9.
The Discourse to Jāṇussoṇi
60. Then the brahmin Jāṇussoṇi approached the Blessed One; having approached, together with the Blessed One... etc. Seated to one side, the brahmin Jāṇussoṇi said this to the Blessed One - "For whoever, Master Gotama, has a sacrifice or a memorial offering or a pot of boiled rice or a gift, one should give a gift to brahmins who possess the threefold true knowledge." "In what way, brahmin, do brahmins declare one to possess 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 Jāṇussoṇi assented to the Blessed One. The Blessed One said this -
"Here again, brahmin, a monk, quite secluded from sensual pleasures... etc. he enters and dwells in the fourth meditative absorption.
"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, etc. 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, etc. 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'... etc. '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... etc. 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.
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 ninth.