Aṇguttara Nikāya
X. Dasaka-Nipāta
III. Mahā Vagga
The Book of the Gradual Sayings
X. The Book of the Tens
III: The Great Chapter
Sutta 29
Paṭhama Kosala Suttaṃ
The Kosalan (a)
Translated from the Pali by F. L. Woodward, M.A.
Copyright The Pali Text Society
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[1][than][bodh][olds] 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:
"Monks, as far as the Kasi Kosalans extend,
as far as the rule of Pasenadi the Kosalan rājā extends,
therein Pasenadi the Kosalan rājā is reckoned chief.
■
Yet, monks, even for Pasenadi the Kosalan rājā
there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
on feeling [41] revulsion
his interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, as far as the moon and sun move in their course
and light up all[1] quarters with their radiance,
so far extends the thousandfold world-system.
■
Therein are a thousand moons,
a thousand suns,
a thousand Sinerus lords of mountains;
therein are a thousand Rose-apple Lands,[2]
a thousand Western Ox-wains,
a thousand Northern Kurūs,
a thousand Eastern Videhas;
four thousand mighty oceans,
four thousand Mighty Rulers,
four thousand Four-Great-Rulers;
a thousand Heavens of the Thirty-three,
one thousand Yama-worlds,
one thousand Heavens of the Devas of Delight,
one thousand Heavens of the Devas who delight in creation,
one thousand of those Devas who delight in others' creations,
and one thousand Brahma-worlds.
■
As far, monks, as the thousandfold world-system extends,
[60] therein the Great Brahma is reckoned chief.
■
Yet even for the Great Brahma, monks,
there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
There comes a time, monks,
when this world rolls up.[3]
As the world rolls up,
beings are generally reborn as Radiant Ones.[4]
There they are made as if of mind,
feeding on joy,
self-radiant,
faring through the sky,
in splendour abiding,
for a long, long time they stand fast.
Monks, when the world rolls up,
it is the Radiant Devas who are reckoned chief.
■
Yet for the Radiant Devas
there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, there are these ten ranges of the devices.
What ten?[5]
[1] One person perceives the earth-device as above, below, [42] across, undivided, immeasurable.
[2] Another person perceives the water-device as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[3] Another person perceives the heat-device as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[4] Another person perceives the air-device as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[5] Another person perceives the blue-green as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[6] Another person perceives the yellow as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[7] Another person perceives the red as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[8] Another person perceives the white as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[9] Another person perceives the space-device as above, below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
[10] Another person perceives the intellection-device as above, below, across, as undivided, as immeasurable.
These are the ten ranges of the devices.'
■
Of these ten ranges of the devices this is the topmost,
when a person perceives the intellection-device as above,
below, across, undivided, immeasurable.
There are indeed, monks,
persons who thus perceive.
■
Yet to persons thus perceiving
there is change and reverse.
[61] So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, there are these eight stations of mastery.[6]
What eight?
[1] A certain one,
being conscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be limited,
fair or foul.
Having mastered them[7] with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the first station of mastery.
■
[2] A certain one,
being conscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be immeasurable,
fair or foul.
Having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the second station of mastery.
■
[3] A certain one,
being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be limited,
fair or foul.
Having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the third station of mastery.
■
[4] A certain one,
being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be immeasurable,
fair or foul.
Having [43] mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the fourth station of mastery.
■
[5] A certain one,
being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be blue-green,
of the colour blue-green,
blue-green to look at (as a whole),
blue-green as a shimmering mass.
Just as for instance the flower of flax
is blue-green,
of the colour blue-green,
blue-green to look at,
a shimmering mass of blue-green;
or just as Benares muslin,
smooth on both sides,
is blue-green
of the colour blue-green,
blue-green to look at,
a shimmering mass of blue-green;
so blue-green are the external objects that he sees.
Having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the fifth station of mastery.
[6] A certain one,
being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself as yellow,
of the colour yellow,
yellow to look at,
a shimmering mass of yellow.
Just as for instance the kaṇikara flower is yellow,
of the colour yellow,
yellow to look at,
a shimmering mass of yellow,
or just as that Benares muslin,
smooth on both sides,
is yellow,
[62]of the colour yellow,
yellow to look at,
a shimmering mass of yellow,
so yellow are the external objects that he sees.
Having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the sixth station of mastery.
■
[7] A certain one,
being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be blood-red,
of colour blood-red,
blood-red to look at,
a shimmering mass of blood-red.
Just as the bandhu-jīvaha flower is blood-red,
of colour blood-red,
blood-red to look at,
a shimmering mass of blood-red,
or that Benares muslin is blood-red,
of colour blood-red,
blood-red to look at,
a shimmering mass of blood-red,
so are the external objects that he sees blood-red.
Having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the seventh station of mastery.
■
[8] A certain one,
being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be white,
white in colour,
white to look at,
a shimmering mass of white.
Just as, for instance,
the star of healing[8] is white,
white in colour,
white to look at,
a shimmering mass of white;
or just as that Benares muslin,
smooth on both sides,
is white,
white in colour,
white to look at,
a shimmering mass of white;
even so white are the external objects that he sees.
Having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
he is thus conscious (of [44] knowing and seeing, and so enters the musings).
This is the eighth station of mastery.
These, monks, are the eight stations of mastery.
