Aṇguttara-Nikāya
III. Tika Nipāta
X. Loṇa-Phala Vagga

The Book of the Gradual Sayings
or
More-Numbered Suttas
III. The Book of the Threes
X. A Grain of Salt

Sutta 96

Tatiyam Ājānīya Suttaṃ

The Thoroughbred (c)

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

Copyright The Pali Text Society
Commercial Rights Reserved

For details see Terms of Use.

 

---

[224]

[1] Thus have I heard:

Once the Exalted One was dwelling near Sāvatthī.

There the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:

"Monks."

"Yes, lord," they replied, and the Exalted One said:

"Possessed of three qualities, monks,
a rajah's noble thoroughbred steed
is worthy of the rajah,
a royal possession,
and is reckoned an attribute of royalty.

What are the three?

Herein, monks, the rajah's noble thoroughbred
is blessed with beauty,
with strength
and speed.

These are the three qualities,
possessed of which
a rajah's noble thoroughbred steed
is worthy of the rajah,
a royal possession,
and is reckoned an attribute of royalty.

■

2. In like manner, monks,
possessed of three things
a monk is worthy of offerings,
worthy of hospitality,
worthy of gifts,
of salutations with clasped hands,
a field of merit unsurpassed for the world.

What three?

Beauty (of life),
strength (of character)
and speed (of insight).

 

§

 

3. And how is a monk blessed
with beauty (of life)?

Herein a monk is moral,
he lives restrained
with the restraint of the obligations,
proficient in the practice of good conduct;
seeing danger in trifling faults,
he trains himself in the rules
by undertaking them.

In this way he has beauty (of life).

■

4. And how is a monk blessed
with strength (of character)?

Herein a monk dwells ardent in energy,
ever striving to abandon bad qualities,
to acquire good qualities,
strenuously exerting himself,
not throwing off the burden
in good qualities.

In this way he has strength.

■

5. And how is a monk blessed with speed?

Herein a monk,
by the destruction of the āsavas,
in this very life
knowing it thoroughly
realizes the heart's release,
the release by insight
which is free from the āsavas,
and having attained it
abides therein.

In this way a monk is blessed with speed.'

Possessed of these three qualities a monk is worthy of offerings
worthy of hospitality,
worthy of gifts,
of salutations with clasped hands,
a field of merit unsurpassed for the world."