Aṅguttara Nikāya
VIII. Navaka Nipāta
IV. Mahā Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
VIII. The Book of the Nines
Chapter IV: The Great Chapter
Sutta 37
Ānanda Suttaɱ
The Venerable Ānanda
Translated from the Pali by E.M. Hare.
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[1][than][olds][upal] Thus have I heard:
Once the venerable Ānanda, while he dwelt at Kosambī in Ghosita Park, addressed the monks, saying:
'Reverend sirs!'
'Reverend sir,' they rejoined; and he said:
'It is wonderful, amazing, reverend sirs,
how this way of escape[1] from the noose
awoke within the Exalted One,
knower, seer, arahant,
wholly awakened,
to purge man,
pass by grief and lamentation,
bring ill and unhappiness to an end,
pursue the way
and realize the cool!
■
There will be[2] just the eye,
but no sensing of objects and the sphere thereof;
there will be the ear,
but no sensing of sounds and the sphere thereof;
there will be the nose,
but no sensing of smells and the sphere thereof;
there will be the tongue,
but no sensing of tastes and the sphere thereof;
there will be the body,
but no sensing of touch and the sphere thereof.'
§
Now when he had thus spoken,
the venerable Udāyin[3] said to him:
'Is then he, who senses not a sphere,
percipient,
reverend Ānanda,
or impercipient?'
'He's certainly percipient,
reverend sir, ...'
■
'But how can he be percipient
and yet sense not the sphere?'
'Consider, sir, a monk who,
by passing wholly beyond form-perception,
bringing to an end perception-reaction,
inattentive to the diverse perceptions,
enters and abides in
the sphere of infinite space, thinking:
"Space is infinite" —
he is thus percipient,
but senses not that sphere.
■
Again, consider the monk who,
passing wholly beyond the sphere of space-infinity,
enters and abides in the sphere of consciousness-infinity, thinking:
"Consciousness is infinite" —
he is thus percipient,
but senses not that sphere.
■
Then, consider the monk who,
passing wholly beyond the [287] sphere of consciousness-infinity,
enters and abides in the sphere of nothingness, thinking:
"There is nothing " —
he is thus percipient,
but senses not that sphere.
§
Now at one time, reverend sirs,
I dwelt in the Deer Park at Añjana Grove near Sāketa;[4]
and there a nun of Jaṭilāgāha[5] visited me,
saluted and stood at one side.
Thus standing, she said to me:
"Lord Ānanda,
this concentration which is neither bent away
nor bent aside,[6]
in which the restraint is not controlled by conscious effort,
but by its freedom is stable,
by its stability is happy
and by its happiness is untroubled[7] —
this concentration, lord Ānanda,
what is its fruit said to be
by the Exalted One?"
■
And when she had thus spoken, I replied:
"This concentraation, sister,
which is neither bent away
nor bent aside,
in which the restraint is not controlled by conscious effort,
but by its freedom is stable,
by its stability happy,
by its happiness unntroubled —
this concentration, sister,
is said, by the Exalted One,
to have gnosis[8] as its fruit."
He is thus percipient, reverend sirs,
but he senses not that sphere.'
[1] This reours at G.S. iii, 224; cf. below, p. 296; D. ii, 214.
[2] Bhavissati.
[3] Comy. Kā'udāyin; see A. i, 25; A.A. i, 300; J. i, 85; Brethr. 248.
[4] In Kosala, some forty-five miles south of Sāvatthi, see Buddh. India 39; Chwang i, 375; Sisters, 158.
[5] Comy. An inhabitant of that city. There is a reading, — bhāgikā, and perhaps we should translate 'from the Jaṭilas' quarter' — the name does not seem to recur elsewhere.
[8] Comy. arahantship.