■
Now, monks, of these eight stations of mastery
the topmost is that in which a certain one, being unconscious of material quality in his own person,
sees objects external to himself
to be white,
white in colour,
white to look at,
a shimmering mass of white
and having mastered them with the thought:
I know, I see,
is thus conscious (of knowing and seeing).
Indeed, monks, there are beings thus conscious.
■
Yet for beings thus conscious [63] there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, there are these four modes of progress.[9]
What four?
The painful mode of progress with sluggish intuition;
the painful mode of progress with swift intuition;
the pleasant mode of progress with sluggish intuition;
the pleasant mode with swift intuition.
These are the four.
■
Now, monks, of these four modes of progress
the topmost is the pleasant mode with swift intuition.
There are indeed beings who have thus progressed.
■
Yet for beings who have thus progressed
there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, there are these four modes of perception.
What four?
A certain one perceives the limited,
another the extensive,
another the immeasurable,
and another perceives:
There is nothing at all,
the sphere of nothingness.
These are the four.
■
Now, monks, of these four the topmost is the perception:
There is nothing at all,
the sphere of nothingness.
There are indeed beings who thus perceive,
yet for such there is change and reverse.
■
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
[45] Monks, of outsiders[10] who hold views,
this view:
Were I not then, it would not now be mine;
I'll not become, 'twill not become in me -[11]
is the topmost.
■
Of one who holds this view, monks,
this may be looked for -
that feeling of no-disgust in becoming
will not become for him,
and that feeling of disgust at ending becoming
will not become for him.
[64] Indeed, monks, there are beings who hold this view.
■
Yet for such beings who hold this view
there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, there are some recluses and brahmins
who proclaim purification as the greatest blessing.
Of those who do so topmost is he who,
passing beyond the sphere of nothingness,
attains the sphere of neither-consciousness-nor-not-consciousness
and so abides.
They teach dhamma for the thorough comprehension of that,
for the realization of that.
Indeed, monks, there are beings who make this claim.
■
Yet for those who do so there is change and reverse.
So seeing the learned Ariyan disciple feels revulsion;
in him so feeling revulsion
interest in the topmost fades,
not to speak of the low.
§
Monks, there are some recluses and brahmins who proclaim as chief
Nibbāna. in this visible state.
■
Of those who so proclaim the topmost achievement is the release-without-grasping,
by seeing as it really is
the arising and the ceasing,
the attraction and the danger of,
the escape from the six spheres of contact.[12]
■
I, monks, am one who makes this claim and announcement,
and [46] some recluses and brahmins accuse me of unreality,
hollowness,
falsehood
and untruth therein,
saying:
"Gotama the recluse proclaims not the full comprehension of passions,
proclaims not the full comprehension of objective forms,
proclaims not the full comprehension of feelings."
[65] But, monks, it is just of passions
that I do proclaim full comprehension,
it is just of objective forms,
of feelings
that I do proclaim full comprehension.
In this same visible state
hungering no more,
waned,[13] grown cool,
do I proclaim
the full Nibbāna, without grasping.
[1] At A. i, 227 = G.S. i, 207, where see notes.
[2] Jambudīpa, name for India, is really the earth.
[3] Saṇvaṭṭati (involution) as opposed to vivaṭṭati (evolution); cf. G.S. ii, 145 and D. i, 17 (where text § 2 has wrongly loke saṇvaṭṭamāno).
[4] Text Ābhassara-vattanika, but D., loc. cit., has -saṇvaṭṭanikā.
[5] Repeated from § 5 [#25] above.
[6] Abhibhāyatanāni. Six at K.S. iv, 46 (or 'of the conqueror'). Cf. D. ii, 110 = Dialog. ii, 118; M. ii, 13 = Further Dialog. ii, 8; G.S. i, 36; Dhamimsangaṇi § 223; Expositor i, 252 ff., where n. has 'abhibhāyatana is jhāna with an overpowering (abhibhū) preamble, or knowledge, as cause (āyatana); or jhāna with an abode or locus (āyatana) called "the object to be overpowered " (abhibhāvitabbaṃ).'
[7] Our Comy. has nothing here, but cf. Expositor, loc. cit., 'a person of transcendent and clear knowledge masters the device-objects and attains jhāna ... he produces ecstasy together with the production of the image of the mark (nimitta) in this limited object.'
[8] Osadhī-tāraka, probably Venus. See Itiv. 20 n.
[9] Patipadā. At G.S. ii, 153; Dhs. §§ 176-9; cf. Netti 113.
[10] Bāhirakā, 'outside the sāsana,' Comy.
[11]
No c'assay no ca me siya||
Na bhavimāmi na me bhavissati.|| ||
Cf. K.S. iii, 48 n., 152; SA. ii, 275. At Ud. 66, na cāhu na bhavissati na c'etarahi vijjati; Ud. 78, na bhavissati na ca me bhavissati, where see my note in the translation. Not a view of outsiders, however, for it is a view ascribed to the Master and praised by him when held by Kaccāyana, as the determination to end the round of rebirth. The SA. comment is in brief, 'If it were not for my past karma, my present body-person would not exist. Here our Comy. has 'if in future time I shall not become, no obstacle (palibodha) whatever shall become in me.'
[13] Cf. S. iv, 204, vedanānaṃ khayā bhikkhu nicchāto parinibbuto.
