eighth.