Aṇguttara Nikāya
4. Catukka Nipāta
IV. Cakka Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
The Book of the Fours
IV: The Wheel
Sutta 38
Patilīna Suttaṃ
Withdrawn
Translated from the Pali by F. L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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"Monks, a monk who has shaken off individual beliefs,
who[1] has utterly given up quests,
whose body-complex is calmed,
is called "withdrawn."[2]
And how is a monk one who has shaken off individual beliefs?
Herein, monks, whatsoever individual beliefs generally prevail
among the generality of recluses and brahmins,
to wit:
The world is eternal or
The world is not eternal:
The world is finite or
The world is infinite:
What is life,
that is [48] body; or
One thing is life,
another thing is body;
A Tathāgata is beyond death or
A Tathāgata is not beyond death; or,
He both is and is not; or,
He neither is nor is not beyond death, -
all these beliefs of his are given up,
vomited up,
dropped,
abandoned,
and renounced.[3]
That, monks, is how a monk has shaken off individual beliefs.
And how is a monk one who has utterly given up quests?
Herein, monks, the quest after sense-pleasure is abandoned by a monk,
the quest after becoming is abandoned,
the quest after the holy life has become allayed.[4]
That, monks, is how a monk is one who has utterly given up quests.
And how is a monk one whose body-complex is calmed?
Herein a monk, by abandoning pleasure
and abandoning pain,
by the coming to an end
of the ease and discomfort which he had before,
attains and abides in a state of neither pain nor pleasure,
an equanimity of utter purity,
which is the fourth musing.
That, monks, is how a monk is one whose body-complex is calmed.[5]
And how is a monk "withdrawn"?[6]
Herein, monks, the conceit of "I am" is abandoned in a monk,
cut off at the root,
made like a palm-tree stump,
made not to become again,
of a nature not to arise again in future time.
That, monks, is how a monk is withdrawn.
Monks, a monk who has shaken off individual beliefs
who has utterly given up quests,
whose body-complex is calmed,
is called "withdrawn."
The quests of sense, becoming, God-life -
(These three) accumulations of wrong view
[49] Become perversion of the truth. In him
Who from all sensual lust is purified,
Who by destroying craving is set free,
Quests are renounced, wrong views are rooted out.
That monk at peace, composed and tranquil-minded,
Unconquered one, by comprehending pride
Awakened one, - 'tis he is called "withdrawn."'[7]
[1] Panuṇṇa-pacceka-saceo. At D. iii, 269 = Dial. iii, 247, these three items form part of the 'ten Ariyan methods of living' (Ariya-vasa), and are recorded in Asoka's Bhabra Edict. [Text inserts vā after -sambhāro, which is not in Sinh. MS. or below at § 4 of this sutta.]
[2] Paṭilīna. Comy. nilīno ekī-bhāvaṃ upagato.
[4] Acc. to Comy. the first quest is abandoned on the path of nonreturn, the second on the Arahant path, whereon also the desire for the God-life (having been satisfied) is abandoned; but the diṭṭhi held about it is dropped by the Stream-winner. At Dial. iii, 209, it is taken as the quest of 'problems connected with' the God-life, such as the self and its origin, nature and ending, etc. Cf. K.S. v, 43 n.
[5] Treated more fully in suttas On the Faculties, K.S. v, 188 ff.
[6] SA. i, 106 quotes this sutta and passage.
