Aṇguttara Nikāya
Catukka Nipāta
XIII: Bhaya Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
The Book of the Fours
XIII: Fears
Sutta 124.
Puggala Sutta (2)
Different persons (b)
Translated from the Pali by F. L. Woodward, M.A.
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On a certain occasion the Exalted One was staying near Sāvatthī.
Then the Exalted One addressed the monks, saying:
"Monks."
"Yes, lord," they replied, and the Exalted One said:
"Monks, these four persons are found existing in the world.
What four?
Now, monks, a certain person here,
aloof from sense-desires,
aloof from evil conditions,
enters upon the first musing,
which is accompanied by thought directed and sustained,
born of seclusion,
zestful and easeful,
and having attained it abides therein.
There, whatsoever conditions arise by way of form,[1]
feeling,
perception,
the activities,
consciousness,
those conditions he comes to regard as impermanent,
as Ill,
as a disease,
as an imposthume,
as a barb,
as pain,
ill-health,
alien,
transitory,
as empty
and not of the self.[2]
When body breaks up after death
he is reobrn in the company
of the devas of the Pure Abodes.[3]
Monks, this rebirth is not partaken of by ordinary men.
■
Again, monks, a certain person here,
by the calming down of thought directed and sustained,
enters upon the second musing,
that calming of the inner self,
that one-pointedness of mind
apart from thought directed and sustained,
that is born of mental balance,
zestful and easeful,
and having attained it
and having attained it abides therein.
There, whatsoever conditions arise by way of form,
feeling,
perception,
the activities,
consciousness,
those conditions he comes to regard as impermanent,
as Ill,
as a disease,
as an imposthume,
as a barb,
as pain,
ill-health,
alien,
transitory,
as empty
and not of the self.
When body breaks up after death
he is reobrn in the company
of the devas of the Pure Abodes.
Monks, this rebirth is not partaken of by ordinary men.
■
Again, monks, a certain person here,
by the fading out of zest,
disinterested,
mindful and composed,
experiences in his own person
that ease of which the Ariyans declare:
"He who is disinterested and alert
dwells at ease,"
— thus he attains and abides in the third musing.
There, whatsoever conditions arise by way of form,
feeling,
perception,
the activities,
consciousness,
those conditions he comes to regard as impermanent,
as Ill,
as a disease,
as an imposthume,
as a barb,
as pain,
ill-health,
alien,
transitory,
as empty
and not of the self.
When body breaks up after death
he is reobrn in the company
of the devas of the Pure Abodes.
Monks, this rebirth is not partaken of by ordinary men.
■
Once more, monks, a certain person here,
by abandoning both ease and discomfort,
by the ending of both happiness and unhappiness felt before,
attains the fourth musing,
a state of neither ease nor discomfort,
an equanimity of utter purity,
and having attained it abides therein.
There, whatsoever conditions arise by way of form,
feeling,
perception,
the activities,
consciousness,
those conditions he comes to regard as impermanent,
as Ill,
as a disease,
as an imposthume,
as a barb,
as pain,
ill-health,
alien,
transitory,
as empty
and not of the self.
When body breaks up after death
he is reobrn in the company
of the devas of the Pure Abodes.
Monks, this rebirth is not partaken of by ordinary men.
So these four persons are found existing in the world.'
[1] Rūpa-gataṇ. Comy. 'just rūpa.'
[2] The body-grasping group. Cf. K.S. iii, 103 n., 155, iv, 50, 135.
[3] Suddhāvāsa. Cf. S. i, 26 (SA. i, 75); G.S. i, 213; K.S. v, 58, 180 (where I wrongly trans. Akaniṭṭha by 'Pure Abodes'); Dial. ii, 39 n. ('Peerless Ones'): 'The five rūpa-lokas which are the abode of the non-returning khīṇāsava.' Such an one is called 'one who goes upstream (uddhaṇsota).' Comy. on text below states that by developing the fourth jhāna he is reborn there. Ordinary men fall back to rebirth in a good family. Apparently this development by musing is necessary to lift one out of the 'downward' stream.
