Aṇguttara-Nikāya
III. Tika Nipāta
IX. Samaṇa Vagga

The Book of the Gradual Sayings
or
More-Numbered Suttas
III. The Book of the Threes
IX. The Recluse

Sutta 88

Paṭhama Sikkhā Suttaṃ

Training (a)

Translated from the Pali by
F.L. Woodward, M.A.

Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved

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[214]

[1][than] Thus have I heard:

On a certain occasion the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:

"Monks."

"Yes, Lord," replied those monks to the Exalted One.

The Exalted One said this:

"Monks, there are these three forms of training.

What three?

[215] The training in the higher morality,
that in the higher thought
and that in the higher insight.

 

§

 

And what, monks, is the training in the higher morality?

Herein a monk lives virtuous,
restrained with the restraint of the obligations;
proficient in following the practice of right conduct
he sees danger in the slightest faults:
he takes up and trains himself
in the rules of morality.

This is called
'the training in the higher morality.'

■

And what, monks, is the training in the higher thought?

Herein a monk, remote from sensual desires,
aloof from unprofitable states of mind,
enters on the first musing
which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained,
born of seclusion,
zestful and easeful,
and abides therein.

Then, by calming down thought directed and sustained,
he enters on that inward calm,
that single-minded purpose,
apart from thought directed and sustained,
born of mental balance,
zestful and easeful,
which is the second musing,
and abides therein.

Then by the fading out of zest
he becomes balanced
and remains mindful and composed,
and experiences with the body
that happiness of which the Ariyans aver:

'The balanced, thoughtful man lives happily,'

and he enters on the third musing
and abides therein.

Then, by rejecting pleasure and pain alike,
by the coming to an end
of the joy and sorrow which he had before,
he enters and abides in the fourth musing,
free of pain and free of pleasure,
a state of perfect purity
of balance and equanimity.

This is called
'the training in the higher thought.'^[1]

■

And what, monks, is the training in the higher insight?

Herein a monk understands, as it really is, the meaning of:

This is Ill.

This is the arising of Ill.

This is the ending of Ill.

This is the practice leading to the ending of Ill.

This is called
'the training in the higher insight.'

These are the three forms of training."^[2]

 

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^[1] Here 'higher consciousness' would be a more appropriate rendering for adhi-citta, since 'thought' has ceased in this trance.

^[2] Cf. Buddh. Psych. 110 ff.; Buddhism (1912), 199; Dialog. iii, 213.